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Leading UK designer urges for move from 'dull' housing in Cairngorms





A call has been made for more creativity when it comes to housing design
A call has been made for more creativity when it comes to housing design

A top UK designer has backed a passionate call from a Cairngorms National Park planning committee member for a new era of innovation in housebuilding.

Wayne Hemingway, a co-founder of the Red or Dead empire, has thrown his weight behind a rallying call from Kate Howie, who has urged the park authority to rethink what is acceptable in order to breathe life into communities within the park.

There was broad support from colleagues, along with a plea to ensure that the premise of "affordability" of homes is set in stone.

The rousing debate came off the back of the planning committee’s consideration of Allan Munro Construction Ltd’s plans for three homes in Kingussie that were approved, but with a lukewarm response to their design.

It prompted a rash of observations from committee members that the park risked forever cloning dull architecture.

Speaking afterwards, Ms Howie said: "I’m looking for good quality design, particularly on energy saving. Of course there are regulations we adhere to, but let’s go that little bit further.

"We have a wonderful natural environment and our feeling as board members is that in all our approvals – particularly housing – these should be exciting."

The park authority has already agreed to run a design award from 2016 that will encourage developers to take a good look at the quality of their design to ensure they’re not simply "off the peg."

Asked what would impress her, Ms Howie said she had travelled extensively in Scandinavia and that the park was a close environmental match.

"They have used their natural resources – local wood for example – to make houses, whereas those we saw today (for Kingussie) could have been anywhere."

Wayne Hemingway, who owns HemingwayDesign, which specialises in fashion, interior and urban design, has high praise for housing innovators in the north of Scotland, but fears many modern creations are simply quashed and diluted by planning authorities.

Responding to Ms Howie’s comments Mr Hemingway, a regular visitor to the region, said: "You’ve got to allow people to take risks – that’s what life’s about. Planning should be about letting individuals be creative and should be about getting corporations to be more creative.

"Generally the big housebuilders are boring and often repetitive, and quite often individuals scare the living daylights out of planners. People should be let off the leash sometimes.

"You’re bound to make mistakes, but things at the time seen as strange and perhaps a bit ugly sometimes become really interesting through time. If everything’s left to a standard housebuilder and their drab and boring tastes then everything ends up drab and boring."

Committee member Bill Lobban told the latest planning meeting in Boat of Garten: "We need to consider when we look at applications we talk about affordable houses. These (in Kingussie) are not affordable houses. We need to be careful that we don’t price people out of being able to afford to buy a house."

Committee convener Eleanor Mackintosh acknowledged his concern and promised to include the theme in shaping future policy.

Highland architect David Somerville echoed Mr Hemingway. He said: "In terms of appearance there are individual buildings I think are innovative that have been allowed in the park.

"But the groups of houses that have been built have been almost a repetition of the same house ad infinitum, I don’t think is appropriate for a national park."

His firm has just completed a 10-house project in Kincraig that tackles the issue of affordability head-on.

The new homes, which were purpose-built, part-ownership properties for local people planning to work from home, were allocated by the Highlands Small Communities’ Housing Trust.

By Mr Somerville's own confession, the Kincraig development is not necessarily a glowing example of radical design. What is radical, he says, is the affordability stipulation.


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