It was a feat of inspired architectural improvisation that gave the Arbor House - a finalist in this year's Scottish Design Awards - its defining feature: a covered outdoor walkway, supported on one side by the former west wall of a crumbling old cottage that once stood on the site, and on the other by a concrete colonnade.
The walkway screens the calmly contemporary eco home and its leafy surrounds from the busy road that runs past it, while at the same time acting as a "mental airlock', as architect Andrew Brown characterises it, where a process of psychological decompression can begin on approach to the front door. "That thing of 'mentally unloading' when you get home is quite nice," he says.
Working with the remains of a historic building hadn't been in the thoughts of owners Russel Davies and Wendy Wilkie in 2017 when they first began hunting for a plot near Aberdeen. But in order to get everything they wanted out of the project, they had to let pragmatism reign. The broad plan was to build a strikingly modern suburban home where they might enjoy winding down towards retirement after raising six kids and leading busy lives and careers, in Russel's case as a chief executive in the oil and gas industry.
Each had children from a previous relationship, he says, "so when Wendy and I married, we had to buy a house with many bedrooms, because of all the kids. It was a big converted steading in the middle of the countryside north of Aberdeen. It was a fantastic location, but there were downsides: you couldn't do anything without jumping in the car. We were like a full-time taxi service. We started thinking - wouldn't it be nice to live somewhere else, but just for us, not designed for the kids? Because they're all grown up now and getting on with their own lives."
この記事は Homes & Interiors Scotland の July - August 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Homes & Interiors Scotland の July - August 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Escape EASTSIDE COTTAGES
This tiny house, full of clever architectural solutions, is hidden away in a valley near Penicuik
THE WRITE ANGLE
This glasshouse in Edinburgh was a necessary upgrade for two writers who needed an escape from family life
Turn back the clock
Sometimes we have to look back to step forward. This home was stripped of its ultra-modern interior - and it has never looked better
A place of our own
Bold, brave choices paid off handsomely when the owners of this Edinburgh flat decided to put their stamp on the place
REFUGE FROM THE STORM
Two hundred years of Atlantic gales reduced this cottage to a wreck. Now, though, the gently restored Mull bolt-hole has a brighter outlook
The starting point
As the first project of both its original architect and the one who would reshape it 150 years later, this little coach house in Argyll has been on quite a journey
MORE THAN SKIN DEEP
The beauty of this Edwardian home lies not just in its gorgeous surfaces, but in a full-scale retrofit that's made it as energy efficient as a new Passivhaus
SPACE TO BREATHE
Several ugly extensions marred this cottage in rural Aberdeenshire until a rethink gave its owners a simplified layout and much more eco-friendly home
MELANIE O'DONNELL - Ceramic artist
The best thing about creating ceramics is the way you can get lost in another world.
Reading LIST
Design that will stand the test of time is the focus of our latest batch of books, all of which deserve a prime spot on a very stylish coffee table
