Building new or altering old?
Arran is a precious environment with a history going back to Neolithic times. Down the ages, the inhabitants have built simply and directly using materials to hand. This does not happen anywhere now and the impact of modern methods of building and design are threatening to turn a unique place into yet another sea of speculative bungalows.
There have always been certain essential principles in Scottish rural building. Much of what you see today in the older parts of the country resulted from the application of understood and shared principles of design, which respected local traditions as closely as they matched people's needs. Needs have changed, superficially at least, although the requirement for robust shelter and well built habitation is as present now as ever. The technology, too, has altered and it is no longer practical to build in stone or to have roofs constructed by hand, except at high cost. Hence the development of the 'kit' house built from factory made components and the almost universal use of bricks and blocks as structural materials. But a changing technology need not imply deteriorating standards and it is still vital to observe the fundamental principles of good design. The following notes identify the main points to watch out for when building or altering your new home.
LISTED BUILDINGS AND CONSERVATION AREAS
A number of villages on the Island have parts of their more picturesque centres designated as Conservation Areas and both within these and elsewhere especially noteworthy buildings have been Listed. Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings are available for inspection in North Ayrshire Council's local office in Shore Road, Lamlash. Building in Conservation Areas must respect certain higher standards of design and conform with the surrounding vernacular where possible. Listed Buildings can be altered only within certain approved limits. Special consent is required if you intend to build or alter within either of these categories.
THE SITE
Weather on Arran is characterised by long winters (November to April), high rainfall and strong winds. It can also be idyllically calm and warm. The coldest winds are from the north and wettest from the west, but, owing to areas of high ground, there are many microclimates creating exceptions to these rules. The Shiskine Valley, for example, can suffer from strong winds blowing down from the top of the String road, as can Lochranza from Glen Chalmadale. It makes sense, therefore, to choose a site huddled against the hill where possible, offering maximal protection from the north and west. Examples of how this principle was observed in the past can be seen in Glencloy, from Douglas Place to Upper Glencloy and at Auchengallon near Machrie.
Capturing views will be uppermost in many people's minds when looking for a site. Bear in mind that, on the east coast especially in winter, the sun disappears behind the mountains early in the afternoon, although there are fine views towards the Ayrshire coast and to the north-west. The west coast has magnificent sunsets and very good light, but the south-west corner of the Island is exposed to the full force of winter gales.
Privacy was generally unknown to folk of earlier generations. Most islanders lived in clachans, small settlements of informally arranged houses, where families knew each other and shared the daily toil. The suburban lifestyle is alien to Arran, as it was to Scotland generally until relatively recently. It is not appropriate, therefore, to visualise a site from the point of view mainly of its 'defensibility', with high walls, hedges, gates and security lighting. Openness and informality are more in keeping with island ways.
Access needs have changed since the days of the rough track and horse and cart. Most people coming to Arran have cars and are accustomed to instant access to their vehicles and local facilities. But this, too, is an urban aspiration better left behind on the mainland. Traditionally, local people are prepared to walk short distances, even in bad weather, to tolerate un-made roads and to dispense with garages - unless these serve the useful purposes of workshops or barns. The insistence on metalled roads with their tarred surfaces and kerbed edges, and on street lighting, detracts from the natural beauty of the place.
Buildings on Arran and throughout the west coast generally were once organised round the working settlement. Since there were no planning regulations in those days, houses were built where they were needed and wanted, or approved, by neighbours and landowners. Those days have long since gone. Now houses must be built within village envelopes defined by the Local Plan and tight design control is exercised by North Ayrshire Council Planners.
