INVESTING IN QUALITY

Improving the Design of New Housing in the Scottish Countryside

Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges

64 The background to the interest in improved design of rural housing includes ecological concerns about improving energy efficiency and adopting more environmentally benign building practices; encouraging a revival of traditional techniques; and using local building materials. There is also enthusiasm for examining the scope for new and innovative approaches including the potential for self-build generally and low cost self-build in particular. One of the important themes is to try to provide more local economic value to house building in rural areas.

65 A balance has to be struck between technical possibilities, costs and what people are likely to find acceptable. Also local authorities will need to be satisfied about standards of design and construction under their planning and building control responsibilities.

Stone and Slate

66 The production and use of stone and slate has declined over the years. Old slate is often re-used, new slate is almost all imported and while a considerable number of stone quarries are still active, stone is increasingly seen as only suitable for specialised uses, including a small sector of the housing market towards the top end. Many of the well known local quarries, whose stone gave much towards the distinctiveness of local building, have closed, been filled in and, in some cases, the land used for new development. The skills and knowledge of working stone skilfully have been declining yet the application of these techniques could have many attractions in terms of durability, low maintenance costs and local employment.

67 One of the reasons why the use of stone in building has come to be expensive is because demand is focused on dressed stone. By-products, such as fine cuts and rubble, are in very low demand. A second reason is that the knowledge of how to use these materials has been in sharp decline since the 1940s. The price for finished dressed stone reflects its value as a single "prime" cut. Over the last 30 years it has gradually been sold up-market as a premium product leaving behind its waste as an overhead. The delivered price of the dressed stone has been driven up.

68 Stone and slate are also quintessential materials for recycling. It has been estimated that at least 500 tonnes of stone become available for re-use through demolition each day in Scotland. Only a small percentage of this is recycled for building. One of the advantages of allowing existing stone buildings, notably steadings, to be converted for housing is that their stone is re-used. Where additional stone is required suitable material is often obtainable from demolition elsewhere in the area. Planning authorities are becoming increasingly skilled at imposing appropriate planning conditions for these developments to ensure that as much on-site and other suitable stone is used as possible.

69 While some of the recent detailed work in using stone for housing has been well done there are instances where the techniques and workmanship are not exemplary. There seems to be problems of overspecification and a lack of appropriate skills in working the material.

70 Historic Scotland (HS) has been at the heart of concern about reviving traditional methods and has been supporting research and practical applications into materials and working methods. Among other things it recently established a Stone Liaison Group whose membership covers a wide spectrum of official and building/enterprise interest. The purposes of the Group are to investigate the existing and potential uses of stone in building. The hope is to bring about a resurgence of interest in the wise and cost effective use of the material. A consultants report is available. Likewise for slate, which is a form of stone, HS has two current research projects which are examining the potential for indigenous production and use. A major conference on using traditional materials more in construction was held in Scotland in 1997. HS's own concerns relate primarily to buildings of historic and architectural interest including development affecting the setting of category A listed buildings and properties listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. Nevertheless, the conclusions are likely to have wide applicability.

Wood

71 The use of homegrown wood in house building is sensible in terms of the principles of sustainability. It also has clear benefits for the local economy. As the Scottish Forest matures so the potential output of construction quality timber should increase. Modern techniques of primary treatment of the wood suggest it can be used for a much wider range of construction purposes than was envisaged some years ago. While most of the Scottish forest is exotic conifer there is also considerable interest in the potential uses for native Scottish timber. Highland Birchwoods is at the heart of that effort. It has support from, among others, the Forestry Commission, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and Scottish Natural Heritage.

72 This report is mostly concerned with the design and appearance of houses yet, of course, most wood used in construction is structural and, normally, unseen. There is a rapidly expanding interest in the use of hardwood timber as a material finish in both new housing and in refurbishment of existing housing stock. The market for hardwood flooring and window frames is currently growing rapidly and there is increasing interest in supplying a proportion of this from Scottish-grown hardwoods processed in Scotland. Wood as an external finish has mostly been used in the form of logs and then usually for chalets and holiday houses rather than permanent residences. In contrast many northern European countries, including some further north than Scotland, have a tradition of building family houses where wood is not only used for the structure and some internal finishes but also for external cladding. Some of these places where wood is used in this way have a climate which is both wetter and more extreme than Scotland. The west coast of Norway and the Faroe Islands are cases in point. The painted cladding gives a colour and vibrancy to the houses in these countries which is striking.

