SPOTLIGHT COLDWELLS BUILD LTD
TEAR IT DOWN TO START AGAIN Coldwells Build Ltd created a dream home for its client, giving them all the sophistication of life in the city, with the privacy of rural living
W hat should you do when your client has found their dream location but the property itself is nothing near to what they had hoped for? If you’re Coldwells Build Ltd, based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, you tear it down and start again. The company’s work on ‘The Arbor House’ resulted in a happy client and a resounding win of the House Builder Award at the Scotland Master Builder Awards in 2023. The client found their ideal plot surrounded by mature, leafy trees in a quiet neighbourhood near Aberdeen’s city centre. The original old coach house was in disrepair after years of standing empty. The client wanted a minimalist city home with the private solitude of a rural property. The two-storey, minimalist design by Brown & Brown Architects, preserved the original property’s stone walls to create a ‘skin’ to shelter the new property from the busy road and create a pathway to the secret garden. Project highlights ● Elevated, timber and glass building cantilevers above the colonnade ● A sedum living roof that blends in with the surrounding trees and garden spaces ● Microcement floors, timber ceiling and frameless panoramic glazing ● Timber cladding spaced to the exact millimetre so only full-width boards are visible ● Window reveals that line up
Undeterred, the team pressed on, finding a solution, which impressed the architects so much they have specified the same concrete panels in their latest design. “The Arbor House is our most complex project to date and it required innovative methods of construction,” Booth says. “It pushed our team to develop new processes, use different materials and learn new skills. “Every detail to make the home look simple required hundreds of hours of discussions, decisions and problem-solving. It’s an extraordinary example of collaboration between builder, architect, engineer and client. “Coldwells Build overcame technical challenges, contractors cancelling, supply chain delays and volatile material prices to deliver our clients a home that meets their distinctive needs and lifestyle. It is a home we are extremely proud of.”
symmetrically from one end of a room to the other ● Made-to-measure joinery, including a smoked larch pivot front door and birch plywood cabinetry ● A spiral staircase with
200 plywood pieces individually glued to create the stair’s treads
Overcoming challenges Like many small and medium- sized construction companies, Coldwells Build Ltd had to navigate the turbulence of high material prices and significant supply shortages, such as the four-month delay for the home’s 20-tonne steel frame. The team found an alternative, however, collaborating with a new supplier to have a frame on site within four weeks. The main challenge, though, had to do with the board- marked concrete, a material used throughout the home. The architect specified a national concrete specialist to make 14 panels, each weighing
up to four tonnes. However, the specialist was unable to fulfil the order. After unsuccessful attempts at finding new precast contractors, the team pioneered a method to make the panels on site. “We tested different techniques to prepare the timber, torching and wire brushing it to accentuate the grain,” says Ross Booth, Founder and Director of Coldwells Build Ltd. “We experimented to find the right mix of concrete and tried various methods of hand pouring, setting and installing the panels.”
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Master Builder
www.fmb.org.uk
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