Inevitably with an urban authority, such irrelevancies as building lines are still imposed leading to the kind of 'lined up' relationships between buildings, which are typical, not of a thinly populated island, but of a suburban street Every effort should be made therefore through reasoning with the planning authorities to vary these relationships, for example by setting buildings back or by arranging them end-on to the access road The aim should be to create meaningful groupings in which each building acknowledges its neighbours and forms part of a small community of habitation.One of the reasons for the closer proximity of buildings required by the planners is ease of servicing. Local authorities and the utility companies like to maintain economical access for refuse removal minimal cost of drainage and water supply and shortest possible lines for wired services such as electricity and telecommunications On Arran the latter two services are mainly overground. Water supply has recently been reorganised in the principal settlements and drainage is by private septic tanks or, relatively unusually, by main sewers.
BUILDING MATERIALS
Traditionally, materials used for the construction of dwellings were found locally. Nowadays it is tempting to think in terms of urban materials such as brick and steel, but, apart from the fact that such materials are non-traditional, there is the cost of transporting them to the Island. For that reason alone the timber framed house has become popular, since an entire superstructure can be packed onto one or two lorries, Unfortunately, with the timber 'kit' has come the kit manufacturer's standard design service, which has resulted in large numbers of low cost, simple to construct, bungalows scattered along the length and breadth of Scotland. Their style has imposed on rural and urban environments a characterless uniformity where there should be varied responses to differing local conditions There is no reason why a kit house can not be well designed and appropriate to the Arran landscape.
APPEARANCE
External appearance is a vital element of Scottish building. Designs, although varying by region, were defined strictly by the relationships between the height of a wall and its length, by roof pitch, by the location and size of windows, by the position of major features such as dormers and by detailing. Although materials and building techniques have changed, there is no technical or economic reason why such relationships should not be followed today.
One of the most significant features of Scottish rural housing is the roof pitch. Originally in the days of the black house, roof pitches were low, for reasons of cost and owing to the limited availability of suitable materials. By the seventeenth century, however, roof pitches were standardised at between 40 and 50 degrees. The early development of the roof room, often used for storage, led to this change and the weather, allied to the availability of new roof finishes such as slate, made a steeper pitch desirable It was only with the arrival of the manufactured trussed rafter roof in the 1960s, soon followed by timber-framed kit construction, that builders sought to save money by reducing roof pitches to the 30 degrees seen widely throughout Scotland today.
The effect of this on the proportions of the building was disastrous, especially when combined with out of scale 'picture' windows randomly positioned on the elevations. Although the roof pitch was sometimes restored to the minimum 40 degrees with the arrival of the 'chalet bungalow' (where a raised wallhead permits better shaped rooms to be incorporated in the roof behind large longitudinal dormers), this solution failed also by bestowing a suburban aesthetic on simple buildings.The location and proportioning of openings in the facades is as important as the relationship between walls and roof. Windows once were set in walls centrally to the rooms on the entrance front, with front door positioned symmetrically between them. Sometimes there were windows in the gable ends, but rarely in the rear facades. Windows were normally timber sash and case, ornamented with cement 'bands' approximately 120-150 mm wide and painted in a variety of colours (see below). Dormers varied in their detailing quite markedly from region to region and even locally: on Arran, the Lochranza dormer differs from the Corrie one by being half-hexagonal in plan. Dormers normally were placed centrally over the ground floor windows and the windows themselves were proportioned and detailed to match. Outshot and byre windows were simpler but still maintained good proportions despite their necessarily random locations.
Today it is still possible to design houses which respect these principles. When in the hands of a skilled architect, even modern houses can interpret these visual references without being overtly 'retro'. And the ready availability of high quality plastics and timber windows, which can be constructed to any shape thanks to modern technology, leaves no room for the ill-proportioned mess.
Finally it is worth mentioning the ubiquitous roof window. Roof windows were a common feature of Scottish houses from early times and were usually made from cast iron. These have been replaced by the Velux and similar windows, which are acceptable in most circumstances. Such windows are useful for lighting inaccessible rooms or where a dormer would upset the balance of the elevation.
DETAILING
The detailing of houses on Arran, as elsewhere, is important. Detailing includes such features as skews, dormer peaks, finials, banding and exposed under building.
