Pencil of Nature

PN.26.011. Architecture. Studio project, 2026.

House for a Retired Keeper

A house for someone who spent a working life in a lighthouse, sunk into a headland, with one eight-metre window and a stair that still climbs to a lamp room.

A low concrete and larch house on a headland at blue hour, with one glowing window.
A board-marked concrete room with one long window onto the sea.
A pale curved stair rising to a round oculus.
An aerial view of the house along a sea cliff.
Ground floor plan of the house with dimensions.
Section through the headland showing the house and tower.

The brief

Produce an architectural visualisation with real drawings behind it.

The idea

After forty years in a tower, you would not know how to live anywhere else, and you would never want to climb another stair. So the house is long and low, buried from the weather, and only one thing is left of the lighthouse: a short round tower with an oculus, for looking at the sky.

Decisions

  • From the land the house almost disappears. From the sea it is a single line.
  • Eye level in the long room is set on the horizon.
  • The window faces the water and nothing else.
  • Plan and section are measured drawings, so the concept can be argued with.

How it came together

  1. Imagined who lives there: a retired keeper who cannot quite stop keeping watch.
  2. Drew plan and section as code, with real dimensions.
  3. Art-directed four views consistent with the drawings.

How it works

The plan and section are drawn in code at real dimensions.

Want something like this?

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