We’re delighted to share that Martin Flett, founding director of Ossian Architects, has been awarded RIAS Accreditation in Conservation Architecture.

 This is an important milestone for Martin and reflects Ossian’s continued work with existing buildings, listed buildings, traditional fabric and sensitive historic settings.

A selection of details from site, looking at the materials and pieces of work that are often most interesting before the building is complete.

On existing buildings, new work rarely arrives as a perfectly standard component. Stone has to be selected, cut and tooled to sit convincingly beside existing masonry; copings and chimney dressings need to follow established profiles; and roof junctions are shaped around structures that have already moved and changed over many decades.

Our design for a new garden extension to a Victorian villa in Edinburgh’s Grange Conservation Area is now approaching completion.

The project replaces a later addition affected by damp and rot, reorganising the ground floor to work better for family life and opening the house more directly towards the garden. The first photograph is from before construction work began.

A few photographs from the earlier stages of construction across several of our projects, showing the structures and assemblies behind the finished architecture.

In our refurbishment work, opening up floors, ceilings and wall linings is often the first opportunity to properly understand how a building has been put together. Stone and brick walls, historic timber joists, previous openings and later alterations are gradually exposed, often revealing relationships that could not be fully understood from the initial survey.

We’ve recently completed our work on the reunification and remodelling of two adjoining homes within Hamilton Lodge, a Category B listed building on Portobello Promenade.

Built in the mid-nineteenth century as an Italianate house facing the beach, Hamilton Lodge is one of the most distinctive buildings on this part of the Promenade. Its tower and varied roofline give it a strong presence on the seafront and reflect Portobello’s history as a seaside resort.

We’ve recently begun work on a new project in Sutherland, looking at the adaptation of an existing farmstead site to create a small group of rural homes.

As part of the early design work, we have been looking closely at the wider landscape of Caithness and Sutherland, and at how patterns of settlement have evolved across this part of the northern Highlands over time.

We’re pleased to be starting design work on a new project in Strathyre, within Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.

The project involves the careful adaptation and extension of an existing home in a steep, wooded setting above the village, with views to the surrounding hills and a garden already closely connected to the wider landscape.

Planning permission has now been granted for our new rural house above the Antrim Coast.

Set within agricultural fields, the house is drawn out beneath a long roof plane, with sheltered thresholds, recessed terraces and planted edges mediating between exposure and retreat.