The measure of the project was predicated very much in the two universal mundane requirements of any building project. Namely, ‘to build within cost’. Worth mentioning in this case, as ‘to build’ means ‘to gain permissions to build’ in a planning environment mostly hostile to architectural innovation and ‘within cost’ means in this instance to stay within restraints imposed by the desire to investigate a viable spatial prototype that was as cheap as the average equivalent new build house.

The strategies adopted that gained enthusiastic planning officer support are twofold. Firstly, a formal connection is made to the agricultural and light industrial barns and sheds that litter the countryside, thereby producing a contextual fit with existing rural environments. Through their honesty, economy of effort, and lack of pretension these shelters display a natural beauty and harmony with their context. Secondly, the design it is argued, with its relatively minimal external envelope, predominantly south facing glass and solid floor with high thermal mass, is compliant with the climate and therefore satisfies contemporary building obligations.

The triangular site lies on the side of a gradual slope running south to the river Almond hidden in the valley below. The house is placed along the north east side of the half acre plot which originally contained a group of self sown sycamores. The majority of these have been felled to enable light and sun to reach the house. The trunks have been laid down along the site as land fill to create a plateau for the house and garden. The horizontal line thus created along the edge of the lawn defines the boundary of the domesticated landscape and acts to reveal the undulations of the borrowed landscape beyond.

In plan the building is separated into two along its length with the lower and darker north east side containing the cellular bedrooms and access hall and the higher and lighter side given over to the day spaces. These ‘day’ spaces can be opened and physically connected along the complete length southwest into the garden. The site is treated as a triangular room in the landscape defined along its three sides by in sequence, a beach hedge (just planted and not yet substantial), an inhabited wall (the house) and a colonnade made of ancient sycamores lining the adjacent track. The spatial boundaries of the house are thus extended through the glazed wall onto the orthogonal slate and gravel surfaces, manicured lawn, animals in the fields, undulating horizon beyond and sky. Facing south west in Scotland the expanse of sky is seldom dormant and shows the weather to come, as well as magnificent sunsets. The external surfaces of gravel and slate form a zone which doubles the width of the internal volume and will be further defined in time by the planting of coloured grasses and bamboo.

Externally the extruded form of the house has minimal overhangs and embellishments. The galvanised gutters and downpipes are robust enough to take a leaning ladder and provide protection to the ventilation slots to both roof and wall constructions. Two identical flush polycarbonate rooflights admit sun deep into the house, one through a snorkel into the bedroom corridor and the other into the full height entrance hall.

The western red cedar cladding is adjusted in size, orientation and finish according to location. For the roof, treated cedar shingles are laid at gauges dependant on pitch. For the ‘day’ spaces 125 mm boards are smooth planed, laid horizontally and stained ebony black giving the feeling of joinery rather than carpentry. For the gable ends the boards are rough sawn, untreated, and laid vertically as board on board. Tonally the cedar shingles dramatically change from dark to light depending on whether wet or dry, thereby fluctuating in their associations between the different wall surfaces.

Throughout the house the in situ concrete floor is gently warmed by embedded water pipes and topped in either variegated slate tiles laid in brick pattern or oak strip. A solar contribution is captured by the mass of the solid concrete floors. Overheating is quickly controlled by opening any of the eleven glass sliding doors around the perimeter as necessary.

Although a simple extrusion, the house volume is rooted in space by the introduction of a transverse axis. This axis penetrates through the central dividing wall and cellular accommodation to accept an entrance from the north east and wooded side. A porch construction large enough to cover a small car offers further protection to this entrance already sheltered from the prevailing wind and rain. This transverse axis reveals the asymmetric section of roof slopes and is flanked on one side by a translucent wall backlit to show the shadows of the timber stick construction.

Interrupting the spatial continuity of the ‘day’ room is a solid box containing two bathrooms. This form divides the space into two volumes, large and small. A home office has been made in the smaller volume and a sitting and dining area made around a free standing wood burning stove in the larger volume. The flank wall to the bathrooms has been largely mirrored. This device, in addition to the transverse axis, adds complexity to the simple space. The internal walls are lined in maple faced wood sheeting and stained ‘copper wash’. These surfaces combine with the wooden slated blinds and the glowing embers from the log fire to provide on a winters night a sense of spiritual warmth and a retreat from the hostile world outside.