Shell House

I've been on maternity leave for six months now and as lovely as that is, I'm starting to miss my profession, which is, lest I forget, architecture. I've been flipping through some architecture books and in 'Architecture Now! - Houses', I came across this weekend cottage (!) in Japan, by architect Kotaro Ide. It's beautiful curves immediately captivated me, the way it seems to just have landed in the forrest ages ago and has since merged into it's surroundings is so intriguing and very different to how I normally work with my context. Maybe it's the nesting instinct in me, but these last few months I've been paying so much more attention to the smaller scale, residential architecture than before. I used to be all about the large structures, my dream projects being museums, art galleries, libraries, schools, factories even. Now I dream of houses and cottages... that is when I'm not knitting or trying to find the perfect lamp for my entrance hall...