Contest winners produce blueprint for 21st century living in Scotland
Innovative designs for sustainable homes by architects from Inverness, Invergordon and Skye will be showcased at Scotland’s first housing fair.
Five Highland entrants are among 25 winners announced today of the home design competition for the ground-breaking Highland Housing Fair.
The winning entries from Inverness were submitted by Allan Holling of The Highland Council, Sam Hey of Keppie Design and David Somerville. Also successful were Trevor Black of Invergordon and Skye-based company Rural Design.
Other winners come from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Tillicoultry.
Their buildings will form a community of more than 50 homes near Inverness intended to create a model for future ecological housing design and development.
“I am absolutely delighted that there is a strong Highland presence among the winners of a competition that is so important to this area,” said Highland Councillor Ian Ross, who chairs the Fair’s steering group and chaired the competition judging panel.
“The tremendous response to the competition demonstrates a genuine enthusiasm to set new standards in sustainable housing design and construction.
“The quality and diversity of entries made selecting winners a very hard task for the panel. The successful entrants represent a real cross-section of the architectural profession in Scotland, from small town sole practitioners to members of large, award-winning city-based practices.
“I am confident that in the winning designs we have a blueprint for a hugely exciting community in the Highland capital that will inform and inspire future sustainable housing development much further afield.”
The first event of its kind in Scotland, the Highland Housing Fair is based on similar events in mainland Europe, particularly Finland, where they have been highly successful in stimulating quality and innovation in housing design. In creating an exemplar community, the aspiration of the Highland Housing Fair is to act as a catalyst prompting similar change in the Highlands and throughout Scotland.
The homes, offering a diversity of housing types, will be built on 27 plots on a 5.5 hectare site at Balvonie, on the southern outskirts of Inverness. More than a third of the units have been designated for affordable housing.
The Highland Housing Fair will culminate in the summer of 2009 with the completed homes forming the centre-piece of a month-long exhibition, expected to be attended by tens of thousands of visitors. At the end of the Fair the homes will be sold or rented at market value by their respective plot developers.
Launched in February, the housing design competition was run under the auspices of the Royal Incorporation of Architects of Scotland (RIAS). Judging, which was carried out on a plot-by-plot basis, was “blind,” meaning the panel did not know who had submitted the entries they considered.
Mary Wrenn, Chief Executive of the RIAS, said: “We were delighted to run the design competition for the Highland Housing Fair, the first of its kind in Scotland. The challenges set by the competition brief brought out the best in those who entered and the judges were extremely impressed by the high standard of designs submitted.
“The Highland Housing Fair is a very exciting venture, offering a new way to inspire excellence in sustainable, innovative housing design in Scotland. We greatly look forward to watching this inspirational development taking shape in Inverness.”
Specially commissioned commemorative chargers from Tain Pottery were being presented to competition winners at a ceremony in Inverness on Tuesday evening.
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Highland Housing Fair – house design competition winners
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