Context 158 - March 2019

C O N T E X T 1 5 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 9 39 Highlands and Islands rocks of the Lewisian Gneiss. The orientation towards the sea, and something of the form of the house, echoes wartime lookouts and pillboxes that were found in similar locations. Many of these houses were designed by Stuart Bagshaw of SBA Architects, based on the Isle of Lewis.⁹ Depopulation has been a common theme across the west, from the forced evictions in the clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries to the mass moves to the industrialised cities that followed. The landscape has been left littered with the decaying remains of former homes. Sometimes the cause of vacancy is simply the construction of the next new house nearby: blackhouse, white house, then kit house. The creation of new houses in these ruins, not simply by converting and restoring the existing, but by designing modern architecture within and beside it, is a further addition to the recent high-quality architecture on the west coast. Like the White House on the Island of Coll by WT Architecture, which includes the con- solidated ruin of an 18th-century historic house with portions left roofless and a large dramatic crack retained. A glazed link looks out over the sea and connects to a modern wing. The development of a west-coast style by architects producing high-end, one-off designs has led some of the architects looking at lower- cost, off-the-peg homes. Simple layout and construction reduce costs but can still allow for bespoke detail. Architects Rural Design The White House on the Isle of Coll (also pictured on the cover), by WT Architecture, includes the consolidated ruin of an 18th-century historic house, with parts left roofless and a large dramatic crack retained. produce the R House, and Dualchas Architects their HebHomes. Off-site fabrication allows quick assembly once it gets to site, something of considerable benefit in the notoriously wet west. They may still be kit houses, like the standard products built of structurally insulated panels, but they have designs more rooted in the local vernacular. Other kit house companies are being launched to supply low-cost, small homes with a more traditional style reflecting the design of simple, almost colonial, late 19th-century and early 20th-century prefabricated sectional cottages, with red crinkly tin roofs and coloured timber- clad walls. The influence of the new generation of archi- tect-designed and properly considered kit houses has begun to filter down to the mass market. The largest Argyll kit builders now offer ranges with more traditional bulk and form. Other suppliers have developed ranges which also have some element of traditional form and appear to understand, in producing those houses at least, the important design elements to consider. But a trawl through the patterns offered by many big kit companies shows they have yet to be influenced by any new traditional architecture trends and continue to produce the same designs they have done for years. One proudly claims that ‘many hundreds of these homes have been built throughout the Highlands of Scotland, in other parts of the UK, France and Spain.’ Regular readers of the Sunday supplements or the glossy home magazines will be familiar with the images of the new architecture of the west which often appear in their pages. But from those pages they will also be aware that very many of the houses shown are holiday homes occupied occasionally by the owners or by holi- day renters, or at best are the permanent homes of those relocating from the south. Bankers and IT professionals turned crofters, who can afford to buy a plot of land, which may be costly in relation to local house prices, engage an archi- tect to do the right thing with the plot. Few of these houses, even the lower-cost prefabricated builds, can cater for the local population. Two decades ago, when remote rural Scotland was going the way of much of Ireland and filling up with poor-quality, ill-designed housing, it would have been impossible to imagine that this change could come. It is a small change, not a major shift. But it is one whose style and influ- ence has filtered down and has begun to improve the quality of architecture in the west, and to influence designers of all types, so they might, at last, consider more what they are trying to achieve and why. It is possible now to admire the view and for it to include a house that actually enhances the prospect, rather than disfigures it. Fiona Newton is the IHBC’s operations director. The ruins of the White House before work was carried out, from a photograph displayed on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry Clansman ⁹ Stonehouses, Ullapool; The Brochs of Coigach, Polbain, Achiltibuie; Blue Reef Cottage, Scarista, Isle of Harris; and Eagle Bay Cottages, Keose, Isle of Lewis