Black Line House, Nannup

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Iredale Pedersen Hook, of which Martyn Hook is a partner, was commissioned to design a holiday house on a 37.7 hectare site near Nannup, a town 280 kilometres south of Perth. The Black Line House sits very lightly on the site to minismise the clearing of scrub and trees. It is suspended on stilts and people enter it via steel grate ramps (which are deterrents to snakes and wild pigs, both endemic there). RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Nannup house continues IPH's research into sustainable houses that respond, very specifically, to individual sites and work around the often intense Western Australian climate. It is architecture that questions the relationship of built form to landscape and seeks to innovate aspects of this partnership. The unusual "z" form of the house mimics the landscape in which it sits - a forest, a winding river, hills, the road from Perth itself - but the shape also allows sun to penetrate most rooms. Here, a Jeykll and Hyde experience of the landscape is carefully controlled through oscillating vertical (forest) and horizontal (horizon) openings and the contrast of grounded and floating experiences. The large roof collects enough rain to serve the house's needs and grey water irrigates the scrub regenerating beneath. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this project is measured by its publication in one of the world's leading architecture and design magazines, Domus (20 Nov 2014), in ArchDaily, "the world's most visited architecture website" (4 April 2014) and in the Weekend Australian Magazine (David Harrison, 'At one with nature', 13 Sept 2014, p.38). The house won the Australian Institute of Architects Western Australia chapter Marshall Clifton Award for Residential Architecture - Houses (New) 2014; and a Colorbond Steel Commendation Award; it received an honourable mention at the Architectural Review England International House Awards 2014 and was short-listed for the World Architecture New House of the Year 2014.