Output details

Plot 19 : Twin Peaks

Content

The Plot 19 house at Scotland's Housing Expo is a reinterpretation of the Scottish rural vernacular house type: the But n Ben. The architectural language of this vernacular model is one of symmetry and simplicity. The restrictive footprint of this typology tends not to accommodate contemporary family life. By splitting the house in two distinct, offset volumes a larger footprint can be achieved whilst maintaining the proportion of the 6m wide gable-ended vernacular houses found throughout the Scottish countryside. Each volume has a distinct character: a ‘closed’ white rendered north elevation serves as an environmental buffer whilst giving privacy to the occupants and an ‘open’ timber clad south elevation provides maximum passive solar gain and a direct connection with the garden. The living, dining and cooking spaces in the ground floor plan are arranged around a south facing landscaped court, reinforcing the connection between the inside living spaces and the outside space of the garden. A double-height living volume serves as the focus of the house, linking ground and first floor rooms whilst permitting an abundance of direct southern sunlight into the heart of the home

Questions

How to develop an appropriate architectural language for sustainable mass market housing that responds to regional vernacular building typologies?

How to provide flexibility for the occupants’ changing lifestyles without disrupting the overall external form as it appears in the Scottish landscape?

Methods

Redesign of historic precedent to meet modern living and environmental standards.

Build the house.

Dissemination

Publication in the journals (print and digital):

Architecture + Design Scotland (2010),

Urban Realm (2010) and

Building Design (2010).

Published in Scotland’s Housing Expo 2010, ISBN: 978-1-905061-28-0

Esteem

Winner of the 2010 Highland Housing Fair international architectural design competition.