The Black House

Armdale, Isle of Skye; 2018

This coastal house on Skye, featured in the Telegraph, was designed for a couple with an expansive collection of books and art.

Rather than sit the house on an upper plateau, we decided drop a two-storey box into a natural cleavage in the rock . When approached from behind, the house appears as a modest single-storey. But from the front a two-storey glazed gable cantilevers dramatically over the foreshore.

The entrance lobby is narrow and unremarkable, but from there you enter a top-lit double-height stairwell. As you journey through the house and descend the staircase, the full drama of the location is revealed through the frameless glazed wall of the main living space.

This house won “Best New House” and “Best Building” at the 2018 IAA Awards.