Page 148 - Homes & Interiors Scotland

hree is the magic number. Or at
least it appears to be something of
a leitmotif in a recently emergent
‘Highland steading’ in the Perthshire
country side. Replacing an imposing
Victorian hunting lodge, this
T contemporary development by
Cameron Webster Architects with Marcus Lee comprises
three wings arranged, horseshoe-like, around an
internal courtyard. Three ‘cores’ with servicing stacks
(culminating in three chimneys) feature at the heart of
the main living area, which then expresses itself via three
glazed bay windows to the front of the house. Even the
upper-level bedrooms have capacious three-metre-high
ceilings.
It’s apparent from these introductory stats that this
is a far cry from the traditional idea of a steading as low-
key, couthy stone cottages and compact farm buildings.
Indeed, the monumental scale of this build trumps its
two-storey predecessor, at least in terms of footprint.
So what was the thinking behind replacing the
existing Victorian building? “The initial appraisal looked
at whether it was worth keeping the original house,” says
Stuart Cameron of Glasgow-based Cameron Webster
Architects. “But it had no real connection to the surroun-
ding landscape, even though there are great views in
every direction. The water supply, which comes off the
hill, was problematic too: the owners couldn’t use the
house in summer as there was never enough water, and
they couldn’t use it in winter as the water often froze.
“Doing a new-build rather than just a refurb was
feasible, since the owners don’t live on site. So, with this
in mind, we proposed starting again, with zero per cent
VAT, which made a lot more sense.”
The owner invited architects to submit their

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