Case Study: Kepdarroch Farmhouse

Kepdarroch Farmhouse is a new-build home on a working farm, designed for a young family. Set in an open agricultural landscape, the house is arranged loosely around an informal courtyard, making reference to familiar clusters of farm buildings, steadings and cottages.

It was important for our clients that the house should feel permanent, robust, and incorporate a palette of traditional building materials. We saw this as an interesting challenge, to work with familiar forms and materials, but to enjoy proportion and detail.

We endeavored to develop a sense of hierarchy and differing character between the various volumes, intending to give the prominent stone gable, facing out to the landscape, a particular figural quality. This relates strongly to the archetype farmhouse gable-end, but with a window proportion which would only be possible using contemporary construction techniques. The relationship between the tall upper, and wide lower window, was carefully fine-tuned as the project developed. There are no expressed masonry elements, such as quoins or lintols. The rubble stone is treated as a continuous surface, exaggerating the autonomy of the large openings. The house is confident and contemporary, with a legible lineage.

Materials

Façades are constructed predominantly in Scottish Caithness Stone, laid with back-bedded mortar joints. We detailed this using a modern ‘cavity former’, which is a cost-effective, time and material efficient solution to contemporary stone construction, that is also made entirely from recycled plastic. This saves a significant amount of concrete block in construction.

Facing the courtyard, charred ‘Shou Sugi Ban’ timber cladding is detailed with a storey-height step, which is intended to articulate the composition of the façade, and will encourage an even pattern of weathering over time. We have used this horizontal division to control the large-format fixed windows which address the courtyard.

Roofs are finished with reclaimed slate, quarried in the north of England, and salvaged from a redundant building nearby.

Internally, lightly polished concrete runs continuously throughout the ground floor, alluding to the building’s agricultural context.

Windows and Views

Contemporary, minimal and discrete glazing details describe a contrast between openings and the traditional, somewhat rustic material palette. To achieve this we have utilised several different glazing systems, including bespoke silicone-pointed glass, an extremely slim profile sliding door system, and one of the slimmest-framed, aluminum-clad timber window system available.

Renewable energy

The house has been designed to incorporate a Ground Source Heat Pump, which provides a highly efficient means of generating passive heat. This feeds a hot water cylinder, and an underfloor heating system across the entire ground floor. Consideration was given to an air source system, however as there was sufficient level ground around the site, we were able to utilise the greater efficiency of a ground source system.

Primary living spaces are additionally served with wood-burning fireplaces for supplementary heat control during winter.

Collaboration

We’re continuing to work closely with designers/makers, Angus+Mack on a bespoke smoked-oak staircase with turned handrail, as well as floor to ceiling smoked-oak pivot doors and kitchen cabinetry, and a charred and brushed back Accoya front door. These will be some of the last details installed before completion.

Process

From the first discussion with our self-build clients, we have worked together collaboratively, steering the project through initial design-development, Planning Approval (within a ‘countryside’ designation), Building Warrant approval, and have continued our involvement through the construction stage. We have worked closely with structural engineers, consultants, tradesmen and specialists to take an ambitious and highly bespoke project efficiently through to (almost) completion.

Our clients have project managed the construction phase themselves, which has been a challenging, but rewarding process. If you’d like some advice on managing a self-build project, have a look at our recent journal post, or get in touch and we’d be happy to share our tips.