Cantilevered holiday home frames views of Scotland’s Small Isles

Scottish design practice Dualchas Architects completed yet another beautiful and contemporary seaside home: the Faire Chaolais (“View of the Sound”).

Located on Scotland’s west coast in Morar, this environmentally sensitive holiday rental home is built into the sloped landscape and overlooks views of the Small Isles. The project’s most eye-catching feature is the dramatically cantilevered first floor that extends the home towards the sea.

Though contemporary in design, the Faire Chaolais alludes to traditional Highland agricultural building styles with its gabled and cantilevered first floor clad in larch. The home’s lower floor, which is built into a gravel slope and flanked by glazed end walls, comprises three bedrooms and a study. The cantilevered upper level contains the open-plan living space and a south facing and deeply recessed glazed wall that separates the interior from an outdoor covered balcony.

Larch rain screens cover the sides and roof of the cantilevered upper level. Skylights punctuate the building to allow natural light to pour into the minimalist interior, finished in white walls and polish concrete floors. To minimize heat loss, the architects installed a heat recovery ventilation unit and underfloor heating powered by an air source heat pump.

If you like what you see, head on over to Faire Chaolais’ rental website. The holiday home was also shortlisted for the 2015 Royal Institute of British Architects Awards.