Painter's house

A modern house with an art workshop, designed for a couple on a plot with an existing wooden house. The clients wanted to keep the old building and as much of the greenery as possible, so the challenge was to find a form that would respect both and still feel contemporary. The result is a dialogue between the carved wooden details of the old house and the minimal lines of the new one. The plan was shaped around the existing trees, with a patio at its heart as the centre of shared life, while leaving room for the independent, idiorhythmic way of living the owners enjoy. The rest of the plot is kept for a vegetable garden.