Just returned from a glorious three days’ site visit to the Oran Na Mara project on the Isle of Harris – so exciting to see the progress and meet the builders who are taking such pride in shaping the house, both inside and out….and what a shape!  From the road, you only ever see one section of the curve, so it never appears to overwhelm the gentle slope into which it nestles.

I arrived just in time for the start of the thatching.  Stage one, Neil was off to find a friendly crofter who’d let him cut the square turfs; stage two, crofter found, so large neat squares of turf cut; stage three, these were laid, grass side down in an overlapping diamond  pattern on the roof.

Stage four will be the thatching, using the marram grass that’s been drying in the North of the island.  Handful-sized bundles will  be  pushed into the undersides of the turfs, then the whole roof will  be covered in a rope “net” which will beheld in place with stone weights. No need for guttering or downpipes to spoil the natural lines where thatch meets stone …the rain will happily find its own way down to the ground, trickling through the nooks and crannies in the thick stone outer walls.

Going inside was a huge excitement – seeing the skeleton of the domed ceiling and the curves drawing you irresistibly round – giving a wonderful feeling of movement, space and light: imagine what it will be like, once domed and white and softly lit…

…what a lovely day on Lismore, sowing the first “conceptual” seeds with Sarah Campbell of Mogwaii Designs for possible cushions, lampshades, blinds and curtains for the new house on Harris…she is a-buzz with creativity and I’m now very much looking forward to our collaboration on this job.  A bit of an adventure, too, going over on the wee ferry with my bike and wobbling across the island (which I can see from my office!) to her beautiful studio… She is currently working on a blind, which would be such fun to adapt for the machair on Harris…

…it’s the same at the start of any design job, but most especially ones like this, with a completely blank canvas…days and nights of playing around with ideas before anything gets tentatively committed to paper or screen.  As Oran Na Mara is destined to be a holiday house, there is greater scope to have fun…in fact, this house is such fertile ground for a myriad of different ideas that the greatest challenge is being selective in order to remain coherent throughout.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time exploring the surrounding birdlife, flora and fauna (unbelievably beautiful – all of it!) and thinking how we could express everything in the house, without it becoming obviously “themed”…to make the interior a celebration of the colours, textures and sense of the sea and shoreline in front, and the machair behind.  I thought it might be an idea to take a bird/flower as the starting point for the more intimate rooms – bathrooms and bedrooms – celebrating the “bigger picture” in the main areas…there, concentrating on those extraordinary aquas, blues, jades and turquoises…

Here are my first toe dips:

Oran Na Mara Bathroom Conceptual Development

Oran Na Mara Kitchen Conceptual Development

Oran Na Mara Bedroom Two Conceptual Development (3)

Oran Na Mara Bedroom One Conceptual Development (2)

…and tomorrow, I’m biking over to Lismore  to see my lovely and talented friend, Sarah Campbell of Mogwaii Design, so that we can start bouncing a few ideas for her applique work…thinking cushions, headboards, lampshades…in Harris Tweeds and natural linens…FUN!

…if there isn’t such a collective noun, there should be!  My mind boggles at the challenge of getting these the right size and in the right order – let alone dealing with the logistics of getting them all on to Harris and into place…but it’s all in a day’s work for the project manager, Jonathan Bridge…and here’s the result:

The house is going to be called Oran Na Mara…the “Song of the Sea” in the Gaelic.  It immediately brings to mind the magic of pressing a shell to one’s ear and listening to the waves crashing on the shore – Neptune’s Sony Walkman!

Can’t wait for my next site visit – it’s so exciting seeing squiggly lines on a page being converted into stone and timber….and these lines really are squiggly – the house is shaped like a worm –  fantastic, fully glazed, curved walls facing out over the Atlantic, the eaves rising gently to form “eyebrows” beneath the fuzzy thatched fringe of the roof (see earlier post for photos of the maram grass drying). Plan and Elevations The house was originally designed by a local architect on two floors, one below ground level, and with a garage large enough for two small lorries.  The cost of digging down and the lack of an identifiable need for lorry parking space led to a complete conceptual/layout redesign by JBD, converted into working drawings – and a house that will stand up (always a consideration!) by Iain Dawson Architecture and Jonathan Bridge, Structural Engineer.  This caused the project to be delayed by almost a year, so it’s great that it’s now – literally – getting off the ground!

The ceilings will be domed, so the interior feel is going to be very organic, and flooded with light.  We will be carrying on the organic feel with all the detailing – doors will have stained glass, in sparkling aquamarines and greens, set into waney edge timber panels; window sills and floors will be of waney edge oak; bathrooms will bob a nod to the natural water elements outside (the ocean…and the odd spot of rain!)…straight lines are not on the menu!  And colours…well, I have my little bag of Harris sand, shells and tumbled glass sitting on my drawing board as inspiration….