fraser

We designed a compact two bedroom croft house on the shores of a sea loch in North Uist, Outer Hebrides.

The project took advantage of fine views and maximised natural light in a north facing site, creating a bright, elegant interior of plywood lined finishes, with excellent attention to detail.

Designed for our innovative construction system, and built by sister company 7-22 Systems Ltd. the form of construction achieved excellent thermal performance.

Utilising pier foundations, the 7-22 design system allowed us to design successfully and economically for the challenging ground conditions presented by deep peat (3m deep in places). This “light touch” approach to foundations reduced concrete usage and minimised ground disturbance.

This new-build project, nearing completion on site by our sister company, 7-22 Systems Ltd, creates a very compact one-bedroom house and adjacent sauna on the Isle of North Uist.

The buildings are orientated on a south westerly axis towards the fine expansive coastal views, and carefully sited to ensure access sheltered from the strong prevailing winds, appropriate visual impact from the public road, and a sensitive relationship to neighbouring buildings.

Externally the simple geometry and hierarchy of forms combines with dark grey finishes to create a clean modern aesthetic.

Internally the compact layout utilises built-in fittings and furniture to maximise space and create a unified interior.

The project is designed to a very high environmental specification, to minimise the use of materials with high embodied Carbon - exceeding current environmental Building Standards by at least 15%.*

Both timber buildings have been constructed off concrete pier foundations, calculated to require less than half the quantity of concrete as would be required for a traditional ground bearing slab and strip foundation. This technique also achieves a much “lighter touch” than traditional groundworks, minimising environmental impact upon the site.

*Section 6 Energy - Building Standards (Scotland) regulations

This project to extend and renovate a traditional house in North Uist, has created a bright, contemporary living space with a strong connection to the surrounding landscape. The design preserves privacy to the frontage of the house while capitalising on expansive views to the south. 

Our brief was to transform a rather dated existing bungalow, on the Isle of North Uist, into a bright, contemporary three bedroom home, completely re-modelling the interior to realise the huge potential of its spectacular, elevated loch-side location.

Extensive re-planning within the house creates a triple aspect semi-open plan living / kitchen / dining space overlooking the loch. New and enlarged window openings throughout create a strong connection to the surrounding land and sea-scape, complemented by a restrained palette of interior finishes and colours inspired by its setting.

Fabric improvements include new windows, external render, a new slate roof and external landscaping.

This recently completed project creates a gallery and shop extension to an existing ceramics workshop. Previously, ceramicist Louise Cook worked between her workshop and a small gallery attached to her home (an earlier commission - see below).

Having outgrown the small home gallery space, Louise asked us to design a new gallery and shop, attached to her workshop, to better showcase her work - a simple well-lit backdrop with flexibility to display a wide range of her own pieces along with the work of other local artists.

Louise’s work is rooted in the forms and colours of the Hebridean landscape and shoreline which surrounds her, so we balanced the gallery display requirements with a strong visual connection to the wider landscape. Externally, we used a simple form with a muted palette of dark timber cladding to contrast with the colourful and quirky aesthetic of the existing workshop building.

Find out more about Shoreline Stoneware.

Our earlier home gallery extension was Commended for Design in the Outer Hebrides Design Awards 2012.

In this former school we created imaginative living spaces within the large volume of the schoolroom (with additional accommodation in the adjoining schoolhouse).

A progression of levels, wraps around the chimney-breast wall, from the ground-floor kitchen, through a partially raised full-height livingroom and up to a semi-enclosed sleeping platform. This maximises available space and creates dramatic contrast between the different volumes.

Separating the new structure from the external walls in the kitchen and sleeping platform areas gave prominence to the high schoolroom windows and maintained a sense of the building's original spacial quality. This enhanced the low-ceilinged kitchen and sleeping areas, creating visual connections and a sense of height, while retaining privacy. Raising the living area by a half level tied in well with the existing schoolroom windows to take advantage of expansive views, sunrises and sunsets.

The result is a balance of old and new: a simple palette of colours and finishes creates a comfortable, relaxed interior combining the warmth of traditional timber with crisp contemporary shapes.

HIAA 2022 ARCHITECTURAL AWARDS

WINNER

Social Benefit Category (new or existing buildings)

Judges comments:

“A beautiful story of community needs being met through architecture. A purposeful, elegant and simple container which delivers lifeline services for the community”.

Garadh a’ Bagh a’ Tuath (GaBaT), Isle of Barra, a community owned and managed charity, commissioned us to consider design options for additional accommodation at their Northbay garden - a horticulture-based project, offering a range of facilities to the local community, focused around training and support for vulnerable adults.

The building functions as an administrative hub for local organisations providing services for adults, supporting GABAT’s development through improved social spaces, designed around the needs and aspirations of users and volunteers: an integrated community café and an adapted kitchen and utility space for independent living skills training, and development of accredited courses in horticulture.

A simple, linear form provides an elegant and functional backdrop to the busy activities of the garden. Public spaces address the horticultural areas with a semi-open entrance providing display space for fresh produce.  

