Fraser/Livingstone Architects Edinburgh, Scotland

A new rural community within a mature woodland setting

Ochil Hills Hospital

The Victorians knew how to choose a healthy site. The Hospital, built in 1902 as a tuberculosis sanatorium, lies on the upper slopes of the eastern Ochils, north-west of Milnathort, The Victorian pre-antibiotic rationale of rest, good nutrition, sunshine and fresh air has much relevance for us today. Empty since the late 1980s, the main building and annexes were demolished in 2003.

Historic Rural Settlements

The historic clachans, villages and townships evident across the Scottish landscape are finely tuned to climate and landscape, whereas new housing development often neglects such simple principles. The clachan of Margdow in Perthshire, since demolished, or the old settlement of Swanston on the outskirts of Edinburgh, demonstrates built form embedded in landscape to create shelter and place.

Such precedents inform the placemaking approach at Athron Hill

Two young women outside Ochil Hills Convalescent Hospital

Ochil Hills Convalescent Hospital (demolished in 2003).

CLIENT / Athron Hill Dev. Co. Ltd

ARCHITECT / Malcolm Fraser Architects then Fraser/Livingstone Architects

Description / 35 homes on a part-brownfield site in the Perthshire hills

Approach road to site

Farm buildings on approach to site

thatched cottages swanston village scotland copy

Swanston Village, Edinburgh: a settlement embedded in the landscape.

Margdow, Perthshire (demolished): a clachan tuned to the local conditions. Image credit: Historic Environment Scotland.

Continuity of Landscape

The new infrastructure of roads, tracks, lighting and services are sensitively Integrated into the landscape. Existing culverted watercourses are opened to weave between the new homes. Roaming pathways are enhanced and a network of bridleways stitched across the hillside, exploiting the existing pond, woodland, surrounding fields and reservoir for the new community to share. Plots are then layered into this network of routes, adapting to the changing character across the site.

Clusters and Clachans

As at Margdow and Swanston, buildings are grouped in clusters, and gardens merge with roads to create a continuous rural ground plane. Building footprints are turned to present end gables to the distant view, avoiding a continuous built form on the rural skyline. Homes are viewed within trees, built form connecting to its landscape setting.