Drummond House / The Shed

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Drummond House / The Shed

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LJRH

The exceptionally raw and beautiful agricultural landscape of Meigle, Perthshire is the setting for a purpose built home for Mr & Mrs Peter Drummond.Designed by Graeme Hutton and David Jameson of the University of Dundee and LJRH Chartered Architects the new building is designed to extend a preoccupation with 'Place, Programme and Presence' as a guiding narrative in the creation of new Scottish work. Architects rarely discuss or readily acknowledge their initial visceral responses to a 'Place' in the design process, yet the architects believe recognising and interpreting an appropriate response to be key in the creation of buildings which resonate with their surroundings.In this instance the existing landscape was so commanding, of such scale, that primacy of thought was given to the formal and material quality of the finished object. The architects wished neither to ?suburbanise? nor ?modernize? the setting, rather to extend and amplify its inherent qualities.Existing on the site were two simply formed storage barns. Buildings of this type are an accepted ?deeply known? typology and it is the manipulation of this typology which forms the key conceptual idea for the Drummond House, or ?Shed? as the clients have christened it. The house presents as a composition of two ?strangely familiar? objects - a one and a half storey barn and linked garage with workshop/studio above. The form of these has been inflected by both the ?place? ? the ridge of the main house climbs toward the more dominant aspect ? and ?programme? ? the ridge of the garage/workshop/studio climbs toward Alyth, the birthplace of Mrs Drummond who will use the space as a sewing room. The resulting distortion both creates a tension and can be read as a metaphor for the deceptively undulous landscape surrounding the dwelling.Internally the ground floor is a carefully articulated open plan which allows variation in volume and a degree of segregation between functions. All areas at ground level are fully accessible and inhabitable by disabled persons should that need arise. Floor to ceiling glazing engages the changing landscape directly with the living spaces. This is in stark contrast to the ?attic rooms? which are by contrast deliberately introvert, private and more contained.It is the surrounding landscape which prescribes an earthen palette of brick to harmonise with the tilled soil. The use of a steel frame allows a significant cantilever at the south west corner to both emphasize the presence of the zinc roof and, with no boundary features of any kind, capture an external sitting space between the interior and the landscape.Sadly David Jameson died last year before the project was complete but the design marks a fitting tribute thanks to Mr & Mrs Drummond who, from the outset, recognised the importance of architecture and have self-built 'The Shed' in accordance with the architects? ideas.