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The dwelling is the most fundamental building type, nowhere more so than in the open landscape. This book can be read in a number of ways. It is first a book about houses and particularly the theme 'dwelling and the land'. It examines the poetic and prosaic issues inherent in claiming a piece of the landscape to live on. It could also be seen as a kind of road map, full of both warnings and encouragements for all those involved with, or just interested in, the making of houses. That the domestic realm and the landscape can be vehicles for significant architectural insights is hardly an original observation. However this book seeks to bring the two topics together in a unique way. In exploring a building type that lies on the cusp of what is commonly understood as 'building' and 'architecture', it asks fundamental questions about what the very nature of architecture is. Who indeed is the architect and what is their role in the process of creating meaningful buildings?

'Vernacular Architecture is specifically an image of the world, which makes present the environment in which life takes place, not in an abstract manner, but with a concrete poetic figuration...' 1

The land was here before we were even thought of;

WE DECIDED THAT we would write about houses. We don't prefer houses over other building types, but we do have considerable shared experience in this field - both as users and designers - and thought that it was probably the best vehicle to use in a serious attempt to gather our thoughts at this stage in our careers. The dwelling is humanity's most frequent and fundamental act of building and, by extension, in some respects the architect's most influential area of activity. The history of mankind, as well as the history of architecture, could arguably be traced by studying how it has fashioned its nests and burrows through the ages. The dwellings referenced here from our own work were designed directly for clients intending to live in them, in which sense designing houses is quite different from designing housing. The philosopher Martin Heidegger claimed 'dwelling to be a peaceful accommodation between individuals and the world', 1 suggesting that the legacy of human dwelling might be the most lasting and civilising action we humans undertake. It is also probably true to say that of all building types, the dwelling house has the oldest lineage in the architectural spectrum. The ambiguity in our chosen title, 'Dwelling with Architecture', is no accident however. As practitioners and teachers, as users and designers, we are concerned not only with the architecture of the dwelling but dwell every day with the more general issues of architecture. Lest the reader feel misled, we should state at the outset that this book is not only about houses. As our chosen 'vehicle' for discussion they form its backbone but the issues that are explored enroute range more widely.

RK The architect Peter Kulka once said in conversation with me over a glass of Kölsch: 'Ein Architekt entscheidet erstens im Bauch, dann im Herz und schliesslich mit dem Kopf [An architect decides first in his gut, then in his heart and finally with his head]'.

The first dwellings were almost certainly one-room structures. Even today, the simplest and quickest way of providing physical protection from the elements or from predators is still to enclose ourselves within a single volume of something - be it in the form of a 'ready-made' structure like a cave, or a purpose-built one made of branches and leaves, involving 'only a minute modification of natural surroundings'. 1 These are generally regarded as the first shelters mankind fashioned for himself. Protection from predators and shelter from the elements provided pressing reasons to construct or find a safe refuge, and it is to these timeless (and still available) solutions that we inevitably turn when we are in need of urgent and basic protection. Plan of Scara Brae settlement, Orkney - redrawn from Lines on the Landscape Circles from the Sky by Trevor Garnham (Tempus Publishing Ltd.), p. 61 Settlement of one-room structures forming traditional rural settlement, northern Cameroon, 1984