Rural community housing,

Isle of Eigg

We’re delighted to have worked with the very inspirational Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust on their first new build housing project.

Located near to the community-owned solar PV field, the four detached houses are arranged across the site to echo the surrounding settlement pattern.

Both the site layout and the house designs were developed following a series of detailed, interactive community engagement events.

In keeping with the high green ambitions of the island, the houses have been carefully designed to be extremely energy efficient, water efficient and to suit the exposed nature of the site.

Updated final design

After getting costs updated and speaking to funders it was established that building four detached houses would be infeasible.

To reduce costs the houses have been re-designed as two pairs of semi-detached units, with one two

bedroom house and one three-bedroom house to each semi.

As well as reducing construction costs this move reduces the exposed surface area - and heat loss - from the houses.

The houses have also been relocated to a part of the site closer to the existing road, reducing track and infrastructure costs. Tree planting will be used to provide shelter and some privacy to the north-east side of the new houses.