73 Timber cladding is relatively rare in Scotland. There are different opinions as to whether it was ever common but it is known that by the mid-19th century any wide-spread use of the technique had ended. Timber finish was out of fashion and, by and large, has remained so. Some local authority houses were finished in this way in the 1950s and the Forestry Commission used it in a number of the small settlements built for forestry workers. Since then it has been used only very occasionally for private houses.

74 There is no easy explanation why timber-cladding has not been widely used in Scotland. There are suggestions that there are special climatic factors; a combination of wind and rain, that suitable indigenous wood could not be obtained at a competitive price, that there are not the skilled workers to carry out the work, that building societies are unenthusiastic about the technique and insurance companies are also reluctant to cover its use. The evidence is anecdotal and some of it can be easily discounted; the special climatic factors for example. There may well be a case for a substantial enquiry into this issue.

Other Indigenous Materials

75 A number of people are interested in the potential use of other traditional materials including, for example, earth walls, green roofs, straw walls, thatch, lime mortar, sacrificial outer layer. A number of innovative projects have been carried out. The Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) provides a focus for interest in these themes.

76 It is setting up databases containing examples of sound practice and ecological building techniques and potential local sources of supply of benign building materials. There is a strong emphasis on increasing the local sourcing of materials and developing local skills, both aimed at increasing regional diversity. These concerns fit in well with the attention Scottish Natural Heritage is paying to the identification of Natural Heritage Zones and the classification it has made of areas of landscape character. Taken together a concept of bioregionalism is emerging which could have implications for building design. A considerable amount of work has already been done on this theme in other parts of the UK and other countries such as Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.

77 While this general area of interest is likely to be peripheral to the demands for housing for most people in the foreseeable future, there are several themes which deserve mention. Some of the ideas have a sound practical historical basis. For example earth walled houses were built in Scotland in the past and some are still standing today. The technique is increasingly being used in some other European countries, notably Sweden and France. Earth is of course the most readily available local source of benign building material.

78 The identification of benign building materials is a serious concern. Important research work has been carried out in recent years for The Scottish Office on the amount of embodied energy used in producing building products whilst Scottish Homes had a study done on the potential for using re-cycled materials in building. The consultants on stone for Historic Scotland looked into the "whole life" of using stone, not just the initial price but, among other things, the maintenance costs over time and the potential for re-use/recycling.

Low Cost Housing and Self-Build

79 Currently considerable interest is being shown in developing radical new 'sustainable' approaches to building houses, usually aiming to reduce construction time and cost while improving quality. Realising these aims in rural areas represents a particular challenge. Scottish Homes has supported, with Gordon District Council, a research and design project on affordable rural housing undertaken by the Robert Gordon University. The outcome of the project was a design concept which envisages a largely prefabricated timber structure and central service core allowing sufficient flexibility to accommodate a variety of user needs and, with its use of timer cladding, offering a re-interpretation of the vernacular tradition. This research and design concept is to be translated into a live project in which a small number of houses will be built on a site at Kincardine O'Neil as part of a larger project which has successfully attracted Rural Challenge funding.

80 Self build housing has been more significant in urban areas than in rural in recent years. Most of the developments have been in England. A variety of techniques have been employed and most have been variations of what is known as the Segal method after the architect Walter Segal who developed it in the 1960s and 70s. These buildings are based on a modular grid using standard sizes of material supplied by builders merchants. A dry form of construction is utilised by applying timber frames erected on simple foundations. Each building is made up of a series of timber frames, made on site, which take the structural load. They sit on pad foundations dug at existing ground levels. The resultant buildings sit above the ground and this obviates the need to level sites and destroy existing trees and shrubs. The building method enables good use to be made of steeply sloping and poor quality sites which may be less expensive than those normally available for building. It also allows buildings to be built around the landscape rather than being imposed on it. Furthermore, the dry method of constructions means that the buildings can be easily adapted and extended to suit changing circumstances. Significant cost savings are claimed over traditional methods.

Implications for Design Quality

81 The siting of experimental and innovative houses should correspond with approved planning policies for housing in the countryside. Some of the designs themselves will be unconventional and individualistic and perhaps controversial. While the intention across the country as a whole should be to improve the design quality of new mainstream housing some allowance might need to be made for permitting houses to be built which are sound in terms of sustainable principles yet challenge orthodox design principles. It is unlikely that many proposals will come forward in the near future but perhaps a degree of consistency of approach across the country is called for by planning authorities towards those which do arise.