Horner + Maclennan

University of Aberdeen Science and Teaching Hub

h+m are delighted that the University of Aberdeen Science and Teaching Hub has been shortlisted for the 2024 RIAS Best Building in Scotland Award.  Our modest modernist landscape design of paving bands, avenue trees and simple concrete benches reflects the precision and order of the building’s elevation and geometric layout, providing the setting and character to the main pedestrian approach to the building.  Good luck to Reiach and Hall Architects.

Scotland's best building 2024 award shortlist revealed - BBC News

     

 

 

Our Inverness Office Has Moved Address

Our Inverness office has moved address, as from the 1st September 2024 the new address is, 

82 Telford Road, Inverness, IV3 8HN

Rural Edge Community to Integrate with Forres Landscape

https://www.urbanrealm.com/news/11119/Rural_edge_community_to_integrate_with_Forres_landscape_.html

Scottish Mountaineering Press, 2023 Creative Flash Fiction Contest - Contours

Congratulations to Keith who was runner up in a competition run by the Scottish Mountaineering Press, 2023 Creative Flash Fiction Contest - Contours, kindly supported by Fort William Mountain Festival and the Highland Bookshop. 

 

Contours – A Cartographic Fiction

by Keith Horner

The proposition that Charles Hutton inadvertently invented the contour on Schiehallion in 1774 whilst calculating the weight of the earth is a mischievous deception orchestrated by the scientific establishment of the Enlightenment era.

The contour actually originates from the life-long activity of Highland shepherdess Miss Con(stance) Tour who, like the proverbial haggis, had one leg longer than the other. Over decades, as she tended her flock, she established continuous horizontal trails across the hillsides that became highly visible.

Early cartographers quickly recognised the value of her lines of horizontal delineation in depicting the three-dimensional quality of the landscape on maps. However, whilst maps contain symbols that represent actual physical features, you will find no visible evidence of lines of constant height extending across the landscape. After Con’s untimely death at the age of 103 following a severe bout of dizziness, her trails became overgrown and contours assumed a cartographic fiction.

 

Contours

image submitted by another runner up,  Hilary Tresidder

 

Wishing Kaja All the Best

…and so Kajas’s two months’ work experience with us concluded with a detour after a meeting at Loch Insh Outdoor Centre to another of our projects nearby: the Cairnngorm Reindeer Centre (there are no reindeer in the Netherlands – so it was a ‘must do’ diversion which Jon and Roz were more than happy to make happen!). It’s been really, really great having Kaya in the Inverness office and we would urge everyone who receives unsolicited requests for internships/work experience not to dismiss them out of hand (and to definitely reply and engage with students enquiring – they deserve it – and, if Kaja is anything to go by, they may be happy to work if you just cover ‘out of pocket expenses’). It’s been a really good experience for us having Kaja with us this Spring and we hope she may return in 2024.

    

Dallas Dhu Project

h+m are pleased to be continuing work on this challenging and innovative project with Fraser Livingstone Architects

Fraser/Livingstone wins Forres housing contest (architectsjournal.co.uk)

image courtesy of FLA

 

The Rewilding Centre, Dundreggan

Our Inverness office attended the opening of Trees for Life Re- Wilding Centre at Dundreggan the other day.  They have created 20 local full time jobs and the centre will be a destination as well as a stopping point in Glen Moriston and can only be good for the local area. I'll post a few more pics in a few weeks once the wild flower grass seeding gets going and some of the TfL trees come into leaf...TfL have applied for a licence to release beavers at Affric  Seemingly there are already beavers at Cannich and the wild boar have gone over the hill from Glenmoriston into Glen Affric....

an'Ordain Workshop Planning Approval

Glasgow City Council have recently granted planning permission for the new an'Ordain watch making workshop which h+m prepared the landscape proposals alongside Reiach and Halls building. We are hopeful the project will proceed towards construction on site at the earliest opportunity.

