Although many aspire to live in a home designed by an architect, few can
afford to do so. Some savvy housebuyers, however, have discovered that a
search of Scotland's former local-authority stock, throws up the occasional
unexpected gem.
Take Adrian Welch and his wife Isabelle Lomholt. He is a practising architect,
and it was his knowledge of architectural history that brought him to
Abbot's View in Haddington, East Lothian, a 1960s council estate that won
awards in its day for its architectural merits.
Approaching from the south, along the A1 dual carriageway, there's not much to
stir the blood. It appears to be nothing more than an unprepossessing early
1960s council-house estate. Any appeal in the jagged line of its roofs is
dulled down by by the monochrome render.
But a stroll around the estate begins to warrant a dramatic reassessment.
First, there's the complete lack of graffiti. Then, you spot touches of
wooden panelling by the windows. You quickly notice how few gutters and
downpipes are on view, and how the buildings are set at interesting angles
and dislocated positions to each other.
Careful thought was clearly invested in the design of this estate, home to
about 200 households. The steps around the footpaths may be a little steep
for the more elderly residents, but they incorporate ramps that would have
suited the prams. Essentially comprising two large cul-de-sacs, it's an
estate for pedestrians.
On the ground floor of Welch and Lomholt's four-bedroom home, No 97, the
layout is half open-plan, half cellular, with a stepped floor space that
connects the lounge with the dining room and kitchen. “There's a hint of
there being three separate rooms. The semidivisions create a subtle shift,
from area to area,” says Welch.
“I think it has really informed the way we live, because nobody is shut away,
even when you are cooking,” adds Lomholt. “We are always talking, doing
things together. It is going to be so sad when we leave.”
Ian Arnott, the principal architect of Abbot's View, says: “We tried and
largely succeeded to make sure that the living room of every property - and
also the back garden - faced either southeast or southwest, to capture the
sun.” It's a guiding concept that is also transparent in the impressive
light-catching double-height entrance hall at Welch and Lomholt's house.
“We also decided to locate the bathroom in between the upper floor, where the
bedrooms are, and the ground floor,” Arnott adds. “That way, it makes for a
short journey from wherever you are in the house. As a bonus, it also makes
for an interesting pattern of windows on the exterior of the buildings.”
Rather than seeing the aesthetic limits of estate housing, Arnott advocates
the virtues: “Scotland has been badly served by its mass, speculative
builders, who only really build semi-detached or, for the more upmarket,
detached homes - buildings that stand in isolation to each other.
“That approach is fine if you are building a castle. My preference is for
buildings that can relate to each other to form streets or interesting
spaces.”
The benefits of Arnott's design are evident to Welch. “I like the way the
properties are set slightly apart from each other, which means you do get a
tremendous amount of privacy,” he says. “We have only one neighbour
overlooking us, so you get a bit of neighbourliness, but lots of privacy.
“Also, it's great that the kids can cycle all over the estate without bumping
into cars. It's a shame that the public spaces now have signs saying, ‘No
ball games', because there used to be some great games of football going on.
“There are two things in particular I like about the inside: the rooms are
large and the space flows. There are lovely details that tell you an
architect has been here, such as the door handles, which are elegant and
simple.”
When the estate was built, it was entirely council housing, partly to
accommodate - amazingly - families relocated from Glasgow. Now, over half of
the properties are owner-occupied, the remainder a mix of local authority
and East Lothian Housing Association.
Abbot's View is now the subject of a £2m improvement, commissioned by East
Lothian council and being carried out by Edinburgh-based landscape
architects, Urban Design Futures.
Phase one of the four-year improvement package, which is expected to be
completed in about a year, involved mainly vehicular issues, including
traffic calming and residents' parking.
“We sought to engage with the residents at a very early stage,” says Selby
Richardson, director of Urban Design Futures. “There was a lot of
consultation and some residents volunteered to run a working group, which
continues to operate, and acts as an intermediary between us and the wider
community in the estate.”
Another objective has been to bring into “semi-private” ownership nine public
courtyards on the estate. They might not legally belong to the neighbours,
but the spaces are being reconfigured to encourage residents to take care of
them. “The intention is to create areas that are semi-private, so that the
residents can personalise them, and essentially take them over, even if they
don't own them,” says Richardson
The footpath network is being relandscaped. The steep steps are, where
possible, being re-engineered as ramps. Where not possible, replacement
steps will at least be of a lower height.
In addition, an environmental artist is helping to improve the signposting,
and adding plaques that tell of local incidents. Indeed, it is expected that
Daniel, Welch and Lomholt's son, is to be celebrated in his very own, along
the lines of, “Here, Daniel fell off his bike”.
As for brightening the monochrome render, given the high proportion of
owner-occupiers in the estate, it is up to them, individually, as opposed to
a central organisation.
Arnott reveals that the dispiriting grey colour was never his intention: “I
remember arguing with the central government quantity surveyors about cost.
More important to them was capital cost, not value-for-money. So, we were
required to use a cheap render, which began as white, but was not
self-cleaning, as we wanted. White would have at least acted as an
interesting foil to the trees in bloom, and preferable to the grey the
houses became.”
Welch and Lomholt have now decided to move on, leaving - with Daniel and their
daughter, Harriet - for a location nearer schools and sports facilities.
They marketed their home for £149,000 and last week accepted an offer of
£176,000.
If you like the look of the estate, however, don't despair. There are two
other Abbot's View houses for sale right now.
No 14 Abbot's View, offers over £155,000, Adams Property Centre, 01620 825
555, www.eastlothianproperty.co.uk
No 38, fixed price £163,000, McKinnon Forbes, 01875 611 211, www.mckinnonforbes.co.uk
