Jane Burnside’s house, Origami House, is one of only fifty houses in the UK, built since 1900, to be selected for the book: The Iconic British House: Architectural Masterworks Since 1900 by Dominic Bradbury, published by Thames and Hudson, 2023.

The Iconic British House serves as a definitive survey, showcasing the most outstanding examples of residential architecture in the United Kingdom spanning from 1900 to the present day. The publication features the work of eminent architects ranging from Edwin Lutyens and Charles Rennie Mackintosh to Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and John Pawson.

Within this illustrious compendium of houses designed by world-renowned architects, the contributions of two contemporary architects hailing from Northern Ireland shine through: the Origami House (2008) by architect Jane Burnside and the Grillagh Water House (2014) by architect Patrick Bradley.

Burnside says: ‘It’s a great honour for Northern Ireland to have not one but two houses selected. Interestingly, both houses are modular but address the landscape differently: the Grillagh Water House, adapts four shipping containers to make a house of two volumes contrasting sharply with its landscape setting; the Origami House adopts the traditional grouping of rural cottages, the clachan, creating a single storey house composed with eight inter-linked white pavilions, arranged in a series across a dam and carved open to embrace the landscape.’

For Burnside, the book Iconic British House is particularly significant: ‘As a student of architecture, I studied and visited many of the houses listed in this book: Hill House, Creek Vene, Turn End and I was taught by three of the architects whose houses are included: Peter Smithson, Trevor Dannatt, Peter Aldington. I learned from these gentlemen, I came back to Northern Ireland with the aim of using their teachings to make a difference. So to have my architecture recognised alongside my heroes and teachers is very special.’

Author, Dominic Bradbury writes of the Origami House: Burnside’s home is one of the most eloquent and accomplished expressions of the architect’s response to the ‘problem of the Northern Irish bungalow’. Growing frustrated with the regional preoccupation with traditional bungalows, complete with their neo-classical Georgian detailing, Burnside began thinking about a fresh approach that drew upon her studies in Manchester, Bath and British School at Rome, as well as her time working in America with architects such as Michael Graves. Rejecting the established model, Burnside began reinventing the ‘bungalow’ as a contemporary home composed of a series of repeated modules.

Burnside says: ‘NI has a strong tradition of important houses in landscape settings: Mount Stewart with its multifaceted garden setting; and Castle Ward with its two different faces - one for the entrance and one for the landscape. In fact it was the Historic Environment Division, who care for

Northern Ireland’s built heritage, that first recognised the importance of the Origami House by including it as one of its properties in European Heritage Doors Open Days and we have welcomed visitors to the Origami House for almost fifteen years.’