The time is right for Glasgow watchmakers' expansion : February 2023 : News : Architecture in profile the building environment in Scotland - Urban Realm

h+m welcomes Abel

Abel recently graduated from The University of Sheffield in Landscape Architecture with Ecology and joined horner +maclennan for his Year Out. Alongside his studies, Abel has been involved in a wide range of live projects, from masterplanning and visualizing large scale developments over long timescales, to detailed planting design. Abel is particularly interested in ecological design, rewilding, and how we can adapt our world for an uncertain future of climate change. He has organized research expeditions exploring the use of climate resilient plants in the Canadian Rockies, as well as the impacts of climate change on agriculture in remote mountain communities in the Indian Himalayas. As a qualified Mountain Leader and keen climber and fell runner, Abel finds inspiration in the wild places he explores and the people he shares these adventures with. You can usually find him running or climbing in the mountains of the Cairngorms or lost somewhere on the dramatic west coast of the Scottish Highlands.

New Shoreline Path at Findhorn Bay

h+m hope all are safe and well after these difficult times and are delighted that now lockdown restrictions are gradually lifting that they’ve been part of the project to develop a new shoreline path at Findhorn bay which will allow more people than ever, including wheelchair users access to some of the best views in the area.

https://www.forres-gazette.co.uk/news/new-findhorn-bay-pathway-open-205630/

Shortlisted for the 2019 FutureTown Design Competition

h+m are very pleased to be shortlisted for the 2019 FutureTown Design competition with our ‘From Parking Space to Public Space’ proposal for Castle Terrace car park in Edinburgh.  Public voting takes place this week, so we’d encourage you to review the competing proposals and grateful for anyone who votes for our submission.

https://www.scotlandstowns.org/future_town_design_comp_2019 

Saughton Park in the Sunshine

It’s hard not to enjoy Edinburgh in the sunshine. Saughton Park has some excellent examples of contemporary herbaceous and perennial planting at the moment.

                  

A Green Network Blueprint has been developed for Glasgow City Region by GCV Green Network

https://www.gcvgreennetwork.gov.uk/what-we-do/news-events/610-green-network-to-connect-people-and-nature-across-glasgow-city-region?fbclid=IwAR2UzBZIsstap2R5_GKBgDaDA76ggZSKCxGo35fW_GO1YaJ_5BtI7StCNh8

Auchtertyre Housing Development

We recently undertook a Landscape and Visual Impact Appraisal for a 44 unit mixed house type development in the settlement of Auchtertyre which lies to the north of the A87, near the junction with the A890, approximately 8km east of Kyle of Lochalsh. Key issues were the potential impacts on the Kintial National Scenic Area, the Kyle - Plockton SLA and the Lochalsh Woodland Walks Garden and Designed Landscape. None of these designations were found to be ffected by the proposed development. The report also included landscape proposals to mitigate the impacts on views from the road. The planning application was submitted in March 2019.

Culloden Heritage Site

NTS have appointed h+m along with Aquatera to undertake 'dead ground' analysis  to identify areas where development would not impinge on important views from Culloden Battlefield, and to produce wireline images of a series of possible scenarios to illustrate the potential effects of development on the visitors' experience of the battlefield.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/inverness/1715979/public-urged-to-join-last-ditch-fight-to-save-iconic-culloden-heritage-site/?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR11WTwRHbkkLKbCJS2HCKWpmcC68DfRG2lMIaoFdj2VPDG_j5KBmkcEQ_w

Coigach and Assynt Living Landscape Partnership

h+m undertook a landscape characterisation exercise in 2014 to assist in the successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the a grant of £2.9 Million to go towards twenty eight projects aimed at protecting Coigach and Assynt's nature and heritage. These included creating and expanding native woodland, offering outdoor learning to local schools, major repairs to the approach and summit paths of the mountain Suilven, and work to excavate and stabilise Iron Age settlement Clachtoll Broch. The Suilven path repairs project was completed in September 2018 and an planning application was  submitted for a viewing platform at Clachtoll Broch in January 2019.

Cargilfield Preparatory School, Edinburgh, Synthetic Pitch Project

Pleased to see this project up and running following h+m’s role in site planning and design and obtaining the planning permission.

https://www.cargilfield.com/news/post.php?s=2019-02-06-tom-heap-opens-the-gillespie-pitch

Community Empowerment & Landscape – A Discussion

Interesting article.

https://scotland.landscapeinstitute.org/news/community-empowerment-landscape-a-discussion/?fbclid=IwAR1zaHx10yA7QGPSHCDgGpGo656qpDWUVtjCe5GwitS6XjxoTDskqyzhWkY

 

merry christmas from h+m

Edinburgh Office Change of Address

With immediate effect, our Edinburgh office address will change from No 6 to No 8 Darnaway Street.  Post code and telephone number will remain unchanged.  Whilst we are not physically moving office, part of our building has been sold and has been subdivided, with the resultant effect of altering our formal address.

