EXTENSION
This hands-on husband and wife team have more than doubled the footprint of their small rural cottage and created a modern home fit for 21st century living
NAMES Elaine Paterson Gordon and Alan Gordon
LOCATION Luss, Argyll & Bute
BUILD TIME
August 2014 – October 2017
SIZE OF COMPLETED HOUSE
120m2
HOUSE COST
£245,000 (August 2012)
BUILD COST
£150,000
BUILD ROUTE
DIY self-build
CURRENT VALUE
£500,000
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM Steel frame with timber infill
WORDS Alison Wall
IMAGES Ross Campbell Photographer
If you’re looking to buy and extend an historic property in a national park, you may find yourself constrained by strict planning restrictions — but as Elaine Paterson Gordon and her husband Alan found, there are ways to win over the planners and achieve the extra space you’re after.
The couple loved the home’s location, on the banks of Loch Lomond in Argyll and Bute; the house, a 19th century listed stone cottage, was less appealing.
“The house only had one bedroom, and the low ceilings and small windows meant the rooms were dark inside,” says Elaine. “The site was particularly sensitive as it’s part of a group of ‘chocolate box’ cottages which are very quaint but not always conducive to modern living.”
DOUBLING THE FOOTPRINT
The couple, both architects, worked closely with the national park planning authority to scope out ways to extend the cottage in ways that were sympathetic to the local area, but still met their ambitions to greatly increase the cottage’s footprint.
“Normally, Local Plan planning guidance requires any new extensions to be subservient to the existing dwelling — usually this means avoiding front extensions, keeping to a lower ridge height, a smaller footprint and so on,” explains Elaine.
“However, in this case, we were able to more than double the size of the original cottage with careful choice of materials and the design. In fact Historic Scotland said that our property ‘contributes nicely to the streetscape of the cottages in the local area’.”
The secret to their success, says Elaine, is the geometry of the extension, which deliberately echoes the existing cottage with the same width and roof pitch, creating a harmonious relationship between old and new.
And rather than simply mirroring the original stone cottage, the couple have opted for a contemporary
