The southernmost tip of Scotland's Isle of Skye is the setting for this small wooden house by local firm Dualchas Architects (+ slideshow).
The single-storey house was designed by Dualchas Architects as the holiday home for an English family, who have been visiting the island for years and wanted a more permanent base.
Unlike the gabled buildings that typify the island's architectural vernacular, the house has a rectilinear form with large windows and deep alcoves. Larch panels clad each elevation, arranged in horizontal stripes.
"The proportions, massing and siting of this house are derived from traditional forms," say the architects, explaining how the building manages to fit in with its surroundings. "Despite its obvious abstraction from the local vernacular it remains a house rooted in its place."
The body of the house is divided into two blocks, with three bedrooms lined up on the rear side, and living and dining rooms running along in front. A bathroom, utility room and entranceway are sandwiched into the space between.
Small patios were added to three sides of the house to catch the light at different times of the day. The largest spans the length of the living room, while the second and third are positioned beside the kitchen and main bedroom.
The living room also sits slightly lower than the rest of the rooms, corresponding with the natural slope of the landscape.
Another wooden house completed on the Isle of Skye is Rural Design's Fiscavaig Project, with a glazed northern elevation facing out across the landscape. See more architecture in Scotland.
See more holiday homes on Dezeen, including a courtyard house near the beach in Melbourne.
Photography is by Andrew Lee.
Here's a description from Dualchas Architects:
Tigh Port Na Long, Aird of Sleat
The Singletons had been visiting Skye with their dogs for many years. They love the landscape and positively enjoy the unpredictable weather and choose to eat outdoors in all seasons. They brought to us photographs of their main home in Lancashire which is simple and minimal, a CD of their favourite music and the encouragement to do something different.
The site is at the end of the road at Aird of Sleat. It has a sense of the end of the world, shore access and extraordinary views back to Knoydart, Morar, Ardnamurchan and down the coast to the island of Eigg. There are views on 3 sides and it was decided to tuck the bedrooms behind the main living spaces to enable us to create a terrace from the kitchen for the morning light, a terrace from the dining space for the afternoon light and a terrace off the main bedroom for the evening light.
The design developed into 2 distinct forms with a stepped foundation to give additional height to the main living space and to allow views across the dining space from the kitchen to Eigg beyond the fireplace. This step in the foundation corresponded precisely to the slope in the landscape. The link between the 2 forms houses a utility room and shower room.
The proportions, massing and siting of this house are derived from traditional forms; narrow in span and tight to the ground. It is clad in a skin of narrow larch cladding walls and roof. It fits in to the township settlement pattern and sits quietly in its place on the edge of its world. Despite its obvious abstraction from the local vernacular it remains a house rooted in its place and a direct response to both site and brief.