A labour of love in Lanarkshire

When James and Lorna Hamilton made their decision to self-build, their new home had to meet not only the demands of their growing family but also recognise Lorna’s heritage, sitting on the family farmstead

TEXT NIK HUNTER IMAGES DAPPLE PHOTOGRAPHY

James Hamilton originally hails from Inverness, where he and partner Lorna set up home when they got married. However, when his parents moved to The Channel Islands a few years ago the couple decided to move closer to Lorna’s family who live in Lanarkshire. “It made sense to move but it also provided an opportunity to explore the idea of building our own home,” James explains.

The couple moved in with Lorna’s parents while they looked for a building plot in the area but nothing suitable came up. “In 2017, following the passing of Lorna’s uncle, the family farm became available. Although tinged with sadness, it was a good opportunity to bind everything together. Lorna was able to move onto her family farm and we now had a plot we could consider building on.”

The couple were keen that their new home would echo the language of its past and complement the surrounding landscape. To do this they enlisted the help of architects, Iain Monteith and Matt Loader at Loader Monteith in Glasgow.

“The client came to us in 2017,” Iain recalls. “They were quite particular about reusing the site of a dilapidated steading/cottage, dating from the 1800s which was already on the farm. The proposed site had keen connections out into the landscape both physically and visually and they wanted to build a new family home for themselves and their three young girls who were all under eight at the time.”

THE VISION

James and Lorna’s brief was to design a modern steading with an abundance of light and lots of room for their three small children to play. However, James explains how they’re the “kind of family that likes to break off and have time to ourselves.” He adds: “So, while we wanted to create warm, family-friendly areas we wanted to offer everyone their own space if they needed it.”

Family-friendly areas didn’t necessarily mean open plan, as James is keen to point out: “Lorna and I had that conversation and Lorna decided that the kitchen and dining room should be more enclosed, so she didn’t have an audience when she was cooking dinner.”

Loader Monteith carried out a site and character analysis of the area and using the site of the existing steading albeit slightly larger, the design that Iain and Matt came up with was not what James was expecting. Taking their inspiration from the strong geometry that is often found on agricultural sites, the architects drew on this to split up the roofline of the new steading. Instead of having one long profile, they played with the skyline to suggest three pitched red gables which increase in volume from east to west.

“The three buildings and the three peaks were a curveball,” James recalls. “When I said modern steading, I also wasn’t expecting a walled garden and a courtyard with a well in the middle. The well had been discovered during the demolition of the steading. I think these ideas came from the architects visiting other sites in the area and seeing what used to be there. It was totally unexpected, but as a design it worked so well.”

Another exterior feature that James hadn’t envisaged is the practical pergola – a semi-covered walkway that links the house to James’ karate studio and office. “It’s a very exposed site and very windy. Most of the farm buildings in the area tend to be horseshoe-shaped to shield the workers from the wind,” says Iain. “Choosing a courtyard design not only echoes the buildings that were there but offers protection from the elements.” However, while James wanted to be protected from the weather, they also wanted to see it and that’s why the architects specifically located the reading room at the south west corner. “It has dual aspect glazing so you can watch the weather passing by while remaining warm and cosy,” says Iain.

The reading room is a pivotal part of the property and demonstrates the clever ways in which the house can easily ‘expand and contract.’ The L-shaped design starts at the entrance vestibule and utility room which leads into the kitchen, dining area and sitting room with the reading room in the corner. Then, the north side contains the sleeping accommodation with four bedrooms and a guest bedroom on the upper level of the largest gable, providing privacy from the working side of the farm. Each ground level bedroom also connects directly into the private courtyard by way of glass doors.

“The initial plan for the guest bedroom was to locate it on a mezzanine level but we felt it wasn’t private enough,” says James. “Then Iain and Matt came up with the idea to use sliding doors and partitions which allows us to balance privacy with open plan design.”

It’s an effective solution and provides the family with the options they require. Slide the partitions back and the reading room becomes part of the sitting room and likewise with the guest bedroom. Move another partition and guests have more privacy and space to access through a lobby rather than directly into the main living space.

This open/close effect is also accentuated by the change in ceiling heights and divisions. The interesting exterior profile has been mirrored inside, creating the separation that James and Lorna were keen to capitalise upon. “Following the roofline internally and exposing the ceiling lets the volumes kick up and over the partitions,” Iain explains. “At eye level you have a degree of enclosure, but you have the volume at roof height.”

