March 20 2025

Plans have been made for a new build house on green belt land in the Midlothian village of Lasswade following consent for a separate home on an adjoining plot.

A sloping site at Wadingburn Lane has been earmarked for the home, joining several recent one-off properties in the secluded spot, naturally screened from wider views by a belt of trees.

Backing onto the Wading Burn the villa will combine blonde sandstone with larch cladding under a sedum green roof and a large roof light to help blend the property into its valley location.

In a design statement, S2 Architecture wrote: "... it was noted in the pre-application advice that having much of the house is north facing to maximise views out into the landscape restricts its optimisation for passive management of heating and cooling. However, the combination of careful consideration of the building fabric and renewable technologies available can overcome the orientation issues."

Making use of solar panels with ground source heat pumps the highly insulated home will include new planting to blend with the established trees.

A detached two-car garage is also proposed, built into the landscape behind a concrete retaining wall and covered by a sedum roof. 

3 Comments

#1 Posted by TheFakeArchitect on 20 Mar 2025 at 11:49 AM

Nice from the outside but what a very peculiar floor plan layout! Interesting having a Kitchen slap bang in the middle of the house and requiring to bypass it to access most other areas, while also being open to the first floor. Was that seriously a client request..

And best of luck getting that through Midlothian Council. Anything with even a sniff of the green belt and its generally a non starter, never mind on a site such as this.

#2 Posted by Randy Hall on 21 Mar 2025 at 16:52 PM

I wonder if Brown & Brown's Harmony House appears in their design statement? A striking resemblance.

#3 Posted by Mark on 22 Mar 2025 at 20:39 PM

#2 - It's more than striking, they're virtually identical down to the soffit treatment and the recessed central bay on the ground floor. Good artists copy, great artists steal, as Picasso said.

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