(Photo: Wikimedia Commons geograph.org.uk)Malator, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Druidston, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Architect: Future Systems
Commissioned from British architecture firm Future Systems by politician Bob Marshall-Andrews and his wife, Gill, and completed in 1996, the residence known as Malator is practically invisible, a cunning structure literally subsumed by its national-park site.
Responding to strict prohibitions against visible construction, destruction of the landscape, and disruption of wildlife, husband-and-wife architects Jan Kaplický (who died in 2009) and Amanda Levete replaced the old military barrack that had been used as their clients’ vacation getaway with a smaller two-bedroom retreat that is largely underground — a softly contoured, one-story wedge of glass, concrete, timber, and stainless steel tucked beneath an artificial hill.
Only a small metal chimney poking through the turf gives away the location of what some observers call the Teletubby house. On the opposite side of the hill, however, concealed from the view of park visitors, a long, crescent-shaped glass wall takes in resplendent rocky views of St. Bride’s Bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