INTERIOR AESTHETICS

While the design and layout now worked in tandem, deciding on a finish that would flow through each space took a bit more consideration, and the initial proposal to line the ceiling in Douglas Fir was prohibitively
expensive. “The quote was enough to buy a very nice car!” James remembers. “However, everyone went back to the drawing board and the contractors tried pine and standard plywood, and once the base fire coating had been applied the effect was exactly what we wanted.”

Indeed, looking at the completed build, the material palette has been kept simple, but it’s incredibly effective. The walls are plasterboard, the floors are brick or oak, and the ceiling is timber. The staircase which looks like solid oak is made from an MDF carcass and covered in oak flooring. “It’s a very stripped back palette but we spent a lot of time getting the little details right,” Iain explains. These were things like getting the bond of the oak floor and the herringbone brick just so, and ensuring the timber treatment on the ceilings matched the kitchen finishes. “Lorna designed the kitchen with Archispek, but we worked closely with them to ensure that the kitchen surfaces worked tonally with the ceiling.”

“The kitchen is exactly how Lorna wanted it to be, but it wasn’t intended as a design statement,” James explains. “It was her idea to build a peninsula rather than an island so that we could all sit around it, which works brilliantly for us as a family. It just so happens that it looks really good as well.”

Externally, the materials have been chosen for two distinct reasons. Firstly, to reflect the heritage of the site and secondly to mirror the existing buildings in the environs. “On the west side we took the red sinusoidal cladding down onto the elevation because it’s still a working farm and that’s where the storage barns are and that effect replicates them,” Iain explains.

James continues: “The architects did suggest many of the materials, but I requested the ‘sinusoidal’ roof as it reminds me of my Highland roots. Much of the masonry and stonework came from the original steading and we made the brick floor from its bricks.”

A LABOUR OF LOVE

The reclaimed brick floor became a lockdown project for James and quite a significant one too. With the build starting in March 2020, the project hit lockdown at its peak. James spent eight weeks hand cleaning 4000 hand cast bricks and actually remembers it as quite an idyllic time. “The weather was nice; in some respects, it was a quiet relaxing task. However, Lorna says I often returned to the house at lunchtime moaning that I was nowhere near my daily target of a hundred bricks!”

An idyllic time or not, the hard work has paid off and the reclaimed bricks juxtaposed with the oak flooring create a pleasing flow and uniformity throughout the house. This lovely feature posed a few problems for the architects and Loader Monteith had to overcome the challenge of incorporating underfloor heating beneath the layer of thick brick by digging foundations of 90 cm. However, this solution allows the brick floor to act as a thermal store throughout the day while radiating a gentle warmth during the night.

In the vestibule the bricks take on a more significant aesthetic role, firmly rooting the property’s ‘Ceangal’, which means Gaelic for bond or link in its landscape. A display of bricks from the different quarries has been created and there’s also a full wall of Hamilton bricks at the entrance – Hamilton being the family’s surname. “To be honest, I was a little nervous about that feature, but now it’s finished it works well with the exterior and most people get the joke.”

The vestibule provokes opinion from both client and architect alike. “James and Lorna were quite keen about how they came in from this rural setting into their home. The vestibule is like a little ante chamber. There’s this tension in coming from the open landscape into this little chamber which embraces you. When the door is closed you don’t know what’s beyond and then it opens up to the light and the view right through the house. It’s floored with glazed dairy bricks, which are more practical and have a darker and smoother texture than those used elsewhere in the house.

James adds: “You come from the outside into this dark room, and you go from there into the main house and it’s all bright and airy again. It’s a bit like going into a tomb and coming out into the light. It’s a very dramatic effect. I liken it to a Resurrection Motif.”

Despite the pandemic, the house was completed in August 2021 and now that the family have had time to bed in, does James feel that Ceangal House delivers as expected? “The connection between the rooms and the roof divisions was definitely something the architects brought to the table that I hadn’t envisioned, and the courtyard space is something different that really works. This farm has been in Lorna’s family for generations, and I wanted this house to be comfortable but a stimulating place to live in, and Iain and Matt have achieved that.”

HIGH POINT

“I loved being able to go to the site every day and see the project develop. And I loved reviewing the architects’ initial ideas – it was really exciting and fun; it really got the imagination going.”