The building needs to be energy-efficient and economical to run. High insulation levels, LED and low energy fittings with a large Photo-Voltaic array achieve a standard close to carbon neutral.

Fraser Architecture uses cutting edge 3D design software to enable our clients to see accurate visualisations of their project from an early stage.

We find that the use of 3D visualisations is a powerful design tool, helping our clients to get an accurate feel for the proposals as the design progresses.

These are some of our current projects are various stages of design.

Our clients, mother and daughter, commissioned us to design two independent but adjoining houses on a stunning loch-side site on the island of Berneray. The brief called for energy-efficient, contemporary living space in a form to complement the local built and natural environment.

The houses offer a sensitive, contemporary response to site and context. Externally the design addresses scale, proportion and materials, to create a form which sits unobtrusively within the landscape. The site offers expansive views westwards over Loch Brusda towards the sea beyond. The orientation capitalises on these views, balancing large openings, flooded with daylight, with areas of enclosure and specific framed views.

The interior has a strong connection to the landscape while retaining enough solidity to create a comfortable sense of warmth, in wilder weather.  The courtyard layout shelters the two house entrances from the prevailing wind, while glazed entrance links provide a visual connection to the views beyond.

Although first planned as a renovation and extension of a traditional house, its unexpected structural instability resulted in demolition and a complete new build. Re-creating the form of the “old house”, in new-build form, retained the original design concept, while achieving greater flexibility in internal layout, detailing and specification.

Sustainability:                                                    

Energy performance was important to our clients; minimising energy costs in use and maximising the building’s green credentials, without major impact on capital costs. The structure uses 300mm deep JJI composite joist kit construction, locally manufactured in the north of Scotland, allowing for excellent insulation levels.

We used  Warmcell 100% recycled newspaper insulation – its “Better than Carbon Zero” status, high performance and low material and installation cost made it an ideal “green” building product for this project.

Outer Hebrides Design Awards 2012

Highly Commended for Design

Commended for Sustainability

This new-build business unit development on the Isle of Benbecula, for Highlands and Islands Enterprise, responds to a pressing local need for high quality business accommodation. It provides five individual units for rent, in two single storey buildings, sited in Balivanich, close to Benbecula Airport.

Fraser Architecture was commissioned by HIE early on, to carry out a feasibility study and detailed community engagement, assessing local need and demand, evaluating site options and providing concept designs. We were subsequently commissioned to provide Architect's Services on the Design Build construction contract.

The development, on a brown-field site, provides office / light industrial premises - two units of 30sqm and three of 60 sqm. The interiors have a simple open plan layout, with plenty of natural light and a degree of flexibility in door and window configuration on the larger units; an industrial sectional door or full-height window option, depending on use.

The site presented constraints and opportunities; proximity to the airport brought stringent height restrictions, while its location on the Airport road provides excellent visibility to passing traffic.

Aesthetically the restrained palette of materials and colours is designed to reflect the buildings’ light industrial function within their rural coastal setting.

Building in such an exposed location demanded attention to detail to achieve best value in both capital expenditure and costs in use. The use of a Trespa Pura cladding system and colour-coated aluminium sinusoidal roof finish ensures that the buildings will have low future maintenance requirements.

They are designed with a breathable wall construction achieving very low U-values and a thermal performance which well-exceeds the Building Standards requirements for commercial premises.

Currently under construction, this 916 sqm steel frame food standard factory building for the Stornoway Port Authority, is part of its wider masterplanning of Goat Island, an industrial site close to the seafront of Stornoway and to the approach to the Isle of Lewis by sea.

Having produced the initial masterplanning vision for Goat Island, for the Stornoway Port Authority, which includes civil engineering, marina development, amenity and industrial elements (delivered by others) we were commissioned for Design Team services for a new build specialist food standard factory building to replace an existing operational food processing facility on the site.

The design is strongly process-driven, to accommodate the specific food processing and production layout requirements of the tenant, including major refrigeration plant.

The building form, massing and finishes are designed to address the planning considerations of such a visually prominent site, outwith but close to the Conservation Area of Stornoway’s town centre.

The brief called for phased demolition and construction to allow the existing tenant to continue its shellfish processing operations during the build.

Under a separate appointment by the tenant, Macduff Shellfish (Scotland) Ltd., we have subsequently been commissioned to provide Architects’ services for the tenant fit-out works of the completed building.

On the slopes of Beinn Riabhach, in the north-west corner of North Uist, the St Kilda Viewpoint will offer a dramatic visitor experience, focusing on the St Kilda archipelago which lies some 40 miles to the west.

Our brief from client group, Sealladh Hiort, was inspiring and challenging: to design a viewpoint building which does justice to St Kilda’s World Heritage Site status, rises to the considerable practical challenges of a remote and very exposed site, responds sensitively to its setting and demonstrates “best value” within a tight budget.

