Perched on the edge of Britain, ‘Midden Studio’ is a spiky zinc-clad artist’s studio that sits on top of a Victorian midden wall (formerly the depository for dung from the nearby stables). The lovechild of rock and manor, the studio recalls simultaneously the vernacular agricultural buildings nearby, the granite rocks that punctuate the landscape, and the flourish of the ‘Scottish Baronial’ style. It intends to silently immerse itself in this ancient landscape, only revealing its surreal details on closer inspection: the cantilever which apparently floats over the burn, the uncanny twin gables and the echoed stone mouldings.
The building is a precise balancing act between the wind-braced landscape and a light-filled studio space. The interior is reduced to a bare minimum, entirely faced with replaceable birch ply; so that when the artist’s paint-splatters get too much the surface can be changed like wall paper. The studio sits next to Allt ant-Sionnaich, a fast flowing burn. A ‘soffit light’ allows the artist to peer down through the work surface at the flowing water beneath, and the building is filled with the sound of water all year round from the Atlantic waves, the flowing burn, and the fluctuating rain.
Structurally the studio has been designed to withstand the extreme conditions of the site, the raw zinc becoming well-tuned with the landscape over time. Half a fancy creature with mouldings and gables; half hard, freckled and elemental, the studio’s rusticated cladding echoes the language of the surrounding granite.
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