Black Swan House Scotland
It all began with a memory…
When we first met in London our client spoke to us of folding origami cranes with her grandmother in the far East. These were small acts in childhood forming strong memories of joy, full of patience, practice and focus.
Years later, separated by a lifetime, we found ourselves by a remote reservoir in Scotland during a site visit. Following our appointment, we wandered along the edge of this large expanse of water. Around the last corner, we found a lone swan on the water… That moment felt akin to déjà vu, something familiar moved us, as if a thread had been pulled through time. This image of the swan on a black body of liquid became the anchor for everything that followed in our approach to this home.
We are renown for listening deeply to the lived experiences of our clients, finding the emotional threads that shape our work. Here on the South west coast of Scotland, memory and place are folded into one.
Although the story orients the design of this off grid home, the abstraction of the form prioritises the site’s constraints above metaphor. The house is ‘folded’ lightly between earth and water, responding first to the land. Built from steel and timber it appears to float just above the ground.
Architecture is always a careful balance between poetry and pragmatism, between tectonics and the ambition of an idea that is meaningful to those who experience it. These provisional sketches show two cantilevered vertically feathered timber screens stretching outward towards the water. These are not just symbolic wings, but act with force to shield the home from distant walkers on the mountain trails, offering privacy and seclusion to the life within.
Black Swan House reveals itself slowly as if landed. Shaped by personal memory, by place, and by the pursuit of absolute silence.
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