R. House

Rural Design

Project summary

Project: R. House
Project Type: Innovation
Year: 2012
Architect: Rural Design
Location: Isle of Skye
Context: Not Selected
Sector: Private
Cost per Sqm: n/a

R.HOUSE is a joint venture developed by Rural Design and James MacQueen Building Contractors as a spin off from Scotland’s 2010 Housing Expo in Inverness. Our motivation has been threefold.

• provide high quality designs that sit unobtrusively in the landscape
• reduce the cost and improve quality and energy efficiency through prefabrication
• create local jobs , and recycle the investment in buildings within the local economy, rather than importing houses from outwith the local economy

This is a new concept of localised prefabrication. Prefabricated in custom designed manufacturing facilities on the Isle of Skye, the precision assembly ensures that houses will have the highest quality finish and energy efficiency coupled with a significantly reduced construction time and therefore cost. This is in stark contrast to lengthy traditional on-site building methods normally used in the exposed periphery of the highlands which are often hampered by unpredictable weather conditions.

The designs are based on a traditional simplicity that is well suited to the Highland landscape and in particular hard to develop sites. The designs can fit discretely in-between existing buildings, unlocking opportunities for development in an area that has hitherto been affected by high land costs, preventing local people getting the opportunity to get their foot on the housing ladder.

Three overall plan types are available, with flexibility to incorporate a variety of orientations and finishes.

The houses are deliberately low-tech, and do not have a traditional central heating system. A combination of high levels of insulation, a wood burning stove and a whole house ventilation system result in running cost of less than £300 per year.

We believe that this approach will ensure that the houses do not need any alteration or additional technology in the future

Citation

The R House is a joint venture between builder and architect and is a good example of a new and innovative approach to housing, using local labour, materials and pre fabrication facilities on the Isle of Skye to stimulate the local economy.

Precision assembly ensures that the houses will have the highest quality of finish and a significantly reduced construction time, resulting in lower costs. But remaining at the very core of the proposal is the high quality design of three flexible house types fine tuned for the Highland landscape to provide elegant, affordable and highly efficient homes for their owners.

And implementation is well under way with two already built, 3 in process and projections for a further 18 over 3 years.