Whether arriving by foot from Fasque Castle or by car along the main access route, the visitor’s first experience of the village will be to arrive through a loggia and into the main village square immediately to the east of the old steading. The loggia provides a sense of containment around the square whilst a campanile (which might be a dovecote or bat tower) is located on the south corner and acts as a visual signifier for the square. A ramp or stair leads from the lower to the upper square.

 

The central soft landscape changes from lower square to upper - the upper square is a herb garden that serves the cafe, whilst the lower square has a more civic and formal garden.
 

Our design strategy touches on many of the characteristics that we believe make a successful village - the creation of a tightly knit community within a strongly defined landscape, that creates a coherent identity for the new Village and responds sensitively to its context. The core of the village restores the existing steading building, which houses community and estate related businesses and facilities.

 

The Cottage
Six self-contained cottages to be rented as holiday homes, located to the south of the steading and forming a new edge to the
village. They are traditional in form being single storey and with a pitched roofs and are discretely located behind the existing hedges to afford the back gardens privacy.

The Terrace
The fourteen terraced houses form the inner lining of the village and give a strong definition to the street, whilst reinforcing and defining the courtyards located around the steading. The key idea is in modulating roof-lines through the change in topography and further
punctuation through the use of large chimneys (the fireplace being a crucial element of village life). The front facades are further articulated as they address the shared surface of the street, offering a place to sit, soft landscape and small patio.

The Villa
The twenty one villas are located on the outer lining of the village where they can take advantage of the large gardens and long, uninterrupted views to the landscape beyond. They have a more informal relationship to each other and are non-aligned to the street. This helps to create a more informal street.and allow planting in between the houses to impact on the streetscape.