Another strand related to form has developed from low pitched rural structures which prevail throughout our landscape, animal enclosures and sheds, observed as glimpses from roads and lanes and often noted on repeated journeys. These forms become ingrained in our mental space, often economical in construction, solid in appearance with few if any openings visible from the available viewpoint, their position in landscape and their immediate surroundings as important in the power of the image as the form, and find resonance with the work of the practice. Profile and setting can derive potency from the position of the observer. This can be explained by the analysis of a shed, located on a route from the studio to the Maghera House and momentarily observed many times on journeys to and from that site and the mountains.

This frugal structure rests at the intersection of 4 fields just south of Ballynahinch, a small town south of Belfast which I passed on every journey to and from the site of our Maghera project in south Down. The main road is just to the west of the fields.

I cannot place when I first noticed it during the 18 month build period for the project, but I recall becoming aware of the shape of it, and over several journeys looked out for it, not really knowing where I had noticed it. Eventually I could pinpoint its location, and would slow down to peer at it from my car. On several journeys with others, I would point it out, making some comment about its profile, or siting, or colour. It became the ‘little black barn’, and became ingrained in my mind.

On subsequent journeys to Newcastle or to our Maghera clients, who have become friends, the journey would be punctuated by the barn, I now cannot recall a journey where I didn’t glance its way. One morning, I took the time to drive there and stop. I called at a nearby house but there was no-one home. Coming away from the house, I climbed a gate and walked through the fields to the barn. It was evidently an animal shelter. Sheep and goats roamed freely between the 4 fields but all quickly retreated to the far corners as I approached their home.

The barn measures approximately 12.5 metres by 9 metres on plan. The longer dimension on the gable. It appears to be a single space inside, there is a single door on the west gable and a door and a permanent opening on the sheltered east side. It is deceptively low. The eaves measures 1.6 metres on the north elevation and 2 metres on the south. The pitched roof is asymmetrical so that there are 2 different length roof slopes from the ridge. The roof pitches are 8 degrees on the short slope to the north and 8.5 degrees on the long one to the south. The walls and roof are clothed in black corrugated tin, and doors are made from discarded timbers. There have been multiple patch repairs, which only add to the interest.

The builder of the shed has made some judgement with regard to the siting and orientation of the barn. Maybe there is some unknown reason for the asymmetry, but it is hard to fathom. The form however follows the topography in a meaningful way, shedding water, reflecting the sloping ground and retaining the lowest possible wall panels. The position of doors are only a practical consideration.

The outcome is beautiful. The form articulates the slope of the ground. It appears utterly right, economic, functional, assured, and balanced.

I now see this form in our sketches and thoughts for projects in the landscape on sloping topography. I am so convinced about it that I think that I could live in this form, almost in a romantic ascetic idiom. It is better than the forms associated with traditional domestic architecture, and better than most others I can imagine. It is the most potent influence on my thinking about form and how this translates to my practice. I remain entirely enthusiastic about its potential in our work.

In the search for a relationship to the ground, and the development in our work of the device of plinth, from horizontal to embedded, and the importance of the form (roof profile) in reading this relationship, it seems that one of the outcomes or ambitions in practice may be an attitude to the project where the project is the plinth, enabling a merging of both form and landscape. This is evident in the Black Barn, where the form relates to the condition of topography and the openings in the external form find the contour of the ground on which they sit. The building here becomes the singular negotiation between land and sky, between topography and horizon, between function and beauty.

House on Redbrae Farm chases this ambition.

A replacement dwelling on the site of a derelict cottage not far from the Black Barn, the site is a low mound with mature trees, once the shelter for the existing dwelling. Stone walls define some sense of enclosure and definition from both the adjoining open landscape and a neighbouring farm. The brief was for a 2 bedroomed house, with living and entertaining spaces enjoying the long views north and west.We develop the proposal as a compact plan on one level, with a simple low pitched roof influenced by the barn.

The plan splits into 2, with the front section containing mostly sleeping accommodation sitting precisely on the footprint of the old cottage, and the rear section comprising living spaces in the ‘garden’ behind. We construct a model of the site and along with some simple sectional analysis, make a model of the house which adjusts the section to the slope of the ground, each section of the house opening out to the contour it finds itself on. The asymmetrical profile is heightened by a deep overhang to the rear, and a tall masonry chimney serving fires inside and out confirms the domestic use.