The Cairngorm National Park Local Plan allocates land at An Camas Mòr, east of Aviemore, for a new community to meet the growing development pressure in Strathspey, providing up to 1500 homes with associated community, business and infrastructure provision over an estimated 25 year period. Gehl Architects have masterplanned this ‘sustainable new community in the Highlands’, based on the principles of a tight footprint, respecting the woodland setting and promoting walking as the main form of transportation.
Given the sensitive location of the site, a thorough landscape and visual assessment was undertaken, considering how the landscape would change over the phased development of the new community and taking account of existing and proposed tree growth. Viewpoints were selected to assess the visual impact, and identifed that the greatest impacts would be from local elevated viewpoints where the full extent of the new community would be seen within its woodland context. Detailed liaison with the masterplanners was undertaken to minimise any significant effects through design modifications to the masterplan.