Crumbling stone and digital fabrication combine to mark the passage of time in a remote Dumfries house by Lily Jencks Studio and Nathanael Dorent Architecture

Buildings.

Photos
Sergio Pirrone

Constructed within the derelict remains of an old Dumfries farmhouse, Ruins Studio by Lily Jencks Studio and Nathanael Dorent Architecture has two profoundly distinct characters. Externally, the crisp pitched-roofed, black rubber-clad volume inserted within the crumbling stone walls of the farmhouse appears like the ghost of the original building. Internally, the orthogonal form of the structure is disguised by a curvaceous lining that forms a sequence of organic, asymmetric spaces, whose white walls merge smoothly into ceilings and deform to create integral furniture.

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The existing ruin dates from the seventeenth century and had been multiply altered over time. Traces of these interventions remain as a “palimpsest of occupation on the site”, says Lily Jencks Studio. In creating the 180-square-metre house, “we wanted to highlight this historical layering by embedding a series of counterpoint materials and geometries within the design”.

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Despite the evident heterogeneity of the building’s three ‘layers’ – stone, rubber envelope and ‘tube’ lining made from polystyrene blocks set within a CNC-cut gridded timber framework and covered with Glass Reinforced Plastic – they “are not designed as independent parts”, say the designers. “Rather they take on meaning as their relationship evolves through the building’s sections. They separate, come together, and intertwine, creating a series of architectural singularities, including in some areas a particularly revealing simultaneous reading of these three layers”.

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Space expands and contracts within the house. The more ‘public’ parts of the program – kitchen, dining, sitting room and study – are gathered in the middle of the building, where the lining fits most closely to the form of the external envelope. At either end, the ‘tube’ detaches from the ‘envelope’ to create smaller spaces with more private functions: bedrooms, bathrooms and storage. “To access these spaces, the tube’s non-linear curved surface ramps up, producing a dynamic sensory experience”, suggest the designers.

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Situated in remote countryside, the house enjoys views extensive views northward down two valleys, which informed the positioning of large window and door openings. At those points, the tube lining funnels out to meet the building’s outer skin, “creating a ‘poched’ spaces within the thickness of the tube wall that can be used for furniture and storage”, say the designers. Custom-made wooden shelving conforms to the contours of the internal lining, and appears to “pull” the structural grid through the wall, revealing another layer in this architectural palimpsest.

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Credits

Architect
Lily Jencks Studio, Nathanael Dorent Architecture
Executive architect
Savills
Structural engineer
Smiths Gore, Nous Engineering