The site is located on the outskirts of a rural village in Angus, and the proposal is a new dwelling house designed around a Category B-Listed Doocot.

Voigt Architects were appointed in late 2022 to take a fresh look at the site. The revised brief was for a 3 bedroom house around the Doocot.

Externally the materials palette has been kept simple to contrast and compliment the existing Doocot. The Doocot will be carefully refurbished with stone to match existing, and a replaced slate roof. The new building is 1.5 storey with 2 main materials: white render and standing seam metal cladding (wall roof). The ground floor is expressed in render and the upper level having a standing seam metal wrapping up to form the walls and roof. This forms a visual separation for the 2 levels and the new standing seam element will provide a strong contrast to the existing Listed building.

The proposal involved wrapping the new house elements around the Doocot with a new circulation strip to separate the old and new elements. This would allow the new house to connect lightly to the Doocot, and expose the Stone walls on the internal of the new hallway. The new circulation strip would be single storey and a simple flat roof design, allowing a 1.5 storey building to ‘wrap’ around the North and East of the Doocot. This would also facilitate a new access/front door in between the Doocot and the new house.

The Ground floor contains a large open plan space, with a double height living space to allow a large glazed opening at the West opening out onto the patio area to the west. Another key feature is the beautiful open tread stairwell with glass balustrades.

Light and view were key considerations in the main hallway. Carefully placed windows/glazing allow you to look ‘right through’ the house to the landscape at the main entrance. At the west elevation this is also experienced where you can look through (and access outside to the patio) from the hallway to the west. At the upper floor bedroom 2 has been stepped back to allow a small viewing area visually connecting the living room with the upper floor, and also allowing a ‘through view’ from the stair to the west.

A small new opening was created in the Doocot for a new doorway from the main hall. The stone walls and slate roof will be repaired and replaced to create a completely refurbished new space to be a new office. To meet Building Control requirements it was fully insulated internally to allow the stonework to be exposed on the outside, and an illuminated glazed element makes a feature of the existing Doocot stalls. New insulation to the floor and roof further assisted to make this space a comfortable new office.

All the 3no. bedrooms are located on the upper floor including a large master suite with a balcony over the garage area to enjoy superb south views across the Angus Countryside and to the Tay.

The high quality new house is insulated to high levels and contains an Air Source Heat pump, Solar panels and a solar battery. This combination of energy creation and storage allows for exceptionally low running costs and also allows the client to store surplus energy for when it is needed