Category 1: New Homes
New homes built by a builder who constructs fewer than 50 new homes a year
Project: Environmentally friendly, octagonal “tree house”
Client: Donald and Susie Hutchison
Sky’s the limit!
Donald and Susie Hutchison’s vision was to create an octagonal tree house, within an 18th century orchard in the garden of their beautiful listed Argyll home that looked as if it had always been there. They contacted Angus Reid-Evans, of Spey Building & Joinery Ltd and explained their dream.
The result of many months of planning and preparation, painstaking recycling and careful construction is an outstanding tree-top home that combines both technical excellence and fine traditional craftsmanship, delivered on time and on budget.
This was no easy task! To create the owners’ vision of a home floating in mid air, builder Angus created an ingenious system of concrete-filled corrugated drainpipes to help compensate for the extreme slope, which has a difference of over one metre from one side to the other.
The octagonal tree house is built on and around a real oak tree, which supports the stunning open-plan kitchen, living space and separate bathroom and bedroom on the ground floor. The tree forms the centrepost for a beautiful oak spiral staircase leading to the gallery area.
The balustrade spindles, skirting boards and door frames were all made from painstakingly selected irregular pieces of oak, described as ‘waney edged’, that were carefully matched.
The aim was to make the project as environmentally–friendly as possible while, in appearance, mirroring the octagonal walled garden and the black and white exterior of the main house. The building’s low carbon construction utilises locally grown Scottish Douglas Fir and is insulated with Warmcell (shredded paper). Heat is provided using a wood burning stove. The exterior walls are “breathable” structural wood particle-board, covered in traditional lime render that gives the appearance of masonry, reflecting the appearance of the main house, and allows moisture to transfer from the inside out.
To make the complicated octagonal roof structure, Angus and his team worked with the Master Slater recycling and then carefully matching pieces of local Ballachulish slate.
“Angus brought fantastic craftsmanship to the build, His team are first class joiners, but they learnt slating skills from the Master Slater,” said Donald Hutchison. Angus not only managed the construction of this unusual project, but also handled all the complicated planning and building control issues on behalf of the client.
One of the few real problems the team encountered were the hungry west coast midges – but even they did not deter Spey Building & Joinery Ltd’s ability to complete this fantastic project!
As client Donald sums up: “Angus and his team were absolutely excellent. The quality of work, his attitude, the rapport between us - he worked at everything, and everything was done beautifully. It was a most rewarding period and, while delighted with our tree house, we were terribly sad when it was all over.”
