Building Workshop

18/02/2024

/ S U N S H I N E // at last..
Happy Sunday!

05/02/2024

/ W I N T E R P R O J E C T S // we are working on an exciting new building for Building Workshop. An adaptive, circular building (think Meccano nut and bolts) that can evolve to meet changing needs through the years. Work shop, model shop, exhibition space, and space to experiment with our local timber. The next step is the timber bracing with cool diagonals - the clever engineering allows us to use a lot less steel. Model photos to follow in a future post.

31/10/2023

Building Workshop Project 164 Kinclune Farm
Construction stage to transform the steading into a multi use rural venue at to begin soon..
📷2. Current aerial view of steading showing roof damage.
📷3. Model of roofs
📷4. Blue lines represent water damage
📷5. Proposed roofscape (removing damaged section)
📷6. Concept model
(📷1. Any excuse to get the toy farm out!!)
🐄 🐏 🌲

30/10/2023

Happy Monday! Finally some sunshine to celebrate the Autumn colours 🍁 🌿

28/10/2023

BEFORE + AFTER/
Building Workshop Project 131 Rattar House/ NC500/
After a fire in the 1970s the house was unoccupied for decades until the younger generation of the farming family at Rattar decided to bring this special listed house back to life. Rattar House is as far north as you can go on mainland Scotland, next door to the Castle of Mey. More photos and stories of the transformation to follow in future posts.
📷 of finished project by .co

27/10/2023

Yippee!! Last night 's beautiful steading project master planned, conceptualised and designed by and then detail-designed and brought to life on site by together with the very design led Eastside team...won the Regeneration and Strategy Award. The award looked for "the most effective repurposing of land or buildings to support diverse life, or strategic improvement to existing buildings...Strategic thinking could include holistic analysis, long term planning, strategies for long-term investment, fabric improvement or similar approaches". Our design involved connecting the courtyard with the landscape and creatively carving a 2 bedroom holiday cottage into 2 separate split level units to allow the Eastside team to do more within the constraints of their lovely traditional buildings. Well done to other shortlisted projects and McDonald Road Fire Station.
📷s of design process by Building Workshop
📷 of finished project by Michael Rummey

18/04/2022

Happy Easter! Project review in the spring light. 🌿🌱

10/04/2022

At Humpty we’re still tidying up after and It’s incredible how much mess a couple of wild nights can cause. The tidy up operation is more fun now that spring is springing, it’s a balmy 6 degrees in Lintrathen today ☀️

06/04/2022

On the drawing board at Buildig Workshop…

03/04/2022

A L P I N E A R C H I T E C T U R E // Happy Sunday! We are just back from a wonderful week in the beautiful French Alps. We get a lot of inspiration for our projects from our travels and after very few trips during the past couple of years we’re excited to explore again.

25/02/2022

Building Workshop’s Architect’s Kitchen CHARITY SUPPER CLUBS began in 2016. The first was in support of the campaign which was started by and Time to get the doors to Humpty House open again and cook up a storm in support of our friends in Ukraine. Join us for our first of 2022. Full ticket cost will go to Ukraine Crisis Appeal. Any local producers who would like to collaborate, please get in touch.

28/09/2021

Instagram versus reality! Our social media presence has been almost non existent since the start of the pandemic, but there has been a lot going on at Building Workshop and so we hope to share some of the exciting projects, initiatives and other activities that we’ve been involved with over the coming weeks.

First up - the RIAS Quarterly. This is the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland’s journal and Rosemary was invited to guest edit the summer edition which focusses on Rural Architecture. In the context of the pandemic, and in the run up to it has been an energising process to gather inspiring stories of cool things that people and organisations are already doing in rural areas around the world, and ways that people are challenging existing norms and rethinking priorities. How might we design for rural wellbeing?

An enormous thank you to all of the inspiring contributors whose stories it is a pleasure to share in the journal.

14/05/2021

What springs to mind when you think of RURAL ARCHITECTURE?

Hello, it’s Rosemary, here at Building Workshop! I have been invited to guest edit the summer issue of the RIAS Quarterly which is focussing on Rural Architecture. I am looking to represent a wide variety of voices, thoughts, ideas, opportunities and challenges, as well as curating a beautiful journal. If you would like to volunteer your creativity and write, illustrate of photograph, please send me a DM with your email address and outline of your topic/idea. If you have a friend who would be perfect, please tag them below! I am also looking for a few articles by students.

Please share!

Happy Friday!

10/07/2020

Rural Youth Project

Best of luck to Treasa and the community of Cape Clear Island: Oileán Chléire, who are hosting their first farmers market!

Treasa participated in a design thinking workshop at the 2019 Ideas Festival hosted by Rosemary from the Building Workshop where the seed was planted for this event 🌱

Good luck, Treasa!

You can check out Treasa's story here:https://bit.ly/320dDH5

Perth and Kinross LEADER Programme Angus Leader Programme Outer Hebrides LEADER Scottish Borders LEADERSmart Islands: Scotland & Ireland

22/06/2020

S T A Y C A T I O N.....Building Workshop Project 108 Backboath House is on ... recently completed with lovely interiors, beautiful gardens and lots of space...the link is in our bio.

