Eco House Award Winner, Dunbartonshire

Eco House Award Winner, Dunbartonshire

Making the most of a limited site, this spacious and bright family home won the Eco House Award in the 2009 Homebuilding & Renovating and Daily Telegraph Competition.

Architect Don McLean has created a super efficient ‘upside down’ house for his family in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire.

With his house amassing accolades for its eco-credentials, Don McLean says: “I’m just somebody who wanted to build a sustainable house using the best technology and best systems available. Sustainability is a buzzword at the moment, but for me it’s not something that’s separate, it’s not an add-on. It’s part of the whole process. It’s just a sensible approach to building.”

It may only have taken three hours to demolish the timber frame bungalow previously on the site, but he has replaced it with a much more durable low energy home designed specifically to take advantage of the location and wonderful views over Glasgow.

The views are optimised by locating the living rooms on the top floor with the bedrooms below and the garage and utility rooms in the semi-basement.


The highly insulated structure (Wallform 313) is substantially airtight and provides additional thermal mass to compliment the heat storing characteristics of the solid floors and block partitions.

Heating is provided by air-source heat pump with backup (if necessary) from a feature wood burning stove.

The high-performance construction is complemented externally by a few design flourishes. “The cedar cladding is purely aesthetic,” says Mr McLean. “If we had stuck entirely to the white rendering, I think the walls would have been too clinical and brash. So we aimed to soften the house with the cedar. It also makes it sit well in the street.”

More images of this stunning home can be viewed here.

DESIGN: MacLean Architects,Glasgow
CONSTRUCTION: Bases Contract Ltd, Kinross

 

Eco House Award Winner, Dunbartonshire was last modified: September 25th, 2019 by Beco