Life support.

This house for a doctor who is also an art collector is a gentle fusion of domestic life, work and nature.

On a site in north Germany, ringed by streams and on the edge of an area of green belt, Thomas Herzog has designed a doctor's surgery and house. However, these are no ordinary work and residential buildings. Herzog rarely designs single private houses; instead his practice is known for innovative, energy saving architecture on larger scale projects, such as the Hanover trade fair hall (AR March 1997) and a motorway service station in Lechweisen (AR April 1998). In this case the client not only runs a specialist surgery, but also collects art and design objects, including modern furniture by Achille Castiglioni, Mart Stam, Marcel Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen and Arne Jacobsen, among others.

The challenge was to combine spaces for public work, private family life and contemplative exhibition viewing. Landscaping is used to mediate between external and internal spaces and create a holistic living and working environment. Variations in form, function, and materials give the impression of a much larger project, although the dominant character remains domestic and intimate.

To the north-east of the site, a timber-framed pavilion houses the surgery. Nine 5m x 5m bays form a square plan with a central atrium topped by a glazed lantern, which rises over the surrounding flat, turf-clad roof. Highly insulated walls are clad in horizontal timber boarding outside and veneered timber inside. Steel trusses span the bays and the main roof beams are laminated timber. Cover strips on the facade of the pavilion mark the grid axes so that both internally and externally, the simple structural order is clearly apparent. The journey from surgery to house is a short and calming walk through woodland.

The residential strip lies along the southwest edge of the garden site. Running parallel with the road, it is a series of contrasting zones. Dimensions, proportions, function, materials and lighting differ from space to space. On the road side, a 44m long reinforced-concrete wall with a thermally insulated core acts as an environmental buffer against noise and pollution. An intermediate zone parallel to the wall connects all residential spaces, each constructed like an individual house. This narrow zone also serves as an exhibition corridor for the artworks, with fair-faced walls and screed flooring. In winter, underfloor heating maintains background warmth. Within this tract are set concrete cubes containing wet areas, sauna and sanitary facilities. These have glazed roofs and occasionally glazed walls, so that even from the bath there are views through the house. There is something monastic in the austere finishes - stone, bare concrete and timber - and the articulation of spaces, so that each appears independent, like individual cells, although linked to a greater whole.

Roof and facades are based on welded steel sections. External boarding is Oregon pine which will eventually weather to a bleached grey. Single flight stairs, also in steel, lead up to the timber two-storey living areas. This staircase zone acts like a zip, fastening together the various functions along the strip. From north to south the spatial and material character of the house changes. A sense of privacy is evoked by the warmth and intimacy of timber frame and plywood wall panelling with strip pine floors.

Throughout both surgery pavilion and house, the garden is ever present. Wraparound corner windows in the pavilion give diagonal views across the pastoral landscape. Green Dolomite stone slab flooring within the house continues into the garden as paving. Glazed roof sections and generous wall glazing bring weather and natural light conditions into the house without adversely affecting the protection enjoyed by its inhabitants.

Thomas Herzog's team continues to demonstrate how shelter can be Constructed without alienating users from the benign influences of nature. If only mass housing could aspire to such standards.

Architect Thomas Herzog, Munich

Project team Thomas Herzog, Reinhold Tobey, Andrea Heigl, Enno Schneider, Hermann Brand

Structural engineer Behringer + Muller

Landscape architect Anneliese and Peter Latz

Photographs Dieter Leistner/ARCHITEKTON