So…its that time of year again. Hospitality projects striving to be ready for the season, being built in challenging locations in terrible weather. You would think we’d be used to it by now but the mental fortitude required to live in the West of Scotland always leads one to be overly optimistic about the weather. Last year it was The Beast from the East but this year its a quagmire one minute, bone dry the next, followed by gale force winds and now this weekend pushing 20 degrees. Frankly, its now beginning to get a little concerning and it seems like Al Gore was, inconveniently right. So when the sh*t hits the fan at least our new lodges in Invertrossachs have tonnes of chopped and stacked firewood, an independent water supply, plenty of food (wildlife) passing through the site and far enough away from major settlements to be comfortable…Must stop watching the Walking Dead. 

So - we have had a busy few months! We’ve moved office from the less than inspiring environment of the East End of Glasgow to the fresh air of the countryside. We now have a lovely view of Dumgoyne rather than  our former lovely view of the dodgy end of the Gallowgate. Espresso machine installed so do pop in for a coffee if you’re passing.

OFIS unit is now craned into place - we’re now realising how much of a “prototype” it is and how unfit for purpose it actually is. So a bit more waterproofing detail required, a bit more strengthening and a lot more thought into occupant safety! 

Invertrossachs lodges are finally coming out of the ground - if you could call the stirred up brown soup in which they sit “ground”. Now that drier weather is here we are hoping that site operations will become a lot easier. 

A lot of our projects that are coming up for construction design and moving onto site are all in the tourism/hospitability sectors and therefore need to be ready for the 2019 season…which, needless to say, doesn’t leave us a whole lot of time! The project shown here has recently been granted planning permission and will be moving through the next stage of statutory approvals as fast as we can drag it – and unsurprisingly this desire for speed is something that influences the detailed design. With this project we are trying to create a very low impact tourist development that will be part of a small scale re-wilding process where the rest of the site will be cleared of invasive species and replanted with a mix of native woodland species. This re-wilding process is going to be somewhat disrupted by a 20 ton digger rolling around the site as well as endless concrete pours and heavy material drops. Therefore, we are going to try and move forward with a very low impact, driven foundation solution that will mean no concrete, no rising walls and hopefully a working platform with a week or two. Unusually for us – the entire building will be timber with only a few essential bits of steel – so a little bit more experimentation that we’re used to (or necessarily happy with!) but difficult sites call for simple solutions…