Located on the Scottish coast near North Berwick, East Lothian, the 550-acre Archerfield Estate is a golfing paradise and spa with a 17th-century mansion house at its heart. It is also the site of a new courtyard house by Daniel Bär, an award-winning German architect based in Glasgow.
Only 20 miles from the centre of Edinburgh, the sprawling estate is home to a residential development offering views of the sea and Scots pine forests. It is here, on a self-built plot in a secluded woodland at King’s Cairn, that Bär was commissioned to create a new home for clients Paul and Karen Richardson.
Step inside this Scottish courtyard house
‘While earlier phases of the estate followed a more prescribed development pattern, a different approach was adopted for the self-build plots,’ explains Bär. ‘Individual expression was encouraged by the estate, with quality maintained through a vetting process by the estate architects. This means that the house needed to both belong to its surroundings while establishing its own context.’
Bär’s solution was to create a courtyard house: ‘The courtyard walls play a key role, forming a controlled setting for the house, all finished in the same brick. From within the main rooms, views are carefully framed so that only the trees and sky form the middle and background.’ As wider development continues to grow, and surrounding plots are turned into new homes, ‘the design remains self-contained, maintaining its own internal environment regardless of external change.’
It’s a type of building Bär thinks is particularly suited to the region. ‘I had long been interested in developing a courtyard house in Scotland,’ he explains. ‘In this climate, it is often the wind, rather than the temperature, that limits the use of outdoor space,’ says the architect. ‘The courtyard walls supported by the reflective pool mitigate this, creating a sheltered microclimate, effectively a sun trap, that is now used throughout the year.’
The elegantly restrained single-storey dwelling with guest annex is designed as a fully accessible, step-free standalone building with a L-shaped plan. Its floor-to-ceiling glazing blurs the line between indoors and out, while the courtyard unifies its two wings of accommodation. As well as main residence, separate guest quarters and a self-contained annex, the project includes an additional formal living area – an ideal layout for multigenerational living.
The design evolved through dialogue and exploration between architect and the clients, a couple approaching retirement. It includes the practical – a highly insulated sustainable design with passive solar principles and photovoltaic panels – but also the poetic. Shadows of surrounding trees create ‘living canvases’ on the walls, and reflections of the sky cast in the courtyard pond create a calming sensory experience.
The restrained material palette features handmade Roman-format brick, steel copings with bespoke anodised aluminium glazing and polished concrete floors. Natural elements such as solid timber and marble are expressed in their raw form to highlight craftsmanship and authenticity.
‘The bathrooms were a particularly rewarding space to develop,’ says Bär. ‘The marble slabs are detailed with mitred edges so that only the surface is perceived; the depth and weight of the material are deliberately concealed. As a result, the marble reads only as a surface finish rather than a solid mass – its physicality is abstracted.
‘A similar approach was taken in detailing the kitchen splash-back, which is formed from one millimetre-thin aluminium sheet, colour-matched to the surrounding painted surfaces. In both cases, the material is reduced to its finish – something that only exists at the surface.’
Full of expertly considered details and hidden angles, the project continues to enchant its new owners even a while after its completion. ‘We still feel a sense of anticipation when we drive up to our home,’ say the Richardsons. ‘House at King’s Cairn is like a mystery box. Driving past, it’s not obvious that it is a house. It’s a hunkered-down building that we know is incredibly private from the outside but incredibly open once you go inside, with so much light and space.'
‘You don’t see the large glass windows from the outside. The glass and courtyard views can only be seen from inside the house. Only the clerestory windows offer a suggestion of what lies behind on approach to the house. Daniel created the unexpected and with it that feeling of mystery and anticipation.’