I would be grateful if you would update your records accordingly.  Thank you.

Nucleus Wins Top Architectural Award

Nucleus, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive in Wick recently won the 2018 RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award, one of the top architectural awards in the UK.  Designed by Reiach and Hall Architects, and with landscape design by horner + maclennan,  Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, described the project as “showing great inventiveness in enhancing its local area, and is another terrific example of the standard of architectural creativity here in Scotland.”

 

https://www.rias.org.uk/awards/doolan-award/2018-rias-andrew-doolan-awards/

merry christmas from h+m

Inverness Justice Centre Gets Planning Approval

h+m were involved in preparing the landscape proposals and are delighted that Highland Council have gave approval to the Inverness Justice Centre.

http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/6689/Highland_Council_give_the_nod_to_£23m_Inverness_Justice_Centre.html

Landscape Institute Scotland, ‘A House and Grounds for an Art Collector’ Winners

Ourselves and Neil Gillespie, were delighted to be announced the overall winners for the LIS design competition ‘A House and Grounds for an Art Collector’. The awards ceremony for which took place on the 28th September 2016 in Glasgow’. The competition celebrated collaboration and inspiration between landscape architects and architects as part of the LIS contribution to the 2016 Festival of Architecture. Both disciplines were required to demonstrate a true partnership to develop internal and external ‘gallery’ spaces siting art works and their overall integration with the house, grounds and surrounding landscape.

 

Knockando Woolmill, one of the winners of the 2016 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards

We were very pleased that Knockando Woolmill was one of the winners of the 2016 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage /Europa Nostra Awards, Europe’s highest honour in the heritage field. This prestigious award reflects extremely well on everyone involved. We all knew it was a special project and it is fantastic that it has received such widespread acclaim.

Chanonry Point

h+m were originally commissioned by the Highland Council to provide two sketch proposals for environmental improvement works to the car park and visitor space at Chanonry Point – a popular tourist spot, attracting over 120,000 visitors a year, all hoping for a glimpse of the local dolphin pod. We won a further commission to detail up the preferred sketch proposal and take the project through to completion. The contract works totalled £275k, which, we feel, was money well spent. We are delighted that the new and improved Chanonry Point is now open for the public to enjoy and hopefully cherish! We’ve had some really positive feedback both from local folk and those travelling from far and wide.

 

Wishing you a very merry christmas from h+m

Westercraigs Planning Application

The planning application for the restoration of the former fire damaged Craig Dunain asylum in Inverness for private residences has just been submitted.  h+ m prepared landscape proposals for the grounds, centred around utilising the remains of the original chapel as an outdoor courtyard, and taking inspiration from the grass weaving artworks of former asylum patient Angus McPhee, the well-known ‘silent Highland weaver of grass’, whose works were derived from his early experiences of traditional island weaving in South Uist. The layout incorporates a sequence of elements which represent the principles of weaving - a strong linear warp with a sinuous flowing weft - entwining the old building into the new layout.     

Kilmartin Musuem - Highland Lottery Fund Announcement

Fantastic news that The Heritage Lottery Fund have approved the application for the KIlmartin Museum Redevelopment allowing design work to progress early next year.

Heritage Lottery Fund Support for Kilmartin Museum

http://kilmartin.org/redevelopment/?p=216

Argyll's Kilmartin Museum Gets Lottery Boost

Heritage Lottery Fund Endorses Kilmartin Museum Redevelopment

http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/5643/Heritage_Lottery_Fund_endorses_Kilmartin_Museum_redevelopment.html

Merchiston Castle School

Holmes Miller in collaboration with landscape architects horner + maclennan draw up plans for Merchiston Castle School sports hall.

http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/5434/Holmes_Miller_draw_up_plans_for_Merchiston_Castle_sports_hall_.html