Black house by Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher is raised above a bathing lake

Behind this, a pale wooden door leads to the interior space, where   the walls, floor, ceiling and furniture are all made of a white oiled birch plywood that contrasts with the dark timber cladding. «The relationship between the pond, house and terrace was very important,» added Hammerschmid. «The pond was built about 25 years ago, so the nature had enough time to grow around the pond,» said studio co-founder Dietmar Hammerschmid, whose firm’s previous projects include an   angular timber-clad distillery. Large windows at the rear offer views of the lake and mountain scenery, while the road-facing elevation has three small windows that provide adequate lighting but maintain privacy. Brightly coloured furniture stands out against the light-toned interior,   including a collection of chairs with vibrant seats and three pendant lights on blue, green and red flexes that hang over the dining table. The house has a facade of   dark-painted roughly sawn spruce boards. The house should fit exactly into the landscape,» he told Dezeen. Related story: Black-painted S House by Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher raised up on stiltsThe gap between the underside of the floor slab and the ground level creates a covered carport underneath the building. Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten   designed the small single-storey House at the Pond with a floor area of just 50 square metres, on the edge of an artificial lake in Austria. Beyond the kitchen, wooden panels slide back from the living space into a timber-lined bedroom with a narrow stretch of ceiling-to-floor glazing, overlooking the decked terrace and swimming pond. A rectangular cut-out in the surface of the wood allows reeds growing in the lake to grow up through. «For the design it was very important to preserve the nature around the pond. Wooden cupboards and shelves built into the rear wall of the living space are punctuated by a series of small windows and alcoves that are used by the residents to display pot-plants and store paperwork. This muddy-toned timber house by Graz-based Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten   is raised on stilts above a sloping site so that it overlooks a swimming pond (+ slideshow).