Extension to Rowan Cottage, Torridon
Wester Ross
Project Status
Complete
Project Sector
Residential
Client
Private Client
Contractor
Campbell and Macintosh Ltd
Set in the beautiful village of Torridon, Rowan Cottage was built around the late 1800s and - although it has been renovated and modestly extended in recent years - retains its charm.
The brief was to provide an additional bedroom, study area, living space, shower room and additional storage space. A key requirement was for the new living room to take advantage of the breathtaking views across the loch to the mountains beyond and it was thought that this could have been on the upper level of a more conventional, 1.5-storey extension however, due to the relatively modest scale of the cottage and the slightly elevated level of the garden ground to the side, a 1.5 storey extension was ruled out as it was felt that this would dominate the existing cottage, rather than complement or be subservient to it. The combination of the site levels, low ceilings and modestly sized reception rooms of the cottage meant that the only sensible route through to any new extension was through the kitchen.
The extension takes the form of two distinct blocks – a flat-roofed link block, containing storage, a shower room and a new entrance hall area, and a larger, pitched-roof block which contains a new bedroom/office and a new living room, with wood-burning stove and plenty of full-height glazing to take advantage of the spectacular setting. The larger block is a similar volume to the existing cottage but the combination of being gable-on to the street and being clad all in black corrugated steel not only provides a stark contrast between the old and the new but ensures that the extension, with its modest barn-like appearance, compliments the original building. There’s a real feeling of the building opening up as you transition from the smaller, cosy rooms of the cottage to the larger, light-filled spaces of the extension, which open out onto the new paved patio areas at the front of the house.
There was a lot of dry-stone walling in the garden that had to make way for the extension and all of that material has been reused to clad the new retaining walls and form paths and steps in the garden.
The new spaces are heated with an air-source heat pump, which also provides hot water to the whole house and the high levels of insulation and large areas of glazing ensure plenty of solar gain in the winter months.
