South House explores a considered approach to materiality, limiting the palette and exploring the properties that each material can provide. Individual spaces are not defined and borrow off the surrounding spaces providing a house that is comfortable to dwell in, within a surprisingly tight envelope.

Composed of two pods  and a hallway, South House can comfortably rest two, with spaces for sitting, writing, cooking and bathing.

Each corner of the house is composed of handmade details, sitting quietly waiting to be found. Brass and hardwood finishes form the house’s tactile response, handles are carved and light is reflected and spilled from these surfaces. Birch ply has been used as the canvas of South House, a soft warm material that can be worked with in wonderful ways that also conforms and rationalises the grid layout.

In response to both the shallowness of the plan and the warm temperate climate zone in which South House sits within, northern sunlight here is controlled not by depth of eave, but rather by the porosity of the northern wall. With a single incision inscribing the north wall allowing direct sunlight to mark the day in a radiused line on the floor and walls of the house. This marking passes through all areas of South House allowing access to direct sunlight throughout the day, but also places of respite.