A snow-covered landscape featuring a distant house surrounded by leafless trees. The ground is blanketed in snow, creating a serene winter scene with a pale sky overhead.

Drummargettie

Aberdeenshire, Scotland

2017 — 2019

Client Private Client

Buildings · Private Homes

Located amongst the ruins of an 18th century ‘fermtown’, Drummargettie is a new build home in the heart of the Cairngorms, Scotland for two passionate hill walkers keen to live in the landscape they have spent years trekking. The building strikes a balance between a formal response to the landscape and the provision of a practical, economic and energy efficient home.

A long wooden house sits amidst a snowy landscape, surrounded by snow-covered trees and fields. The sky is overcast, adding a serene atmosphere to the winter scene.

The clients - a professor and lecturer in energy economics and a concert-level musician - whose own set of ambitions, particularly with respect to energy use, played a key role in the design process. Strategies for the occupation of the site were developed closely with the client, culminating a response to three defining features of the pre-existing site. Firstly, the scale and proportion of three ruined 19th century farm buildings are taken to inform the alignment of spine walls which organise the internal spaces.

Modern wooden house in a snowy landscape. The house features large glass windows, allowing a glimpse of a dining area inside. A covered patio with two striped chairs is on the right, adjacent to a rock wall. Bare trees stand in the background.

A series of six architectural diagrams showing different stages of design development. Each diagram depicts a building layout with various colored elements representing changes or additions, such as walls, furniture, and outdoor areas.

The orientation of the building envelope and openings is then conceived as a way to frame spectacular views south across the Upper Dee Valley and to a stand of birch trees that enclose the site to the north. Finally, a downward, bi-angular sloping zinc roof sails over the internal spaces following the site’s topography – resulting in a roof line that remains low, running parallel to the immediate site contour and the skyline of an adjacent hillside.