Ms Ku's House

Fred and I spent a long weekend in Dulan, a small town thirty minutes north of Taitung with a strong arts community. Fred's family are native to this part of Taiwan so we took the opportunity to make the most of our time off and to visit his grandparents' tombs on Tomb Sweeping Day.

It's a beautiful part of the world. Small villages dotted sporadically amidst rice terraces, with a dramatic mountain ridge to the west and the Pacific to the east. Pace of life is relaxed and people are friendly. From the moment we arrived, wildest daydreams of buying some land, building my own house and setting ourselves up with a sweet idyllic existence, entered my mind and refused to leave. Even now as I type I have to pull myself back to reality.

I can only call it providence, that we ran into one of Fred's ex-dance teachers, Ms Ku. What's more, ten years previous she had bought herself some land and built herself a house here in Taitung County. So, the following day we visited her for lunch.

I had no expectations, but when we drove up her steep driveway and her home came into view my jaw dropped and I got a little teary. This woman had stolen my dream. I have been dreaming of designing and building a small, eco-friendly house somewhere beautiful near the beach or mountains (here she had both) for many years now. The similarities with the layout of some of my designs and my ideas for colours and finishes were uncanny.

Ms Ku, thank you for inviting us to your beautiful home and for the lovely lunch. I am totally envious of what you have created for yourself. You've inspired me, I want that too.

Just an idea of the Taitung landscape.

Blue and Grey. Sigh.

Mountain view behind, ocean view out front.

Inside: A drawbridge connects the loft bedroom to the balcony.

Outside: Huge sliding doors conceal or reveal.

They've used local timber throughout that has a

warm amber colour.