Malboro house was a student project at university and elements of the design has had a strong influence over the Home at Holmhead project.

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The project brief was to design a house for a small family with one person who works from home. Therefore, the house was to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the growing family, but relatively modest in size.

 

The house was to be separated by both, private accommodation and space for the homeworking person (tapestry weaver). This included: a studio/ showroom, workspace and changing/waiting- rooms.

 

The site given was located in Granton, Edinburgh, just off the seashore. It was south facing, with very steep embankments to the North which would require a retaining wall.

The proposed design forms a courtyard shape with an extended wing to the west, this was to be used as the tapestry studio and have separate access for public. With the site’s steep slope to the North, rooms that did not require daylight were positioned to the rear of the ground floor.

A rear access/BBQ area could then be placed directly above, lending itself to the site’s natural topography. The open plan design has large areas of glazing to the South for good daylighting and views towards the sea. The roof is key part of the design, it was designed to look like scales of a reptile, which are formed using a series of panels of different heights and sizes