The holiday home of the future?

Two Perthshire entrepreneurs are raising money to realise their dream of sustainable, off-grid holiday homes set amid glorious scenery. Jack McKeown finds out more

Alow-slung, wooden building on the edge of a loch or river, its wooden sides blending with the scenery, solar panels glinting from the rooftop. This is the Kranôg. Inspired by crannogs, the Iron Age Scottish dwellings, it’s the brainchild of Andrew Donaldson and Fiona van Aswegen.

It brings together existing off-grid technologies in a well designed luxury cabin that uses 100% renewable energy and rainwater – making zero harmful emissions to the environment.

The design is modular and doesn’t need intensive foundations. As such, it can be located anywhere using farm machinery – no cranes are necessary.

It also falls within mobile home planning regulations, making it much easier to site in rural communities.

Andrew and Fiona, who run Comrie Croft outdoor centre, have secured some backing and are crowd-funding £70,000 of the £150,000 needed to build a prototype Kranôg.

It is to be designed and built in Scotland to a standard that will give it a lifespan of at least 80 years. Design features include swathes of glass, decking made from recycled plastic, a woodfired hot tub.

The pair are especially proud of the toilet design – it looks and flushes like an ordinary loo but the pipes lead to a box where bacteria dispose of waste harmlessly.

Andrew said: “I’d like to think that the Kranôg might mark the beginning of the end for poorly-insulated, highdepreciation static caravans that blight our landscape and, in many cases, have a shelf life of only 10-15 years.

“Hopefully, people out there will agree that the Kranôg is an idea whose time has come and get involved in funding and testing out the prototype. So far, the signs from the crowd-funding page are very

Andrew Donaldson and Fiona van Aswegen are crowd-funding in an effort to raise the money needed to build a prototype Kranog.