Building an environmentally friendly home in a village with an ecological
footprint that is half the UK national average might be a daunting to many
self-builders, but not for Greig and Kathleen Munro, the Findhorn-based
architects otherwise known as Affordable TM. They designed a house for their
parents, Don and Ena, in the Findhorn Community — and it extended their
green credentials even further.
The Findhorn Foundation, near Forres, in Morayshire, is one of the world’s
largest holistic communities. It started life in 1962 as more of an
“alternative” caravan park. It has grown considerably and evolved into one
of the UK’s most progressive eco villages.
Central to the community of 400 are about 55 ecologically benign buildings,
serviced by four wind turbines and a biological Living Machine
sewage-treatment system. This heady eco-mix has had a new edition — Munro
House.
Don and Ena, both retired, took the leap of faith to embark on their first
self-build project after Don’s 70th birthday. “We had been coming to
Findhorn for about 15 years to visit Greig, Kathleen and our two
grandchildren,” he says.
“We even had a holiday cottage in the area. As we spent more time up here and
got to know some of the people, we became more comfortable. So when a plot
of land became available, we made the big decision to buy it and build a new
house,” he says.
Don and Ena wanted to downsize from their four-bedroom home to a two-bedroom
house. A big kitchen was also important to them. In the overall design,
Greig and Kathleen had a dual duty — to reflect their parents’ wishes and
meet the requirements of the Findhorn Foundation.
“There are plot-specific rules set by the foundation,” says Greig. “When a
plot is bought, owners must agree to a series of environmental standards and
plot dimensions. When it comes to planning, there is effectively a double tier
whereby approval has to be sought from Findhorn’s Park Planning Group before
getting consent from the local authority.
“If I were designing a new house in a different location, I probably wouldn’t
have used this design. We created it to fit the site,” he says. “Plots at
the foundation are small because they are surrounded by communal gardens. On
one side of the plot is a two-storey house, on the other is a small
grass-roofed one and a half-storey house, so we designed our house to
connect the buildings.”
Greig and Kathleen set out to create their parents’ design vision. “They have
owned 20 houses,” says Greig. “We’ve tried to combine the best aspects of
each one. It’s a bit of a pick-and-mix exercise.
We also wanted something that had Scottish character. I think this is
reflected in the gables and steeper roof pitch, as well as the proportion of
the windows — there isn’t too much glazing. My parents have never lived in
an open-plan house, built a house from scratch or created an eco-house, so
it was quite an adventure for them.”
Don agrees that the project was quite a journey. “In our previous homes, we’ve
knocked down walls and built extensions,” he says. “We’re experienced in
doing up properties. We feel like we invented it. But this is our first (and
last) newbuild and the culmination of the property ladder for us. The advice
from everybody is to just enjoy this new home.
“When the house was being built, which took about six months, we lived
in our little cottage in the village. I was heavily involved with the
construction process. I wasn’t the supervisor, but you might have considered
me to be adviser to the supervisor. Overall, it was a joint effort — and
we’re all still talking.”
The result of this two-generation Munro collaboration is a bespoke two-storey,
two-bedroom home built on an insulated timber-stud frame. In addition to the
steep clay-tiled roof, the house is characterised by Scottish larch
cladding, which was found locally.
The front, which is south-facing, has a compact horizontally clad wing with a
sun-trap deck. A vertically clad gable creates a sense of height. The
copper-flashing finishes of the Velux glazing and the patinated drainpipes
and guttering blend harmoniously with the blue-grey tint of the weathering
larch, as well as the blue hues of the balcony and decking canopy.
Inside, the ground floor has a spacious open-plan kitchen leading to a
ground-floor sitting area. This extends seamlessly onto a large deck.
Completing the ground floor, there is a bedroom with an en-suite bathroom
that can be reached from the bedroom or hall. A porch has been added at the
north entrance of the house.
“There is so much sand from the beaches around here, so nearly all the
houses have a shoes-off policy,” says Greig. “The porch is like a room in
itself, and because people drop in quite a lot, it has been designed to be
big and light enough to chat with a neighbour without necessarily having to
invite them into the body of the house. It means you can control your own
space.”
A blockwork construction at the centre of the house contains the chimney from
the ground-floor stove. Its central position means that it creates an
effective radiating heating system that spreads warmth throughout the
building. In addition, there are no doors, which allows the air to
circulate.
The upper level is reached by a staircase with hand-crafted, bespoke, ash
balustrade details, made by Nigel Hilton, a local craftsman. At the top of
the stairs is an impressive main living area with south-facing sea views and
the master bedroom, which has an en-suite bathroom.
“The central curved wall is Kathleen’s idea,” says Greig. “She did most
of the design and layout, while I did the site work and management. That’s
usually the way we split it. Maybe it’s a gender difference; she’s a lot better
at listening to what people want than I am, but I’m a lot better at getting
things done.”
The hard-wearing elm floors were provided by Nor-Build, a timber merchant
based near Forres, and have been crafted from a single wind-blown tree.
“I was looking for what was available locally and made sure we could
accommodate it. For example, the timber members are C16 grade, which is the
only structural timber you can get in Scotland, so we went out of our way to
source the timber locally,” says Greig.
The house has further important eco-credentials, including Thermafleece
sheep’s wool insulation, which is an efficient, natural and robust
insulating material, according to Greig. Low-toxic silicate-based paints
have been used on the interior walls and they also act as an internal vapour
check to prevent moisture going into the fabric of the building too quickly.
Solar-heat collector panels are fitted in the roof and a solar-calorifier
tank, which acts as a heat exchanger, is in the ground-floor utility room.
The panels heat the water — this runs the thermostatically controlled central
heating system — any electricity required to top it up comes from the
community’s wind turbines. For an extra boost in the winter, there is the
wood-burning stove in the ground-floor sitting room and a small gas fire in
the main living area upstairs.
The Munros achieved their eco-exemplar home on a cost-effective budget of
about £162,000. Don and Ena are more than enamoured of the result.
“It all works really well,” says Don. “And it’s so easy to move from inside
the house to the areas outside. In the summer, we spend so much time on the
porch having coffee or lunch.
“In the evenings we open the balcony doors upstairs to watch the beautiful
sunsets. In fact, the whole living area is wonderful and Zelda, the cat,
thinks she’s in paradise.”
Affordable TM, www.affordabletm.co.uk
