Lochside House

An award-winning charred larch-clad home in the Highlands (as featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs House of the Year) - a near passive house with charred cladding, pinned to the bedrock on one side and built to fly over the peat bog on the other. This is an off-grid installation with its own generator, battery pack, PV panels, thermal store and Puraflow sewage system direct to the sea. Access was along a 1.6 mile rough, narrow track and all materials had to be brought in by 4x4 vehicles and trailer. Ten kilometres of cladding had to be charred and an in-house method was devised to achieve this. All internal doors, kitchen furniture and bathroom furniture was made in our workshop along with other bespoke joinery products to suit the client’s and architect’s design.

RIBA judges were impressed with the sympathetic way in which the building sits within its wild environment and the project was voted RIBA House of the Year 2018. It was also shortlisted for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award 2018. In June 2019 Lochside House was also awarded the Scottish Master Builder Award for New Homes 2019 and, in September, was awarded the Federation of Master Builder New Home National Award 2019.

Photography by Richard Fraser