21/05/2020

Go Rural Scotland

Go Rural Scotland has been inviting some inspiring farmers in Scotland to host virtual tours of their farms and businesses, amongst them all Building Workshop clients and friends. For anyone missing the Scottish countryside, ‘“like” Go Rural on Facebook and see what is going on during lockdown.
🌲 🌳 🐑 🐓 🐄

HELLO FROM GUARDSWELL FARM Guardswell Farm Guardswell Grows

08/05/2020

The story goes that in the 1st World War, Rosemary’s Great Grandad’s brother (Uncle Ginger) was wounded and found himself in a field hospital beside the Earl of Airlie who was also injured. They spent some days together, sharing their stories and recuperating. By coincidence, both men were wounded again later in the war and again, ended up side by side in hospital becoming good friends. .
“If I survive this war, I quite fancy buying a place up in Scotland for the holidays,” said Uncle Ginger who had grown up in the south of England. “I tell you what,” said the Earl of Airlie, “if I also survive the war, I’ll sell you a bit of land on Airlie Estate.” Thankfully both men survived the war, and in the early 1920s, Uncle Ginger bought a small farm near Lintrathen from the then Earl of Airlie.
Three generations later we’ve built a home and business here. The great great great nephews are outside playing under the big old oak trees, living the dream of the injured soldier. .
Uncle Ginger died long before Rosemary was born, but on VE Day, we remember his nephew who he left the farm to - our very special Grandad Houstoun with the twinkliest eyes and most fantastic stories. Grandad fought in WW2 and is pictured here on VE Day in Copenhagen spreading the wonderful news of Victory.

05/05/2020

CHILDREN! For any budding architects, big international architecture practice in London, where Ben used to work, has released some Architecture from Home projects. Cut out and build your own skyscrapers, learn to draw trees...all sorts of activities and articles. The link is in our bio! Have fun!

19/04/2020

S U N D A Y S // this photo of Ben’s Mum and Dad was taken one Sunday last year when the Scrimgeour clan went to one of our absolute favourite places to celebrate Ben’s dad’s birthday. Many Sundays (pre-social distancing) Ben’s Mum cooked all of the family Sunday night dinner - quite a feat and a regular treat! As the family grows, so does the table! Once it is safe to do so, we can’t wait to see all of our family again - to sit at the Scrimgeour family table, and visit Ballintaggart. In the meantime, it’s video calls with the wonderful Ballintaggart team as we all work together on an exciting future-focussed project for the farm.

08/04/2020

SHARE THE LOVE // At this strange time of social distancing when simple things like meeting friends and family for lunch are impossible, we are sharing some of our favourite super cool rural businesses in Scotland. Once lockdown is over, and days out are possible again, we are looking forward to visiting North Berwick, for a walk on the beach and lunch, coffee (or both) at Drift. A local farming family has created a container cafe as an agri tourism project which frames the view of the Bass Rock perfectly.

29/03/2020

SHARE THE LOVE // This week we are sharing some of our favourite rural companies in Scotland. Rosemary’s hill farmer cousin Andrew and his lovely wife, Lauren, started this year to sell venison, lamb and beef sustainably produced on their family farm Glenkilrie (near Glenshee) in the beautiful hills of Perthshire. Andrew loves tractors as much as Ben does and his nickname is Dinky, his dad’s is Dexter and Grandad was the Major (tractor joke alert🤣🚜)! Andrew’s horse called Nice helps him round up the sheep!

27/03/2020

SHARE THE LOVE // over the coming few weeks we will be sharing some of our favourite Scottish rural companies in the hope that more people can get to know about them and they can survive these challenging times. Please follow these ⭐️cool guys⭐️ on social media and support them if you can! is a sustainable clothing brand specialising in lovely Merino Wool products started by the wonderful Alex Feechan in the Scottish Borders. We met Alex recently at the annual conference at where she told the inspiring story of her business start up. Alex deigned clothing for big international brands like before setting up FINDRA. We love the idea of replacing synthetic sports wear with sustainable merino wool.

11/03/2020

Scandi vibes in Perthshire and Syrian flavours, plus Tom Kitchin’s recipe of the week

February's news...but we missed it at the time! Guardwell Farm's Locavore Dinner was in The Times...we heard it was a wonderful evening! https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scandi-vibes-in-perthshire-and-syrian-flavours-plus-tom-kitchins-recipe-of-the-week-nmz3xd8qw

After the success of her artisan bakery Aran, Flora Shedden is preparing to launch a second venture. This Easter she opens Lòn, a general store on Atholl Street in the Perthshire village of Dunkeld.

11/03/2020

Hello! We’re Ben and Rosemary. This photo was taken by at last week’s annual Rural Leadership Conference at - one of our “agritecture” projects. We love repurposing old redundant rural buildings and working with their owners to reimagine their future. Design, innovation and purpose is at the heart of everything Building Workshop project. Seeing the old cattle court at Guardswell full of life, laughter, energy and collaboration is why we do what we do!
Guardswell Farm was shortlisted for the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Awards, Historic Environment Scotland Conservation and Climate Change Award and won 2 Dundee Institute of Architect Awards (Regeneration and Best Use of Timber), being placed runner up to

@ Guardswell Farm