St Andrews townhouse quartet teed up
October 8 2019
Sutherland Hussey Harris have filed plans for four townhouses in St Andrews with some of the best views of the Old Course following their work at West Burn Lane.
Each 210sq/m property will be finished in handmade clay bricks with the upmarket properties making the most of coastal views with expansive glazing and terraces.
In a statement the practice wrote: “The townhouses are organised so that one taller, tower like element addresses the urban setting facing towards the town centre, with a row of three similar units stepped back along the site looking across the golf course.
“Horizontal banding across window reveals and lintels is created using terrazzo. This material has the strength of concrete, which gives the rationale for its structural use, but has a quality of stone, like that of granite, which provides a finesse for these articulated areas.”
Sutherland Hussey Harris won the commission following a limited design competition organised by the owners of an existing 1960s home on the site.
25 Comments
Can you provide a link to the planning application please?
On the architecture side of things, we are not in Spain (but may as well be) - instead, it's literally anywhere, as looking through Suhuha's oeuvre, one approach clearly fits all. As for genius loci? Context is way over-rated these days, apparently.
So, for a 3br. townhouse with a spatially flawed 'kitchen' area and for being stared at by eejits with pringle sweaters , you'd be looking at what - £750,000 - £1M+?
Then i ask meself, what's the point? Surely, there are more worthwhile things to do on this earth than pander to the already bloated rich by providing them with holiday accommodation.
What a waste of an architect's time.
Reminds me of The War of the Worlds, in more ways than one.
But this does need to at least nod to its context, so would look much better with pitched roofs.
Needn't be slate. Just an interesting pitched form.
Then I will approve it and start detailing.
I suspect they'll go for a fair amount more than £1m...
Well done SHH...
SHH have a track record of delivering stunning housing in the town....good luck to them.
Leaving aside the patronising rhetoric, the design point is that the 'banal' functionality of the living floorplate is obviously compromised, so much so, that form would appear to trump substance in this case - which is never really a 'good look'.
Secondly, and more to the heart of the matter, if we strip this proposal of its architectural ambition, is lavishing the soopah doopah rich with £1M+ holiday lets really a worthwhile human pursuit?
After all, Suhuha, in their undoubted quality work, have already painted this particular canvas many times over. So, do they really need this money? Or, is it never enough? Or, in what way does the world actually profit from this? Or, what economics are being perpetuated by this? Or, indeed, what message does this proposal carry?
These are genuine ethical questions, to which I believe architects are not immune from, or is the making of architecture above that sort of thing? If you think so, then for me its a fairly facile exercise - a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, really. Bravo.
it just comes across as being sanctimonious
'worthwhile human persuit'?...come on!
A nicely detailed contemporary pitched roof here would undeniably add the required small amount of contextual appreciation.
I bet £5 it ends up with a pitched roof.
The 'message' carried in this proposal is clear. You are welcome to embrace this proposal or not, that decision is yours.
The proposals seek to replace a rather grim house with something else.
To paint this as some sort of class war is, at best, misguided. Shooting fish in a barrel is a relatively straight forward exercise, getting the fish in the barrel in the first place is significantly more complicated. You've done the former, SHH have done the later.
'Class' was raised when this statement was made "Surely, there are more worthwhile things to do on this earth than pander to the already bloated rich by providing them with holiday accommodation."
Looking forward to seeing your and sound of one hand clapping's alternative social condenser proposal.
'Hardly enough space' is another way of saying enough space but in your opinion there should be more. That's ok that's your opinion SHH clearly had a different view.
Building and using anything only adds to climate change if you are assuming those doing so aren't using sustainable means. We need to increase our reliance on sustainable energy and materials rather than stop doing anything and everything.
Therefore the “class” argument in favour of affordable homes is pathetic lefty codswallop.
B. Shouldn't architects be concerned with what and how something is built rather than whether it should be built at all?
"Sir, although your large bag of money and your PPP for your site are of interest, I fear that some of the views may be spoiled by development of the site and the required scale may be out of context. I therefore will not take the commission. I shall return to my 'atelier' forthwith and make half of my staff redundant, happy that my artistic integrity is intact.
Have the Town and the Royal and Ancient golf club of St Andrews not objected?
The hundreds of thousand visitor
This proposed modern design for 4 townhouses
with balconies crammed in to the site of one house,is nice but hideous in this location, much too large and totally out of context.
The granite,concrete and brick plus glass with timber clad frontage is a modern style but a monster proposal being so perilously close to the 4/5 storey sandstone tenement style buildings a few yards away and all the similar style buildings alongside the 18th hole.Not to mention the sandstone with pitched roof student accommodation and sandstone houses surrounding the confined site
The 17th green and 18th tee complex- would become overcrowded ,on the World number one golf course of St Andrews Old course where the Open championship is played on a fairly regular basis.
This proposed development is for sure not
in sympathy with historic St Andrews nor indeed
The Royal and Ancient golf club of St Andrews
ongoing plans for hosting championships,world stage events.
Do not forget that this is a conservation area.
@20&21, I didn’t say anything about making affordable homes there, just liveable, flexible ones that aren’t so car centric there’s no space left for any greenery.
All of you - I’ll take the lefty badge and wear that with pride! Having a social and environmental conscience isn’t an insult
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Personally, think it looks great. But don't see it ever being built! Good luck SHH!