Linear House is located on a sixteen acre farm on Salt Spring Island, an island in the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The property is bisected from east to west by a long row of mature Douglas fir trees. There is a gentle slope falling across the site from south to north. The south half of the site is an orchard containing a variety of fruit trees; the north half of the property is a hay field. There was an existing cottage on the property which has been sold and relocated to a neighbouring property. The existing barn, garage and studio buildings remain.
The row of large Douglas fir trees is unusually situated, bisecting the farm. It stabilizes experience in that it provides a place to stand, to be ‘next to’, to locate position in the open fields. The trees themselves are textural, old, torn and windswept. They hold our attention and make us realize the time of the site, its existence over many, many years. They have a kind of old heart. The impulse to site the new house next to these figures was both intuitive and immediate.