Arbor Home / Brown & Brown Architects

Arbor Home / Brown & Brown Architects

Textual content description supplied by the architects. Brown & Brown has accomplished a brand new low-energy house in a conservation space of Aberdeen, Scotland, turning an open plot into a non-public, leafy retreat that foregrounds craftsmanship and design.

Designed for a mature couple relocating from a rural village into suburban Aberdeen, The Arbor Home is a recent, cantilevered house organized over two flooring with slim Larch batten cladding punctuated by expansive glazing. It’s nestled in a mild dip on the northern nook of the location to seize and harness southern daylight, masking the properties’ quantity beneath the busy sloping highway it neighbors. The Arbor Home has been delivered by Brown & Brown in partnership with specialist contractor, Coldwells Construct and craft workshop, Angus & Mack.

The Arbor Home replaces a dilapidated stone steading that prolonged the size of the tree-lined plot. Many of the cottage was fastidiously deconstructed and the masonry reused to craft a low, sweeping boundary wall at avenue stage, whereas one wall of the stone cottage is left in situ to type a contemporary colonnade lit by authentic window openings.

Brown & Brown organized these layers of salvaged masonry to steadiness the consumer’s need for privateness and keep the property’s authentic connection to the streetscape. The cloistered entry affords a ‘psychological airlock’, marking a transparent separation between the busy highway and enclosed gardens and residential.

Inside, The Arbor Home follows a logical flooring plan designed to adapt for unbiased residing later in life if required. A custom-fumed oak pivot door leads into a large hallway, the place occupants are drawn by means of the home by uninterrupted views to the gardens previous a utility room, rest room, and workplace, earlier than arriving in a double-height glazed atrium. This central eating area is lit by a whole wall of glazing, bringing the encompassing bushes into the house.

Regardless of the wall of nature overlooking the ethereal area, a sculptural Birch plywood spiral staircase attracts focus within the atrium. Designed by Brown & Brown in collaboration with native craftsman Angus & Mack, the stair was assembled over three weeks as timber treads have been individually lower and hand layered to type a easy, sinuous parabolic curve.

The rest of the bottom flooring is devoted to cooking and internet hosting, the place a {custom} chef’s kitchen marks the fulcrum level of the home. A wall of joinery clad in textural slate panels conceals a back-of-house kitchen with floor-to-ceiling storage. The smooth DK&I kitchen island incorporates a micro cement counter that cantilevers out from a blackened ceramic base, reaching towards a wall of floor-to-ceiling glazing.

Extending into the backyard to flank the interior courtyard, the lounge is given over to end-to-end, floor-to-ceiling glazing to drink within the greenery exterior. A timber board-marked concrete hearth anchors the light-weight area, balancing the ethereal inside with a way of solidity.

The second flooring of The Arbor Home hosts the sleeping quarters. The principle bed room with a nook glazed rest room sits on the japanese finish of the plan, whereas a second and third bed room and adjoining jack and jill rest room designed for the {couples}’ grown-up kids sit on the western aspect. The volumes of the primary flooring, colonnade, and storage are damaged up by a sedum roof, which blends the rooftops with the encompassing treelines and assists with drainage.

In step with the studio’s method to sustainability, Brown & Brown designed The Arbor Home to capitalize on pure supplies, heating, and air flow to scale back operational prices and carbon. The massive expanses of glazing attract and retailer heat daylight within the thermal mass, and open to passively cool the home in the summertime months. A floor supply warmth pump maintains a toasty indoor temperature within the Winter, supported by the closely insulated construction which has been sealed for airtightness. Air circulates with the assistance of a mechanical air flow warmth restoration system, leading to a really low vitality in-use score total.

Aware of the size of The Arbor Home and cautious to steadiness any heaviness, Brown & Brown has displayed a singular method to crafting structure that respects its place by means of the usage of a restrained palette of salvaged, native, and pure supplies. Slender Larch battens have been used internally and externally to create a constant language all through and can silver over time, naturally mixing with the stonework. A tough-wearing but easy micro cement flooring balances the textures of the plywood and slate joinery, providing a peaceful, clear inside, which the mature bushes past the glazed elevations improve because the seasons change.

The Arbor Home is a assured and resolved house for discerning shoppers, an exemplar of the standard of house {that a} devoted consumer, architect, and contractor partnership can obtain.