The site offers superlative views of St Kilda and of the numerous less distant islands which were also once inhabited. In response, our design creates a visitor journey which culminates in a panoramic viewing gallery, centred on St Kilda, and taking in a broad sweep from the Monach Isles to the Sound of Harris. A new access road climbs the hillside on a route designed to shield it and the new visitor parking from the gallery view. On arrival, visitors are sheltered from the strong prevailing winds by external walling which defines an area of outdoor interpretation where visitors are drawn into the St Kilda story as they approach on foot. The entrance hints at the view to come but only as the visitor moves through the heart of the building is the panoramic view westward suddenly revealed in full. The gallery is backed by audio-visual and exhibition spaces which create a circulation route back to the entrance and shop.

The building has a bold geometry and a restrained palette of materials and colours which harmonise with the heather-clad slopes around it. Although designed to reflect the drama of its focal point from within, the building’s outward form, set in a National Scenic Area, deliberately minimises its visual impact from the public road below and from the summit of Beinn Riabhach.

The physical impact of the building on the landscape will be minimised by use of “light touch” pier foundations. A pre-fabricated timber panel system will allow much of the construction to take place off-site, reducing the challenges of building in such an exposed location.

This recently completed, new-build project provides adult training and recycling facilities in Ormiclate, Isle of South Uist.

Cothrom (meaning opportunity in Gaelic) is a Community and Development organisation. Training is its main focus but the organisation also includes a full time Gaelic Nursery and ReStore, a furniture restoration and recycling enterprise. ReStore had been operating out of very cramped rented premises which were a barrier to its growth. The new building, sited within Cothrom's main campus,  provides ReStore with various workshops, training rooms and a shop through which it can grow as a social enterprise. 

We are experienced in the complex and often time-consuming process which community clients face when developing a building project and have worked closely with Cothrom, over several years, from the project’s inception and throughout the funding process. It is exciting and rewarding to be part of bringing this project to fruition.

Sustainability

Sustainability and energy efficiency are key elements of the brief. ReStore is all about recycling, upcycling and minimising environmental impact. It was essential to Cothrom that the building reflects this ethos.  Equally important, the building must be energy efficient and economical in terms of cost in use. Simplifying on-going maintenance is also an important design consideration for a client with limited resources, in a remote location where specialist repair and maintenance services are costly and difficult to access.

These considerations run through all aspects of the design including:

- a simple and efficient plan layout.

- composite joist construction, manufactured in the north of Scotland and use of FSC certified timber.

- use of recycled materials and materials which can be recycled in future.

- components and finishes which have a long design life and are easy and economical to maintain.

- very highly insulated construction.

- design for a very high level of air-tightness.

- maximising use of natural daylight.

- low energy light fittings.

- underfloor heating providing thermal mass.

- use of appropriate renewable technologies – a new photo-voltaic array will complement the two wind turbines, bore holes and heat pump which serve the main centre adjacent to the new building.

Museum and Arts Centre

Lochmaddy

Flood Defences & Masterplanning Proposals

In this project, currently under consideration by the Client, our brief was to explore options and create concept design proposals for flood defences and wider master-planning at Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, Lochmaddy.

This acclaimed cultural hub includes an established museum and archive, exhibition spaces, studios for Further and Higher education in visual arts, a cafe, gift shop and Post Office. 

Our proposals include an innovative technical and aesthetic solution incorporating rainwater storage and sea-flooding defences.  The design creates a new sea-defence wall around the existing shore-line. It combines a sheltered working dock for historic local boat, the “Morning Star” with a tiered external seating / performance space.

While necessary, flood defences often present an unsightly intrusion into the landscape. Here, the site includes a locally prominent B-listed building in the heart of Lochmaddy village.  Taigh Chearsabhagh is a popular tourist attraction and a focal point for local community activities. It sits on the edge of Lochmaddy bay, a spectacular coastal lagoon, designated as a Marine Special Area of Conservation.  For these reasons we aspired to meet the technical requirements of the brief with a solution which enhances the existing building, creates a dynamic outdoor space and responds sensitively to its context.

Previous work

As the centre’s remit has grown over the years, the building has undergone several extensions.  Most recently we designed Taigh Chearsbahagh’s new entrance porch along with a redesign of the shop, cafe kitchen upgrade, fabric improvements and heating system upgrade.

The Kildonan Centre in South Uist is a heritage and cultural amenity with a museum and archival room, cafe, craft shop and rooms for music and dance events. Originally a school, the building has been extended in the past to create the current facilities. 

This project, recently completed, for the South Uist Historical Trust, focuses on the museum.  It enlarges the museum space with a new extension, allowing the Trust to display larger items from its collection which have had to remain in storage. The project also incorporates much-needed extended parking provision, a redesigned and extended museum entrance and shop area and other internal alterations to facilitate growing visitor numbers.

Part of the design process has been to liaise with the local authority Museum Development Officer and the Arts Council National Security Advisor, to ensure that the building meets specific technical security standards. This will enhance the Museum's existing security standards and in so doing, Kildonan Museum will satisfy an important part of the eligibility criteria for the Government Indemnity Scheme (providing cost-free cover for loss or damage to art or cultural items on loan, for public display or study purposes). This will give Kildonan Museum the potential to offer local access to art and cultural objects which might not otherwise be possible, due to the high cost of insurance.