Newbigging House, Angus
The project is a new 3 bedroom house created around a B-Listed Doocot in Newbigging.
The design separates the new house with the Doocot via a new single storey circulation strip that wraps around the existing building. This allows the new house to connect lightly to the Doocot with glass at each side, and expose the restored Stone walls on the internal of the new house space. Connections were key and everywhere in the house there are views through to the countryside, and also to other parts of the house.
The Ground floor contains a large open plan space, with a double height living space to allow a large glazed opening at the West opening out onto the patio area to the west. Another key feature is the beautiful open tread stairwell with glass balustrades.
All 3no. bedrooms are upstairs, including a large master suite with a covered balcony to enjoy superb south views across the Angus Countryside and to the Tay.
The Doocot was carefully restored into a new office space with a small opening created from the main hall. The stone walls and slate roof have been repaired. A feature was the retention of the Doocot Stalls via an illuminated feature wall.
The main sustainability strategies were conservation, sensitive restoration, careful addition and high spec modern new elements.
The key design consideration was how to retain and restore the redundant existing Doocot whilst creating a new house to around it. The Doocot was carefully refurbished with stone to match existing, and a replaced slate roof. To meet Building Control requirements it was fully insulated internally to allow the stonework to be exposed on the outside, and an illuminated glazed element makes a feature of the existing Doocot stalls. New insulation to the floor and roof further assisted to make this space a comfortable new office.
The high quality new house is insulated to high levels and contains an Air Source Heat pump, Solar panels and a solar battery. This combination of energy creation and storage allows for exceptionally low running costs and also allows the client to store surplus energy for when it is needed (which came in very useful at the recent storm/power cuts).
Large areas of glazing allow natural light into all the new spaces reducing the need for artificial lighting. The 1.5 storey form/footprint is deliberately simple with the 3bedrooms stacked on top of the living/garage spaces.
