036
PROJECT 2
Quarry Studios, Crathie, Scotland
As contractor, client and architect, Moxon Architects pushed its creative licence to the full with a new studio in the bucolic hills of the Cairngorms, renovating a former gravel quarry in the process
IN THE BOWL of a disused gravel quarry, dipping below the dense coverage of birch, aspen and pine in Cairngorms National Park, is the new Scottish headquarters of Moxon Architects. The surrounding landscape is spectacular; ‘all glacial drumlins, eskers’, describes Ben Addy, managing director of Moxon, creating a ‘really lovely rolling knot of landscape’. While this area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the former quarry, by contrast, had been used as a tip by the roads department of the local council, and so was ‘full of road sweepings and bits of junk’ when Moxon arrived at the site.
Once cleared out, a studio and cafe were positioned within the characteristic bowl shape of the quarry, to feel embedded in the landscape – in a ‘recessive’ way, as Addy puts it. In the remaining space, Moxon is working to repair the damage caused to the land by the site’s years as a dump: re-establishing wetland with a pond and a bog in the middle (the studio roof directs rainwater into it); creating a wild flower meadow; and incorporating native tree species such as juniper, as well as protecting the self-seeded birch that has started to grow there. The single-storey building sits several metres below the rim of the quarry, with sections of mono-pitched roof angled to match the slopes of the landscape. Its exterior is predominantly black, interrupted by two concrete chimneys. The roof provides a sheltered colonnade around the building and over a walkway paved with wooden cobbles made from Douglas fir offcuts.
Although located just off a main road, the building is mostly hidden, except for a public- facing cafe called Tàrmachan. ‘The one bit that sticks its head out, as it were,’ Addy says. Including a cafe in the design aimed at creating jobs in an area where they are relatively scant, but the unique setting and beautifully designed building also provides an opportunity to do something a bit different, Addy explains. Tàrmachan, run by a couple, offers speciality
WORDS BY SOPHIE TOLHURST
IMAGES
BY TIMOTHY SOAR
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