Date: 04 October 04
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Gokay Deveci @ RGU
From a research-based practice unit at the Scott Sutherland School, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Gökay has been responsible for a number of innovative projects including the Van Midden House, Aberdeenshire; Zero Heating Family Home, Peterculter and Affordable Rural Housing, Kincardine O'Neil.
Each of these projects demonstrates a determination to ensure that 'affordability' is not achieved at the expense of architectural or construction quality and that the designs have good environmental credentials.
The bespoke, site specific house that Gökay has designed for artist Lotte Glob, in a remote part of North West Scotland, has recently been shortlisted for the 2004 RIAS Building of the Year Award Scotland. Gökay has also just completed a social housing project on Rothesay, which due to its combination of innovation, leading edge design and sustainability, has set something of a benchmark in the field of social housing in the UK.
INTERVIEW
You have just completed a social housing project in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute - it's a seven storey building with fourteen flats incorporating a variety of one, two and three bedrooms The top floors have two penthouses with wonderful views to Rothesay Bay. This project is causing quite a stir, mainly because it seems to challenge traditional perceptions of what constitutes social housing design. Can you describe the project and how it came about?
Crow's Nest as it is now known, was commissioned by Fyne Homes, the Argyll and Bute-based housing association. The clients have adopted and are very committed to the principles and aims of sustainable development.
The adventure started about four years ago when the clients came to Aberdeen to see some of my earlier designs, which are mostly in affordable housing. The brief was for fourteen to eighteen houses with a variety of one, two and three bedrooms. It's a beautiful site, yet also difficult, as it is surrounded by mature trees and wildlife (including a protected crow's nest which formed the inspiration for the building's name). People had also used the site as a recreational area, so we had to think carefully about how to proceed.
Fundamentally, sustainability and innovation were the aims of the project. Innovation is part of sustainability - it's about not repeating what we've been doing for the last twenty or thirty years.
Firstly we ran a student programme at Robert Gordon University looking at the site and coming up with ideas. And a year later we started working on the project in earnest.
The design process was unusual, wasn't it?
The design process was very interesting. I came up with three designs - this is an unusual approach for a practice to take. One design was what the brief essentially asked for, which was fourteen individual homes of one, two and three bedrooms. The second scheme comprised a series of three storey terrace houses. The third scheme was for a tower - this put the whole scheme vertically and was based on Scottish vernacular tower architecture. I thought the third scheme was the most exciting architecturally and the most sustainable solution because of the minimum impact it had on the site.
The next stage was that we took these three designs to the people of Rothesay - we presented plans, elevations and 3D studies of each on laminated panels in the library and the Rothesay Academy. As a result we had a huge response - around 80 or so people - and these people submitted answers to a questionnaire which asked them to identify their choice of scheme and why they liked it. Almost 80% of these respondents went for the tower. This is amazing because at the end of the day they are flats.
Why do you think people responded so well to the flats over, say, the individual homes?
The question of perception comes into this overall choice. If this were a rectangular tower would people have responded to it the way that they did? I can't prove that they wouldn't have gone for a rectangular block, but I have a feeling that what they were seeing in our circular tower they could relate to. I think many people might have responded to the design because it relates to the castle form. There are circular castle forms on the island, so I believe this made our building somewhat more desirable.
This process of public consultation worked because it is a genuine form of local democracy - where people are fully involved in the process of design and planning. This also made my life easier with the planners, now that they had clear evidence of what the people of Rothesay wanted!
The project began in 2001, went on site in March 2003, and the building (which is the highest on Rothesay) was completed in the summer of 2004. The flats are now fully occupied, and so far feedback from residents has been extremely positive.
What do you feel you have achieved with this project?
With the Rothesay project we are getting away from the aesthetic of sustainability. Buildings do not have to look sustainable in order to be sustainable. Too many architects at the moment are participating in a game of superficial 'eco styling' and they are deluding clients and the public alike. A sustainable building doesn't have to have a grass roof and timber. I think many people are jumping on the bandwagon and trying to pursue sustainable developments without really looking at all dimensions of sustainability.
With this project we looked at the cultural, economical and social aspects of sustainability - not just the materials and the aesthetic of it. In terms of the achievements of the project, I believe it:
- Respects the landscape
- Provides and encourages community involvement in design and planning - I didn't say 'here you go this is what you're going to get!'
- Strikes the right balance between high density living and giving more green space to residents and the people.
- Fully embraces social inclusion. There are gains for all groups associated, including the young, elderly and disabled. The division between luxury and social housing needs to be blurred, and this project has attempted to do this.
- Makes the most of available technology and was designed to reduce energy use during construction and occupation.
How have you specifically addressed sustainability in terms of energy efficiency?
We wanted to make a genuine contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases, by around 80-90%. We have achieved this by:
- Triple glazing - with Super Low E and Argon Gas infills
- Maximum levels of insulation in conjunction with airtight construction. At 350mm insulation I can claim this to be the most insulated building in the UK.
- Heat recovering mechanical system. When you build an airtight house you probably have to open the windows, but then you start losing energy again. You need to get fresh air, however, so what we have done is to provide a mechanical system that allows fresh air in but eliminates the unnecessary window opening. It essentially exchanges air passively.
- Most importantly we have eliminated the need for a dedicated central heating system. The one kilowatt or so per unit to maximum heat load can be achieved by putting one simple backup electric panel heater and you can use that when and if necessary. There should be sufficient heat in the house - through the massive insulation system and additional insulation on the hot water tanks - to eliminate the need for a central heating system.
