An innovative and exciting movement has emerged in Scottish architecture. Over the last two decades, Scotland’s most remote and rural locations have become the site of ultra-modern, architect-designed homes, conceived with a strong empathy for the natural environment.

Fusing contemporary design with the beauty of a rugged landscape, homes featured in Scottish Houses include principal residents, modern farmhouses and holiday hideaways. These are immersed in the wilderness – on islands, coastlines, lochs and mountains. They connect with a growing outdoor culture and ways of living, attracted by the search for retreat.

The first book of its kind, each chapter contains a curated collection of recently completed houses, demonstrating the diversity of geographical locations, projects and architectural practices. The buildings draw on context and traditional forms to establish a new vernacular tied to Scotland’s geology, climate and sense of identity. Many self-built, off-grid, or on majestic but challenging sites, the homes offer solutions to designing for the climate crisis through performance, technologies and building with minimum resources.

Featuring insightful commentary and more than 200 drawings and photographs, alongside interviews with five architectural practices, this beautiful book celebrates how architects and homeowners are creating inspirational, contextual and sustainable spaces in the landscape.

Architects featured:

• Dualchas
• Mary Arnold-Forster Architects
• Ann Nisbet Studio
• Loader Montieth
• Izat Arundell
• Baillie Baillie Architects.

Isabelle Priest is an award-winning architecture journalist and writer. She currently works as managing editor at the RIBA Journal * where, among other sections, she edits the houses and house extension sections of the magazine. Isabelle has previously worked as a writer and editor at many magazines, including *Architecture Today, The Architects’ Journal and as a correspondent for a10 New European Architecture in Amsterdam.