So, 2021 is seeing us diversify somewhat. We are doing quite a lot of large one-off houses next year and oddly enough we are also doing quite a lot of small, remote Bothies. We have developed a fair amount of expertise over the years in creating small buildings in scenic and often difficult locations. We are in the process of splitting our business into two separate entities – one for the big stuff and one for the small stuff. We are doing this mostly due to the fact we are beginning to take over large parts of the constructional delivery of the small buildings – not something we’re ever going to do for a £1m private house. So watch this space over the next few weeks and months for details of our new small buildings bureau – in the meantime shown below is our winter 2020/21 project – an off-grid Bothy in a regenerating area of commercial forestry in the Trossachs. We’re trying to develop a truly user friendly and viable off-grid system in conjunction with a variety of partners we have worked with before on bigger off-grid projects. The goal here is to produce a viable tourism sector development that can be reliably off-grid and simply user friendly without a 50 page instruction manual and strictly no composting toilets!
The last update was in the middle of summer - its now December and the first snow has fallen and everything is still uncertain. Linearchitecture soldiers on – we’ve even taken on a new member of staff so I suppose that’s a positive! We also have a lot of things on; some on site, some getting near to a site start. So confidence still seems high but everyone is bracing themselves for rocketing building costs come January and the idiotic economic self harm being inflicted upon all of us.
2021 is looking like our busiest year yet with lots of exciting projects coming to fruition – so while everything is telling me to be pessimistic and brace for impact – all seems fine so far and I’m not yet having to break out the Irish Passport and flee the country.
Picture shows our office in the foreground – and shows that we also have a new toy!
My last post was pre-lockdown and I have, like the rest of you, been scrambling about to make sense of what I’m being told is “the new normal” (usually by people who had no idea what the old normal was ). The last few months have been a difficult juggling act of trying to manage remote working with the added complication of being one of two parents that have continuing jobs and two pre-school children requiring daily education, stimulation and occupation. I am very glad I moved our office to within sight of where I live up here in Killearn which has allowed me to continue working with minimal interruption – albeit at a much (much!) slower pace than usual and in shifts with my better half. Pretty much all of our projects are still proceeding as before, so there has been no chance to slow down too much. We’re busy with two large new houses, three lodges in various remote locations and a myriad of small jobs from people who have been trapped in their houses for three months and realise they don’t like them very much. Remote working with Lewis has been successful enough to not see any reason to return to compulsory office hours – however we are both back in the office at least a couple of days a week for now. I will start posting more regularly now I’m officially back at work – call if you need anything!
