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1. The site
It is proposed to locate the house mid way down the slope between the road (upper ground level) and the burn, where the ground levels off and a plateau (lower ground level) can be formed by grading the ground and removing from site the earth and waste dumped there previously. This plateau will be large enough to establish the house whilst reinstating most of the original topography.
Locating the house at this point also ensures minimal disturbance to the existing woodland and reduces the house's visible impact to the extent that only parts of the roof and east facing gable can be seen.
The access to the house from the road reuses what appears to be an original track down to the lower ground level, and gives the opportunity to create a bell mouth at its junction with the access road opposite. As with locating the house, the new access road merely establishes an earlier landscape, still evident, and utilises this to the benefit of the site.
The strategy in locating the house on the site is simple - to enhance the topographical features that are already there.
2. The house
Taking a lead from the natural, woodland setting of the landscape, and the desire to establish a house without detracting from this character, a concept for the house developed that allowed the house to 'inhabit' the site via abstracting elements of the landscape, and combining these elements to create an habitable space that will be very much a part of the site.
This method is a development of the time-honoured method of building, of using 'found' pieces of the immediate landscape, a method that predates and eventually culminates in the onset of the stone and slate cottages now recognised as 'traditional'.
Hence the turf will be of local origin, the timber will also be sourced locally, and where appropriate other materials and services will be derived as locally as possible, including elements of any new landscaping, including the plants and shrubs outlined below.
Another influence has been the small rural timber building, usually used for storage, the keeping of animals or for working in, and often found in places within settlements that were thought unsuitable for what was then deemed a contemporary standard of house (ie of stone and slate). With a simple rectangular form. they were usually modestly built in timber and occupied sites similar to the proposed. Many of these structures still exist, some have been altered and most are still used.
The house therefore employs the raising of the ground to form the (turf) roof, the space created underneath is protected by scrub (or timber boarding) which is opened out in a rhythm and with proportions to reflect the vertical rhythm of the trees around, and timber decks are placed within and around the space. Whilst the overall form is simple and rectangular, it has been weathered, its corners have been rounded, or softened to reflect the established nature of the site, in which boulders have been worn by the running water of the burn and moss softens the edges of all it grows on.
The form of the house evolved from the Client's intention to respond to their environmental concerns and the opportunities latent in the topography of this site.
The footprint of the lower ground level, once reinstated after removing the built up ground, allows for the long elevations to be orientated due North/South. This opportunity, along with the topography, suggested a lower, protective and discrete profile to the North, and a higher, open frontage to the South. This has two main benefits, environmental and visual.
The environmental benefits are several, including the well being from high a level of natural light from the South, to the potential for passive solar gain, and to the North the protection from the climate afforded by the bank. Visually, the alignment of the eaves at its lowest level with the adjacent upper ground level minimises the impact of the house by creating the appearance that the turf roof is a continuation of the ground. The higher, South facing elevation can only be seen from some distance away (from the field on the other side f the burn) from where the viewer looks down on the house, thus mitigating any visual impact of the higher elevation. When considering the sloping topography, and the height of the surrounding trees, the vertical emphasis of the elevation establishes a presence and scale in keeping with its location.
To enhance this the openings are also vertical in proportion and are arranged to establish a rhythm in keeping with the trees around. Another visual affect arising from their proportion and the projection of the openings from the eaves will be that they will be seen simply as openings within the timber, akin to those found in the older timber buildings, rather than aa a 'domestic' style of window, further establishing it as a part of the landscape.
