We are delighted to be featured in Living Magazine’s autumn issue published by DC Thomson. The article features our Millring Conversion project near Pittenweem in Fife. Designed and managed by partner architect Lucy Beltran, the article briefly describes the challenges faced during the conversion of this historic mill ring steading into a luxury 5 bedroom house.
“The overall design is all about stone, wood and glass – it is a building that appeals to the senses. Even the eclectic and tasteful finishes are used sparingly but to great effect, allowing the structure to speak for itself.”
Fife Architects inherited the project from local architect Svein Mjeldheim at the detail design stage and later worked closely with the client and contractor on site during the construction phase to deliver the finished product. The Millring House project was unique in many ways and as one can imagine, it presented the architect with many design challenges which hadn’t been worked out at the early design stages of the project. For instance, the architect had to find a sensible way to insulate the mill ring roof while leaving it’s unique umbrella structure intact and still visible (the solution was to build a new roof, like a second skin on top of the existing one).
The mill ring is a traditional rural building used primarily to grind various grains using horse power. The horse would have been walked around a central shaft pulling a large quern that would crush the grains in the adjacent barn. The ‘rotunda’ space traditionally used by the horses has now become a spacious main living room with large frameless glass windows looking over the garden and surrounding countryside. The threshing barn is now a light filled dining room linked directly to the kitchen and has a mezzanine that is accessed from the upper floor and is used as a study.
The house needed a flexible design complete with a bedroom and carer’s accommodation on the ground floor. To link these rooms to the hall and living room, a frameless glass corridor was created. Sally MacDonald who has written the feature describes how:
“The corridor, with its lean-to roof, also features steel pillars which support untreated Douglas fir lintels. Both the steel and the wood were sourced from the estate, enhancing the building’s integrity.”
Living Magazine is quarterly magazine designed for people living and working in the Tay & Forth region and is being delivered directly to homes in the area right now. Get out there and try to find yourself a copy!
