The Ark, completed in 2024, is a new ecological timber-based, sustainable semi-detached house as part of a rural community for an eldery couple in Dalmally, Argyll, Scotland.
This new house sits adjacent to an elderly couple's previous dwelling, nestling the west gable, as a fully accessible building with all the current insulation and heating needs met. The previous dwelling has been retained in full, now housing the couples children in order to help care for them as they age.
The design very much accords with a rural Scottish vernacular, wrapped in locally sourced Douglas fir cladding that will weather to a natural silver over time. The project was driven by a design to produce a warm, light, comfortable internal architecture appropriate to the climate. Similarly, soft thresholds with the wider outdoors, the use of local, low-carbon materials, primarily timber, and careful attention to sizing and proportion of windows and the roof overhangs play a large part creating an architecture that is climate conscious, inviting and embracive of a little bit of fun; the pop of yellow introduced by the windows being an obvious example.
The use of wood-wool and a wet lime-hemp plaster in the interior lends a kind acoustic quality, good internal air condition and maintains the breathability of the fabric.
As an ecological new build house, the Ark represents a response to the requirement to create close-knit and sustainable rural communities in a part of Scotland that has been depopulated for a long time, something Croftworks is passionate about.