Skews, the sloping upstands forming the copings on gables, with their supporting skew-putts at the eaves, were common from the time when slates replaced thatch. Their purpose was to protect the slate verges from gales, which can riffle off the end slates from a poorly fixed roof. Unfortunately skews were constructed simply by extending the gable wall above the line of the roof, thereby creating a line of weakness down the inner roof edge through which water could enter and eventually rot the end rafters. Skews are still constructed in restored or 'retro' conversions, in which case they must be properly weatherproofed.
The banding of windows is an important feature of the Scottish vernacular house. Bands are strips of smooth or painted cement, about 120-150 mm wide, running round the window opening, including the cills and reveals. Usually nowadays they are coloured black, but in more adventurous times a variety of bright colours was used, the most traditional being deep red or burgundy, dark green and blue. The windows themselves were often picked out in similar colours, the whole effect being delightful. Good examples of banding and traditional window treatment may be seen around the island and in particular at the Arran Heritage Museum.
Underbuilding is that part of the wall which lies below ground floor level. In Scotland, it was not usual, owing to the frequency of sloping sites, to have solid concrete ground floors. Instead floors were constructed by spanning timber joists onto the walls, finishes being boarded and the ground beneath left simply as beaten earth. Rising damp was inhibited by the use of moisture resistant stones such as granite for the under building, with the more absorbent stones such as sandstone reserved for the superstructure. Damp proof courses and central heating were unknown, the warm interiors of the houses being relied upon to dry the walls as the damp rose.
Other details worth remarking on are the treatment of ridges - usually of zinc fastened to the ridge plate with clips - of entrance doors - vertical tongued and grooved boarding - and decorative finishes. These were commonly of lime wash, sometimes coloured to provide variety.
LANDSCAPING
The landscaping of houses was traditionally simple, consisting of an entrance path and lawns, with part of the latter, usually behind or to one side of the house, reserved for the drying green. Boundaries were marked, if at all, by roughly coursed sandstone or granite walls finished with rounded stone copes or by wrought iron railed fences. The intention was not just to prettify the house, but to keep sheep and deer at bay, The essence of all boundaries in a rural setting is simplicity. Elaborate walls and timber fences are suburban features and out of place. In most settings, white or attractively marked stones were used to define paths, whilst the paths themselves were of gravel or small pebbles.
Open spaces round buildings were often communal. This was true especially of front gardens, which became simple shared greens bounded by low walls or fences. An Arran example of this can be seen at Douglas Place in Brodick. This quite casual use of the open space owed more to good neighbourliness than to the visual idea of the building in its setting. The lesson for the new home builder is to look outwards towards one's neighbours rather than inwards towards one's private domain.BACK HOUSES
A particular feature of many houses on Arran is their dependent back house. This is a small cottage, built to the rear or side of the main house, to which the owners would retreat during the summer letting season. Once the Island ceased to be self-sustaining, it became necessary for islanders to supplement their incomes in any way they could and letting out to holiday makers was an obvious stratagem. Back houses are often charming and can be usable and useful even today. Their features should be valued as much as those of the principal dwelling, especially as many are listed in their own right or are situated within Conservation Areas.
SUMMARY
The above notes can be no more than a brief resume of the principles to be observed when designing new or altering existing houses on Arran. Many of us have come to the Island from suburban or urban areas which are entirely different from a Scottish island, bringing with us attitudes and expectations from the other life. Yet Arran has a history alien to that of urban areas. It is also a matchless environment which, like all rural places in an overcrowded country, is increasingly under threat. It is up to all of us, therefore, to appreciate that and to do what we can to keep the best and most practical of local traditions whilst attempting to maintain, or at least interpret sensitively, that which our ancestors have handed down to us. It is in this spirit that the Arran Civic Trust has prepared these notes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Naismith R. J. : 'Buildings of the Scottish Countryside'; 1989
Walker F. A. : 'Buildings of Scotland'; Argyll and Bute; Yale University Press
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Posted by Chris Attkins on 07/03/2006, viewed 4849 times | Permalink
