Futureproof Farmhouse-Style Home Built on a Brownfield Site in Scotland

Inspired by agricultural surroundings

The overall design, positioned around the footprint of the original farm sheds, features three buildings with a shared courtyard. The main house has two one-and-a-half storey buildings arranged as an L-shaped plan. The third structure is a one-bedroom annexe.

The house has been designed to complement the rural surroundings

The first view on approach from the road is the south-facing facade of the main house, which features the shared open-plan family living, kitchen and dining area. The three window openings reflect the form of rural Angus cart shed buildings. Looking out to views over the Perthshire hills and Fife beyond. Neil and Sandra’s master bedroom, ensuite and dressing room are directly above.

The bedroom’s Juliet balcony enjoys east-facing views to Dundee and the River Tay. A continuous corridor from the master suite leads to a sheltered west-facing evening lounge, which can be entered directly from a new perforated steel bridge.

The master bedroom features a Juliet balcony with fully-glazed door in the east-facing gable, also allowing the couple to watch over their livestock and the fields beyond

On the ground floor, a linking corridor from the main living area leads to the second sleeping wing, with a guest bedroom, family bathroom and plant room. Directly above are Lewis and Gregor’s bedrooms. These can be accessed using the main internal staircase or via a pop-out staircase – expressed externally at the front of the house – that leads up to the sleeping quarters without having to go through the living spaces. The final element of the cluster is the annexe, Mary’s home, designed to reflect her desire for a simple, no fuss country cottage over one level – easy to run, heat and clean.

Energy-efficient build

Construction involved a fabric first approach, with deep timber frame walls and roofs. The main house is clad in zinc and Siberian larch boards, created in the same rhythm as the zinc roof seams.

The annexe complements the main house. It’s a simple design with unfussy materials – rougher Scottish larch and corrugated metal sheet roofing. The slightly different cladding arrangements creates the idea of a cluster of buildings that relate to each other but are slightly different, to reflect historic farmsteads.

The timber-clad finish helps the self build blend into its rural surroundings

Optimum energy efficiency and airtightness has been achieved via Rockwool insulation and triple-glazed windows throughout the house. Renewable systems include a ground source heat pump with a 195m deep borehole that supplies the wet underfloor heating throughout the ground floor of the house and annexe, with radiators on the first floor. A mechanical ventilation and heat recovery (MVHR) system circulates fresh air and a 20.2kW array of solar PV panels, mounted in the garden, generate the electricity. Any excess is stored in a set of solar batteries. A water borehole located around 30 metres from the main house supplies the drinking water.

The pop-out staircase is clad in zinc, in a slightly different tone than the roof to create interest and variety to the facade

“We wanted to make a low impact with the energy systems and also create cost savings for ourselves,” says Sandra. “Performance-wise the house is working very well. We get a lot of solar gain and the underfloor heating combined with the triple glazing is great.

We were able to access the Feed-in Tariff [now replaced by the less-generous Smart Energy Guarantee], so we can sell electricity that we don’t need back to the grid.” The couple hope that the combination of excellent insulation, eco technologies and Feed-in Tariff payments will result in net zero bills.

Unprecedented circumstances

The build turned out to be a long one for the family, through no fault of their own. “On the Monday we went on site, where the outline of the building was sprayed out on the ground prior to beginning the concrete slab foundations. The next day the site locked down when the Covid lockdown announcement was made,” says Ann.

The kitchen was designed to be very practical. One door leads to a pantry and another leads to a food store. The polished concrete floor has a warm tone through it

Neil and Sandra had sold their house and the whole family, including Mary, were living in two static caravans on site. “The family spent the first three months of their self build project in their caravans looking at the sprayed outline of their house until lockdown was lifted in the summer,” says Ann. The caravans were positioned on site, quite close to the building site. “We had two winters and Christmases in those caravans,” says Sandra.

“It was almost the third Christmas when we got in the house, due to all the stop-starts during the Covid lockdowns. In the early stages it went quickly, but at the end it seemed to take an age. Thankfully many of the materials we used had been bought in advance, so we avoided most of the pandemic-related price rises.”

Dream result

Since moving in, Neil and Sandra’s focus is now only on the joy of their first self build. “Ann’s first design is exactly what we ended up with,” says Neil. “It’s light and airy downstairs, with the large windows and polished concrete floors reflecting the sunlight. In contrast, it’s cosy and cocooned upstairs with the dark smoked oak floors. We get great views from every side of the house.”

The functional open-plan living-kitchen-dining area was a key part of the brief. It’s a large social space for family and friends to get together

There’s also a fun flow to the property. “Sandra described her grandparents’ farmhouse, which had two staircases she enjoyed playing on as a child. So, we created the bridge access to the upper-level living area and, combined with the two staircases, it feels like all the routes don’t ever finish. Like a kid, you could keep moving continuously, popping in and out of the house,” says Ann.

The bridge outside leads to the upstairs lounge through a single glazed door

The property is futureproofed, too. “Everything’s in place if we want to install electric car charging points,” says Neil. “And Ann designed a bedroom downstairs so that when we get too old to climb the stairs, we can live on the ground floor. The house was five years in the making, but we now have a very practical multi-generational home, that’s easy to keep and warm.”

“What we love about our finished home is the way that the building sits into the landscape,” says Sandra. “When you’re driving up the road to the house and the roof starts to emerge, its form and colour blends in with the heather on the hillside behind, which creates a beautiful, seamless effect.”