mae

Sited in a designed landscape in Aberdeenshire, this eight bedroom family house has a backdrop of mature woodland.  mæ chose to set the house on the edge of the woods with an outbuilding retreating back into the trees. The house is approached from the north through the woods, gradually revealing views south towards a 16th century castle previously owned by the client’s family. This view is denied to you when you turn into the rear courtyard, but revealed again on entering the house.

The programme is conventional, a family house with a services outbuilding. The plan of the house is arranged into strips which are zoned into semi-private and private spaces running front to back.

Structural forms from this part of Scotland are honoured in this building, though often in the breach. The external expression of the building is generated by the programme. Window positions and sizes reflect the relative importance of internal spaces. The south facade is built in stone and has a dialectic relationship with the old family residence, and all public spaces in the house have a strong visual link with this building. The front facade has a parapet wall which has been abstracted to little more than a theatre flat with the roof set back, rendering it invisible when viewed from the landscape. A thickened east gable gives a badge of domesticity for arriving visitors with an entrance portico adjacent, formed by the projecting roof of the services block.