Taigh-Dubh is a detached family home and guest suite occupying a linear plot running along the southern edge of a large, west-facing shared garden.

The linear form of the plot defines the layout and spatial arrangement of the house. A single-storey, timber-clad wall leading to a canopied entrance towards the middle of the south elevation. The entrance is deliberately compressed and understated to heighten the contrast as one enters a double-height entrance hall with a feature oak stair and 2-storey framed and planted storage wall that screen an open plan dining kitchen.

This space is conceived as the heart of the house; double volume to the north and connecting horizontally and vertically to the rest of the house and to the garden beyond. A double-sided wood burner framed in black brickwork with paired, concrete openings either side separates this space from a large lounge area that steps down to the west. To the east, a snug/guest bedroom and utility/pantry enclose the space.

At first floor, two large bedroom suites and a reading gallery, set within an open-pitched roof lined in birch plywood, enclose and overlook the kitchen/dining space below. Windows, patio doors and rooflights create framed views to the shared garden, to screened and planted borders or to the sky. This creates an expansive sense of space and light, reinforcing the concept of the house as an open, welcoming, interconnected and social space.

Externally, the building is a deliberately understated, CONTEXTUAL response to its setting. The simplicity and utility of the black metal-clad, pitched-roof barn – almost agricultural in appearance – contrasts with the white render and tiled roofs of the adjacent apartment block and the houses opposite. The use of black stained timber and zinc feature panels to collect windows and doors into articulated planes and volumes, along with a 2-storey textured black brick wall adjacent to the main entrance, adds complexity and visual delight to make this a distinct and characterful modern ‘black house’.