The majority of houses in the surrounding village provide first-hand examples of low- carbon, bio-based material homes, built to last using minimal local resources. Iorram Cottage looks to continue this approach and is the first stage of an ongoing project by Baillie Baillie whose house and studio are located across the bay. Known for their paired back, low-tech approach, this personal project presented an opportunity to not only experiment with, but also demonstrate the successes of simple, sustainable design principles.

“It’s a small, natural materials focused building within a highland village setting,” said Colin Baillie, director at Baillie Baillie. “We’ve adopted the local vernacular palette of materials but adjusted it to a contemporary system using aerated monolithic clay blocks, instead of stone, which is a simple way of retaining the inherently cottage-like feel whilst maximising the temperature regulation that Scottish highland homes do so well.”

Celebrating the traditional use of local timber, Colin and Megan Baillie designed and built the house for themselves, creating a compact holiday let that allows them to share the virtues of sustainable design and craftsmanship.

“In most projects we use a lot of local timber, specifically Douglas Fir,” added Colin Baillie. “Since this is our own project, we’ve been able to experiment slightly by taking a more radical approach to local craftsmanship and the sourcing of local products and materials, which have informed our practice and future projects.”

“Traditionally, there’s just one material in the walls – in our village they’re mostly stone – with timber floors, timber roof structures and so on. I think the beauty of that way of building, in our case with clay blocks, is the simplicity as well; it’s essentially just one material. So using the clay block system lets us communicate vernacularly but in a way that is fully insulated and has all the thermal mass of those old buildings.”

Most Baillie Baillie projects are in located in remote and isolated areas, and convincing local contractors to get behind bio-based alternatives is often part of the challenge. Using materials like hempcrete, clay blocks and wood fibre insulation requires no specialised skills and are generally a lot nicer to work with than their conventional, chemical-based alternatives.

“With the timber frame being our standard construction method in Scotland, contractors are used to working with these materials so are often happy to switch that chemical-based insulation product to a bio-based product”, Colin Baillie explained. “Even in the less experimental projects, we’ve been able to make these kinds of shifts, just by communicating with the client about their benefits. We’ve found it to be a relatively easy conversation, and contractors are often keen to work with these healthier alternatives too.”