Calderwood Competition, Architecture, Architect, New Community, Project, Designs

Calderwood Housing : Architecture

New Scottish Housing, West Lothian, Scotland design by Craig Amy Architect

20 Jul 2009

Calderwood Design Competition

Winners announced 17 Jul 2009:

New House Typology:
Winner:
Craig Amy Architect

Craig Amy, a former associate with Richard Murphy Architects, has started his own practice.

His first success has come as the winner of Stirling Developments’ competition to design a new house typology for one of the neighbourhoods in their Calderwood Development near East Calder in West Lothian.

The winning house design takes on the form of a ‘long barn’, predominately clad in timber, with the entrance placed at one end, rather than the middle. The rooms are placed along one wall with the circulation and storage placed along the opposite side. This creates a blank wall, which forms the third side of the neighbour’s courtyard, a sheltered space for socializing and outdoor living.

The far end of the ‘barn’ is a large living, dining, kitchen focused on the large garden and courtyard. A secret stair also leads up to the family room above with more views out to the garden and landscape beyond. The first floor accommodates four bedrooms, which take full advantage of the spaces created by the form of the roof.

The layout goes against typical suburban housing, where isolated houses are surrounded by front, back and side gardens sitting in a cul-de-sac of unused front gardens and driveways. Instead, the houses are arranged around a communal space / street to the front, which allows the back gardens to be maximised. It was hoped that by creating one communal space the residents would be more likely to engage with the people around them and inhabit the ‘street’ as well as their own homes. Each front door has a space to sit and socialize while small landscaped areas can be used by everyone.

The ‘street’ would be finished in cobbles, gravel and paved areas to create an attractive hard landscaped space rather than the typical asphalt road of housing developments and to encourage the use of the space for gatherings and street parties. Vehicular access is restricted to one end and would be viewed as a secondary use of the space.

The announcement of the competition winner coincided with the submission by Stirling Developments of an outline planning application and masterplan for the Calderwood development. The proposed new community of Calderwood includes 2,400 new homes, schools, employment opportunities and extensive public open space.

Craig said, “I am delighted with this competition win and look forward to working with the team at Stirling Developments in the future.”

During nearly eight years at Richard Murphy Architects he worked as the project architect on the award-winning private house at Pentland Avenue, the social housing scheme at Moore Street, Glasgow for Molendinar Park Housing Association and the New School of Education for the University of East London in Stratford. He also led the competition winning scheme for the New Dunfermline Museum.

Craig’s recently completed projects include the conversion of a shop into a contemporary flat and he is currently working on a number of extensions to private houses.

www.craigamy.com

Calderwood Development : main page

Calderwood Housing – Craig Amy Architect

¨Calderwood’s archetypal house shall have an architecture derived from
the farm barn¨

Our proposals are based on two ideas:- that set out above, of an archetypal ‘farm barn’ like form and the idea of trying to create a small community within a community based around a communal space.

We have tried to go against typical suburban housing, where isolated houses are surrounded by front, back and side gardens sitting in a cul-de-sac of unused front gardens and driveways. Instead, we have maximized the back gardens and created a communal space / street to the front. It is hoped that by creating one communal space the residents will be more likely to engage with the people around them and inhabit the ‘street’ as well as their own homes. Each front door has a space to sit and socialize while small landscaped areas can be used by everyone.

The house takes on the form of a ‘long barn’, where the entrance is placed at one end, rather than the middle. The rooms are placed along one wall with the circulation and storage placed along the opposite side. This creates a blank wall, which forms the third side of the neighbour’s courtyard, a sheltered space for socializing and outdoor living.

The far end of the ‘barn’ is a large living, dining, kitchen focused on the large garden and courtyard. A secret stair also leads up to the family / work room above with more views out to the garden and landscape beyond. The first floor accommodates four bedrooms, which take full advantage of the spaces created by the form of the roof.

The ‘barn’ is predominately clad in timber with a slate roof. Areas of coloured render jump out to create a vibrant neighbourhood. Each house would have a different colour to distinguish it from the neighbours.

The houses are surrounded by the landscape and all the back gardens would lead out to the green corridors created by the masterplan. There would also be mini green corridors within each group of houses, allowing for children’s play areas, places to sit and enjoy and further connections back to the landscape.

Although only one house type has been shown, a variety of house sizes and forms would further enhance the spaces created.

Careful consideration would also be required to integrate places for communal refuse storage and recycling.

Location: East Calder, Scotland