Cove Park Containers
Forming 3 artists residences.
Old containers given new life
Shipping Containers are a familiar site in the transient melancholic landscapes surrounding the Naval Dockyards of Gairloch + Loch Long. Amidst that - could Maritime storage apparatus offer a quick cheap and effective means of homing resident Artists and adding much needed capacity to an emerging Arts Centre ?
Land manager + Falconer of the small animal Conservation Park on to which the Arts Centre was being laid - David Crosthwaite was retained with the change in Land ownership and had inherited as part of an earlier military legacy - various redundant containers.
Of the Peninsula and as a trained Falconer David was tuned to the land and all its deposits. . and ghosts. For those coming new to Rosneath and Cove, he was critical in understanding Natures plight. “ No ground nesting birds lay Eggs here .. too much radioactivity “
First gallery - exterior focus
Simplicity is often best
To save on concrete he suggested use of the ex Nissan Hut bomb store platforms as sites..or sights.
We were asked to consider how to use 8 foot x 20 foot containers to make 3 residential artists apartments. We negotiated Planning permission on the basis of removal of existing military apparatus left on the park and dropping in equivalent container cubage, which overcame an Argyll wide "presumption against residential development".
We were asked by our clients Peter + Eileen Jacobs to consider high stacking and irregular geometry but pushed for a simple low cost no fuss solution - A south west facing terrace of 6 on an existing slab adjacent to reflective water.
This provided 3 new residential units.
Second gallery - interior focus
Now ready for residents
Working with sustainable drainage consultant Gordon Miller, we selected local plants to digest any waste from a discreetly positioned bio disk sewage treatment facility and for extension and adaptation of a seasonal drainage bund into a deeper year long nature pond. Out of a problem evolved a diverse garden.
The roofs were turfed to enable what the client termed Cubes to disappear from view and to add extra insulation.
Nothing more and nothing less than they had to be. … Numbers 1, 2 + 3
Early residents of Cove Park will remember David’s well tended white Doves of peace circling on departure + arrival at Cove Park., as if speaking for Benno Schotz aspiring Sculpture Boy And Dove around the same theme.