Treehouses are having a moment just now. British design firm Blue Forest, who specialise in tree house design, was commissioned by a family to create a luxury treehouse for them and their guests. The real stroke of genius though was to create two adjoined houses; one for children which includes a plasma screen, games console and 80 yard zip wire to reach the assault course, and one for adults featuring a
Back in 2012 we ran a feature about proposals to turns the highland retreat shared by Coco Chanel and Hugh Grosvenor, the 2nd Duke of Westminster into a chic boutique hotel: those plans have now been approved by Highland Council. Empty for more than 60 years, Rosehall Estate near Lairg in Sutherland, will now be fully restored under a project to be managed by Bell Ingram Design. The 20 room Georgian mansion
Designing a new building for the Glasgow School of Art to sit alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece must have felt like a huge responsibility for american architect Steven Holl. The Reid Building, named after Dame Seona Reid, who stood down as director of GSA last summer, provides a new home for the design school.
These 1960s plans for Irvine ‘New Town’ show the architects had the best intentions even if the results attracted controversy. Irvine was officially designated as a ‘New Town’ in 1966, the fifth and last to be developed in Scotland and the only ‘new town’ to be located on the coast. The other Scottish ‘New Towns’ were East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld and Livingston. Plans are afoot for Irvine. There is the
Balintore Castle near Kirriemuir in Angus – a little fixer upper taken on by David Johnston. The Baronial style castle is A listed and was designed by architect William Burn. Built in 1860, it was abondoned to dry rot in the 1960s and lay empty until 2007. Now Johnston is painstakingly returning the building to its former Victorian splendour and detailing the process in his fascinating blog. David explains his motivation for embarking
Did Sir Norman Foster get as much pleasure from designing The Gherkin as architect Robin Baker did from designing Birks Cinema in Aberfeldy? It seems unlikely. ‘It’s been such a privilege to work on this project and now that it’s finished it will feel like a bereavement. For the past 18 months it’s been my life.’ But Robin, who lives in Aberfeldy, will soon be able to watch movies at