Glass Box Extension Morningside Edinburgh
One of the challenges with working within a city that is built predominantly of stone is finding a new contemporary way of designing that compliments the traditional building style.
I have no problem with building in stone, and have done a variety of projects, which I may show in later posts. But the fact of the matter is it is so prohibitively expensive, from both a materials and labour point of view. Unfortunately what many planners working at the council approving designs seem to prefer a kitsch halfway house of imitation stone as part of a traditional wall construction. This is also favoured by the volume house-builders. The end result is a dolls house architecture which has no sense of quality or permanence to it, despite it looking good on the architects drawings.
So this small cottage conversion in Morningside, Edinburgh shows how far you can go. Here I build a steel frame and clad it with solid Douglas fir to create a warm base on which to hang low E double glazed toughened glass units to provide a high level of insulation. Sliding screen also in Douglas fir is housed within a sophisticated sliding gear system, which I sourced in from Italy.
The stone base was also built as part of the project, from reclaimed stone.
A high-density polyurethane clear finish is painted over the timber to protect it. I think the orange Douglas fir, and sheets of glass give a lightweight feel contrasting well against the heavy muscular stone walls of the house.