HOUSE FULL OF FEATHERS
Tigh-na-sleubhaich (project location), on the hicking path of the West Highland Way
photo credits: Kathryn Streeter/The Washington Post
photo credits: Kathryn Streeter/The Washington Post
Located in a remote path of Scottish Highlands, the ruin of an old traditional long-house passes in the possession of Thomas Craig through his grand-mother’s testament. Mr Craig, my client, is a writer and translator who lives a wealthy yet solitary life in London. He decides to convert the old property into a contemporary country house where he can also have a separate space for his writings.
A few days after our first meeting, Mr Craig writes me a letter in order to confess an untold secret of his: an intense, irrational fear of birds, for which the wider area of the project constitutes the primal scenery. This is the place where one traumatic experience of his childhood -the encounter with a dead raven- was weaved with several symbolisms and connotations stemmed from the Celtic tradition, where ravens are depicted as foresighted carriers of bad omens.
Mr Craig’s decision of going back and renovate the old family cottage, is a bold gesture towards his reconnection with the place, the overcome of his fear and, in the end, the reconciliation with his own identity.
pages from the essay
* the full short-essay text ‘Intimate Spaces and Feathers; or how the design of the present can be an attempt to re-design the past’, can be found HERE.
The design must embrace the client’s own pace, towards the building of a connection with the ravens, as well as with the place, and for this purpose, the key word is time. The middle stone wall goes away, and, in its place, a young Scotch elm tree is planted, providing the time frame of the reconciliation process; at the beginning, birds may come to the enclosed yard, attracted by the insects, the flowers and the seeds of the tree, but slowly they will get familiar with the place and the human presence. It all depends on the little gestures Mr Craig might do in order to keep them close, providing water, food or plants for their nutrition. As the years will go by, the tree will grow, and the ravens will keep coming -individually or in flocks- to build their nests, maintaining the relationship.
stills from the video
Guiding tutors: Nasim Razavian [ Studio Ilinx ] , Jillian Chen [ Superuse Studios ]
Theory tutor: Anne Hoogewoning
Master Interior Architecture INSIDE, December 2022