Examining the roots of contemporary Scottish experience in designing modern housing in ‘traditional’ rural contexts

This paper reflects on the contemporary design practice of Scottish rural housing, through a comparative and analytical approach, examining how three architects, including the author, devise architectural languages embedded in the countryside and locality as inspiration in addressing modern architectural design within a conservative planning tradition. While promoting innovative architectural and settlement design at national level, planning systems at local government level in Scotland often tend to promote versions of bastardised Georgian villas complete with dormer and astragal windows. The author's award-winning practice has challenged the approach, and this paper represents a practitioner's self-reflection in analysing key elements of the implicitly grounded concepts of his design ethos, while comparing this with other contemporary designers with similar but different approaches. The paper provides a brief overview of the planning context and the development of both rural built form and moral philosophies related to the religious traditions of differing localities, prior to a review of the work of the three practices and a reflection on the way in which these practices ‘ground’ their work within context. This, it is argued, has relevance not only for the planning system, but also for other practices, and wider relevance for embedding research within practice.