GRANDEST DESIGN
Off-the-grid lochside home named House of the Year
BUILT miles from the nearest town with no mains power or running water, it’s fair to say it was always intended as a project like no other.
But now a solar-powered home in the Highlands has proved to be a leading light after being crowned House of the Year.
The off-grid Lochside House was constructed on the banks of a sea loch in Ross-shire by its artist owner.
It boasts waterfront views, two guest bedrooms, a living room and master bedroom, as well as a kitchen, a dining room and a bathroom.
The designer, only known as Michelle, said she worked with local craftsmen in Inverness to build the property over two years, using nearby materials including Scottish larch for cladding and local rocks to make dry stone walls.
And as well as relying on solar panels and a wood burner for heat, the home draws its water from a bore hole. Due to its isolated location every part of the home was designed to fit on a trailer in order to carry it up the narrow road leading to the front door before being put together.
The house was granted the accolade yesterday by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) and beat eight other competitors.
Michelle said: ‘I tend to be drawn to empty barren places. I just like that sense of freedom that you get. It is a different lifestyle in a place like this, it’s physically hard work.’
Takero Shimazaki Architects, which chaired the 2018 Riba House of the Year jury, said the home had an ‘overwhelming sense of comfort, warmth and homeliness’.
The house was designed by Cambridge-based architect Haysom Ward Miller.
Architect Tom Miller said: ‘From the start it was clear this was a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to build something special and hopefully we have done that. The biggest challenge was getting all the materials up a single track road.’
In the Grand Designs programme last week, presenter Kevin McCloud and his team explored the short-listed properties.
Mr McCloud said Lochside House is ‘the kind of architecture we can all easily learn from and it’s a way of building that we, in Britain, are getting really very good at’.