Van Midden House

The Van Midden house is at the Lembas Organics farm at the Bridge of Muchalls, Stonehaven. It is a very low energy house due to high levels of insulation and the use of timber I beamsprefabricated timber beams with a web of OSBOriented Strand Board and softwood flanges. They are very light, efficient and [...]

Tressour Wood

This timber post and beamSubstantial, usually horizontal structural member. house in Aberfeldy pioneered “breathing construction” in the UK.

Designed by Gaia Architects and built in 1992 this well insulated passive solar house also has a wood burning stove and stack effect cooling for summer. The building materials used were chosen for being non-toxic [...]

Rowangarth

October ’09

Jim and Jo Monahan are nearing completion of their passive solar house in Spinningdale, Sutherland. This is a timber frame house which utilizes roundwood for many of the structural members. This is a way of using timber at its maximum strength because it is not cut across the grain. The timber framing [...]

Parramatta

This 122 m² passive solar house in Montrose was the winner of the Angus Design Award 2006. It is a post and beamSubstantial, usually horizontal structural member. structure of Douglas fir and has larch cladding with breathing walla bit of a misnomer. A better term is ‘vapour open’ because it is not air [...]

Orkney straw bale

October 2009

Set on a windswept hillside overlooking Scapa Flow is what is probably the UK’s most northerly straw bale house. At the stage of being wind and weather tight but not yet plastered internally, this is an example of a building with very low embodied energythe total amount of energy it takes [...]

McKay house, Stonehaven

October 2009

This low energy house is set on a hill overlooking the sea near Stonehaven. Its clean and simple lines echo the vernacular of the area although it is essentially a very modern building based on passive solar construction. The walls are double skin aerated concrete block with 300mm of insulation, achieving a [...]

Kirk Park

Aberfeldy, October 2009

This is a timber frame house of 76 sq,m. built in 2001. In terms of heating it benefits from its double storey[for the purposes of part B (fire) of the Approved Documents to the Building Regulations] this means a. any gallery[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] [...]

Kashentroch, Banchory

October ’09

Home of Alexander and Vinny Burnett, Kashentroch is an elegant and spacious open plan timber frame house in a beautiful setting close to the Dee. The original part of the house (with the pitched roof on the right of the picture), built about 5 years ago, has recently had an addition of [...]

Energy performance certificate

In Scotland From December 1, 2008, houses for sale have had to be marketed with a Home Report. The home pack includes an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

Scotland has been slightly ahead of the UK generally in introducing energy certificates.

Landlords in England and Wales are now obliged to give all new tenants a certificate [...]

House in Peterculter

Designed by architect Gokay Deveci. This passive solar house is open plan with the main central living room overlooked by a first floor gallery[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] – A raised area or platform around the sides or at the back of a room which provides extra space. [...]

Bandodle house

October 2009

On the Hill of Bandodle, Aberdeenshire, stands a beautiful timber frame house designed by architect Genevieve Jones for her family. Incorporating high levels of insulation (in the form of 350mm of shoddy obtained from Elgin woolen mill) and mainly locally sourced materials, Larch, Douglas fir and Caithness slate, the house also has [...]

Batavia zero carbon house

On Unst, northernmost island of the Shetland Isles is what may be the world’s first zero carbon house. The owner/builders, Michael and Dot Rea have a web site giving details of the project and there is a video on the Guardian web site.

[...]

Allan’s log house

October ’09

Building with solid timber

Allan is building a log house high on a hill near Evanton, north of Inverness. The locally sourced Scots Pine logs are scribed and cut to fit snugly together and are notched so that they interlock at the corners. The logs in the house weigh about 80 tonnes.

[...]

Andy’s house

October ’09

Locally grown timber

Situated in the Scottish Highlands, this nearly completed timber house is composed of three hexagonal areas plus a sun room which extends segmentally out of one of the hexagon sides. The framework is of local Douglas fir and the rain screenthis is a (usually thin) outer cladding on [...]

Self Build Central

Self build eco houses in the Field of Dreams, Findhorn FoundationThe Findhorn Foundation is a large community near Inverness. There is a strong emphasis on sustainable building and living.

Over the last decade or so the green building movement in the UK has gone from being fringe to mainstream.

Architects, builders and suppliers are [...]

Findhorn Foundation

October 2009

The Findhorn FoundationThe Findhorn Foundation is a large community near Inverness. There is a strong emphasis on sustainable building and living. near Fores in the North East of Scotland has a couple of interesting areas of eco-housing and a whole approach to living lightly on the earth including 750kW of electrical energy from [...]