Longnewton Steading

LOCATION: Gifford, East Lothian

CLIENT: Longnewton Steading Ltd.

The Vision

The small settlement of Long Newton lies within the rural landscape of East Lothian at the foot of the Lammermuir Hills.

The existing farm steading, dating from the 18th century, occupies a fine, elevated position, which benefits from far reaching views across the surrounding farmland towards the Firth of Forth and beyond.

CSY Architects have been appointed to consider how the existing steading could be sensitively adapted to form a private residential development whilst retaining the historic significance of the former agricultural layout and buildings.

The Vision

The team at CSY has adopted the philosophy that intervention is only to be undertaken where required, and where necessary, expressed as new.

A limited palette of materials is proposed for new elements, with these materials rooted and derived from the existing. The condition and character of the existing stone walls have been carefully appraised and noted for the fine stone masonry and distinctive red sandstone that contributes so much to the character of the East Lothian landscape.

A series of interventions to the existing, agrarian typology are proposed to form seven dwellings, each with private gardens and courtyards that provide shelter from the prevailing wind.

The thick sandstone walls are to be repaired and repointed in-line with best conservation practice, with new-build walls finished in timber cladding that will weather to tone with the stonework.

Pitched and hipped natural slate roofs with carefully detailed flush eaves reinforce the vernacular form. The proposed internal palette is restrained but luxurious, focussing on polished concrete floors, expressed timber rafters and oak joinery.

In collaboration with the client, CSY has put sustainability at the heart of the proposal, developing a series of strategies to promote low-carbon development.

Retaining and repairing the majority of the existing stone walls and their associated embodied carbon, a breathable envelope of wood-fibre insulation encases the existing structure, improving the thermal performance of the dwellings whilst allowing moisture to pass freely through the construction. New, high performance double-glazed windows and doors allow a passive ventilation strategy with junctions between construction elements carefully considered and detailed to deliver air tightness.

Renewable technologies enforce the low carbon-based approach to the design, with the homes heated using ground source heat pumps and underfloor heating and supplied by in-roof photovoltaic panels, carefully detailed to sit flush with the slate roofs.