It is designed to rise from the landscape like the harsh rock it stands on, a grey edifice which echoes back to the ancient castles and fortifications of old.
A house on the banks of Loch Awe has been nominated as the only Scottish pick in this year’s Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) House of the Year shortlist.
Hundred Acre Wood, by Denizen Works’, has been described as “a Scottish broch for the 21st century” by the judges - its design supposedly based on the Iron Age stone roundhouses which can be found across Scotland.
Eight years in the making, the built-to-order home lies near the village of Dalmally on an isolated hilltop, surrounded by trees ‘like a wooden kilt’, in the words of one observer.
Its outer walls contain crushed glass from TV screens – an idea which started as a joke because of the owner’s dislike of the medium – and in one of the towers there is a purpose-built cinema.
But experts have admitted the design is “likely to divide opinion”, with architect Nick Walker, a part-time tutor at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, writing in the Architect’s Journal: “Denizen Works’ contemporary Scottish pile is wonderfully eccentric. It will inevitably divide opinion. However, Ardteatle (the original name for the house) demonstrates a clear trusting partnership between architect and client.
“It is a unique and individual home for a couple and their extended grown-up family. It suits them alone and brings with it a quirkiness that is refreshing and welcome.”
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No details of the price of the home have been released, but it is said to boast a master bedroom, five guest suites, nine bathrooms, a sewing room, a boot room and a library.
A secret study can also be found within, hidden behind a disguised door.
Mr Walker continued: “The spaces within the house are robust and fight at times with the introduction of a sofa or a table, but over time these rooms will no doubt become friends with the family they shelter.
“In turn, as nature takes a hold, the house itself will settle comfortably into the remarkable Scottish landscape in which it resides.”
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Other homes on the Riba shortlist include has a renovated Devonshire cow shed, a five-bedroom building tucked away down an alleyway in Tottenham, London, and a contemporary Surrey house covered in handmade red clay Keymer tiles.
The last addition to the shortlist is Saltmarsh House in the Isle of Wight, by Niall McLaughlin Architects, which features a pyramidal copper roof with large windows that offer uninterrupted views of the harbour.
Speaking on this year’s shortlist, jury chair, Dido Milne, said: “This year’s Riba House of the Year shortlist includes a range of exciting new typologies, including a rethink of the family terraced house and a model for collective rural living.
“Here we have everything; from homes inserted into tight urban sites and new life breathed into existing structures, to detached rural homes where the architect has been given free rein to reimagine the baronial hall or lakeside retreat.
“Localism is a recurring theme, with architects engaging with the local vernacular without being slaves to tradition, and local sourcing of materials targeting both embodied and operational carbon to deliver genuinely sustainable design.”
The winner of the Riba House of the Year 2023 award will be announced on November 30.
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