- Finally, we used local materials and human resources where possible. We adopt a best practice in sustainability. This is achieved through a Partnering Contract, where all parties involved sign a contract committing to working together in terms of timescale, cost etc. It's a new form of contract and this project was a testing ground. I think it will work well in terms of innovative projects such as this.
Building a timber building with a grass roof that's not acceptable to people is not the answer. I have been stamped as an ecological architect but with this project and the house I designed for Lotte Glob I'm trying to now show that good, aesthetic, site specific design can go hand in hand with sustainability.
The house you recently designed in North West Scotland for the Danish ceramic artist Lotte Glob has recently been shortlisted for the RIAS Building of the Year Scotland Award 2004. Can you describe this project?
In 2001, Lotte Glob, a Danish ceramic artist whose practice is closely identified with the wilderness landscape in North-West Scotland commissioned me to build a living and working space that would enable her to integrate her practice, her business and her lifestyle.
She stipulated that the design should be affordable and context-sensitive as well as complementing her aesthetic vision, reflecting her passion for the light across the hills of Sutherland. The 110m2 dwelling comprises of a large multi-purpose double-height living/sleeping/eating space oriented towards the South, which the client can also use for exhibitions and a compact service space at the North.
The construction is a timber post and beam structure, sitting lightly on the earth, with a linear plan with a curved roof clad with patinated copper sheets. The external walls are clad with untreated Scottish oak shiplap boarding designed to silver with age. The East and West elevations use narrow, linear and pocket windows aligned to the sunrise and sunset.
The South elevation is fully glazed with a timber deck which is projected out into the air, hovering like a seagull in the wind, looking directly towards Ben Hope across Loch Eriboll.
The response to the nature of the site and the context of a sparsely populated mountainous terrain, dotted with small granite cottages with slated roofs was to complement and invent. Choosing a long curved building mass that appears to float on a sloping landscape may appear jarringly non-traditional, but in observing the local vernacular architecture in Sutherland, one sees many traditional croft buildings and agricultural sheds, which settle into the landscape with harmony.
The aesthetic approach was to use visual elements of this intrinsic architecture, combined with a response to the landscape as a cue to the design solution with the emphasis on the relationship of the individual to landscape. The landscape is both a view, something you take in, and your immediate physical surroundings, something you are taken in by.
The design incorporates local materials wrought by the local workforce. Materials were chosen that would weather in colour and texture, ageing gracefully in harmony with changes in the seasons. Equally important was the visual contrast and formal juxtaposition of rough-sawn shiplap cladding skin contrasting with the highly controlled precision of engineered laminated timber structure.
The chosen construction method has the ability of accommodating super insulation levels for maximum energy efficiency and yet has minimum impact on the landscape, with an inherent ease of assembly and disassembly. The prefabricated post and beam structure provides a flexible, adaptable and buildable form which allows the creation of large multi-purpose space and also accommodates the sloping ground with ease by incorporating an undercroft which also becomes an outdoor exhibition space.
The structure needs to withstand winter winds up to 120kmph which sweep across the loch and which 'make the stones fly' according to local residents. Wind resistance is provided by sheathed panels in the longitudinal direction and by a combination of bolted joints, cross bracing and ties using galvanised steel rods and sheathed panels in the lateral direction.
A rigid roof and floor tie these elements together. Wind uplift is also a serious problem and is counteracted by bolting the structure to steel shoes cast into substantial concrete foundations.
Lotte describes her house as like a 'sculpture' in its own right and she has admitted that although 'people mainly think the house is great, a few people are shocked. But I think it's good to challenge'. Did you set out 'to challenge'?
There are buildings that don't make a difference to people one way or the other, but I think Lotte's building has actually created a lot of debate, by the two or three thousand people who have seen it. Everybody in the Highlands now knows of Lotte's house.
Most of them like it and some of them don't. The house has been called everything from a boathouse, and a cathedral, to a deluxe caravan, which I like very much! But the thing is it creates an intellectual discussion about what a house should or shouldn't be. That cultural volley of asking questions is really what architecture should provoke.
And that's why I'm really happy about it. A traditional building wouldn't create that kind of debate. There was a joke that it once created a traffic jam with people stopping to see it! (The house is essentially set in wilderness). Lotte's house has become a landmark in its own right and that's what I think architecture should do. People in Scotland should ask questions.
In terms of the landscape I had to ask 'how do you deal with virgin landscape like that?' It is questionable whether I would have designed the house like this had it not related directly to Lotte's lifestyle and how it belongs to nature. The house lifts off the ground in the same way as Lotte creates her 'floating' artworks. And the large balcony means she can get the wind and rain on her face. That was the kind of thing I was looking for.
I think the marriage between her life and the house is important - the house is where her mind can get sparked. My job is to give people what they didn't think they could have, not what they can have. That's the difference between architecture and a building.
What next, after the ground breaking Lotte Glob and Rothesay projects?
As a result of the research and design I have done I would ideally like to be a design ambassador, advocating that sustainability and good design can go hand in hand - that they are an integral part of each other. I would like to do this through education but I'd also encourage architects in the North East of Scotland, because we still lack a bit compared with Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Generally, I also believe I can achieve more technically, particularly in terms of renewables. Renewables are crazily expensive at the moment - but the screw is tightening around environmental issues such as the need to minimise the use of energy resources. Architects must become more socially responsible because they have the power to impact on the environment and people's lives. The old image of the architect who just creates by himself has gone, in my opinion. Architects have to be accountable.
Gökay Deveci, Dip(Arch) RIBA RIAS
Scott Sutherland School
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
Contact Details
Tel: 01224 263714
Fax: 01224 263777
