JAMstudio in the news

JAMstudio have been in the press a fair bit this week, we have two feature articles in the latest issue of Homes and Interiors Scotland, one on the Little Maldron Mill and one on Prospect House:
http://www.homesandinteriorsscotland.com/

The Press & Journal did a nice feature on the joys of being a Northern Star Winner, with a bit about JAM:
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1731765

and we're on the Urban realm website, with a very nice write up and pics on the mill:
http://www.urbanrealm.co.uk/news/2371/JAMstudios_Little_Maldron_Mill_comes_to_national_recognition.html

Meantime our clients at the mill report that they have seen the "3 men in the mini" again pausing outside the mill - we'd dearly love to know who they are, so if that's you in the smart grey Mini Cooper, drop us a line on the email: info@jamstudio.uk.com !!

The green green grass of home

Took a trip over to Little Maldron last night to see the results of the turfing/seeding of the garden, and I have to say it is looking rather spectacular. Amazing the difference grass makes in adding definition to the building, it has sharpened up the exterior lines and serves as a timely reminder of the important of landscaping.

We'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Gregor and the boys at Total Build Scotland for the main bits of hard landscaping, and Graeme and his team at Bon Accord Landscapes for the turfing, rotovating and seeding work, that has finally given the mill a setting it deserves.

Grand Designs Awards, Scottish Home Awards

It's been a manic few months here at JAMstudio, and with the terrible winter weather we've been busy in the office but not, thankfully, much out on site.

2010 has been marked with a number of notable commissions, some of which will be uploaded to the main website later on this month, but to give you a flavour, at the studio we are currently working on a beautiful listed manse, with steading conversion potentially with a pool in the centre, another derelict listed three storey farm house and steading, a distillery refurbishment, a large office fit out for 250 people, and a number of smaller residential projects, ranging from alterations to extensions, and another large and very interesting steading commission just locally in Skene.

The advent of spring has bought a few surprises in terms of a hat trick of design award nominations for us, which has been particularly pleasing for the studio.

The Scottish Home Awards have nominated us as finalists in both the "Conversions of the Year" and "Architectural Excellence"categories, for our project at the mill and we find out at the awards ceremony in Edinburgh if we have been successful in June.

http://www.scottishhomeawards.com/

We also had the fantastic opportunity to take the whole of the studio and our client to London to celebrate our nomination as finalists in Channel 4's Grand Design Awards 2010, again for "Best Conversion" for the work to the mill. Whilst we did not win outright, as the only only Scotland based finalist and only one of 6 in our category, we felt pretty pleased with even just the nomination. Many thanks to all our suppliers and other members of the professional team (some of which were there on the night), we can't do it without you!!

It was a cracking night, presented by Kevin McCloud and was topped off with a lot of singing and dancing and a fair consumption of alcohol (probably the less said about that the better), and it would be lovely to win it so we're working hard to ensure we have something even better to submit next year!

http://www.granddesignsawards.com/home-winner-2010/200-best-conversion

We've a number of projects now gearing up to come to site so watch this space for more updates as to how our various client projects are coming along.

Finding water with a twig...

Well despite the weather and the huge amount of snow that we've been grappling with, we've been determined to carry on with progressing as many of our projects as we can. One of our new projects that has been proving very interesting is a new commission to design the conversion of a derelict listed farm house and steading not far from the office.
We were approached last year by our client to prepare a feasibility report that looked at the pros and cons of tackling such a big conversion (in total the plan is the convert the house, build a separate groundsman's cottage, and split the steading into three large 5 bedroom houses and a sizable business unit). The site is spectacularly located with southerly views over the River Don, and a backdrop of the Bennachie mountain range looking towards Mither tap.

Our client has been successful in securing the site, and we are now in the process of lodging a number of planning applications, for the conversion of the house and steadings. There have been a number of investigative studies that we have been undertaking during the last month, including looking at the state of the foundations for the house, checking for bats, finding a suitable location for the septic tanks and soakaways by carrying out percolation tests, and most recently assessing the capability of the site to provide its own water source, with sufficient capacity to serve all the dwellings/units planned for the site. There was an existing deep well that needed to be measured on the site and additionally we felt it prudent to explore other options for the provision of private supplies, knowing that water can be a fickle thing at the best of times - it is either usually where you don't want it, or is not where you really need it!
To find where there might be potentially good borehole spots around the site we have employed the services of a water diviner. The sceptic in me still finds it mildly amusing/rather unnerving that anyone can find water with a twig and copper rods, but on this particular occasion, John had a rather unusual experience with the diviner that makes me wonder that there must be more science to it than witchcraft!

Essentially the diviner walked the site, and assessed the current borehole which was pronounced "nae much use", having explained that it was located on a single underground vein of water, rather than a connecting node point which is where a number of veins come together. He proceeded to walk the site and find several other better "node" points that he felt would have a better yield, and these were marked with pegs and later on digitally marked with GPS and plotted onto a drawing. And despite there being a number of buildings and trees in the way, the pegs all line through the site in an almost dead straight line!

The weirdest thing that happened was that after the diviner let John have a go with the copper divining rods, which duly flapped away merrily when John was in the right location, he produced from his bag what can only be described as a "y" shaped twig, which he then proceeded to use, and which, when he was in the right location, pulled very strongly indeed towards the ground. He passed the twig to John for him to try and nothing happened, but then instructed John to put his arm around the diviners waist, whilst the diviner held one part of the "y" and John grasped the other. Lo and behold the twig started pulling like mad towards the ground, John described it as like having a fish on the other end, and when the diviner let go of his twig end, the thing sprung back up like the fish had escaped. All really rather odd, very enjoyable and the proof of the pudding will be in the borehole drilling later on this year. Now all that I need to find out is if they make those twigs that can find oil.... or gold!

The new company Landrover Defender was just the right bit of kit to have, and made mincemeat of a foot of snow, and 400 yeards of unmade track to get to the house. Not the first time we've thanked our lucky stars we bought it. It's snowing again tonight, so no doubt it'll come into its own again this week.

The Big Freeze Continues

The first week back post the Christmas break has been a trying one! We have now had a huge amount of snow, roughly 10 inches lying everywhere, that due to the temperature at the steading hovering at about -3degrees (dropping to -13 degrees at point), the snow simply isn't thawing, and this in turn has made it very difficult for our staff to get to work, as our communal driveway and the back road to the steading isn't being gritted at all, which means unless you have a decent 4x4 you can't get here! (Just as well we have the new Landrover Defender). Pretty though it looks the novelty is definitely wearing a bit thin!

John managed to get out to see how our clients at Prospect House coped with the new kitchen extension over the festive period, and took some lovely photos of it in the snow, the reflective nature of the frameless glazing means the glass virtually disappears in the snowy landscape. Our client Jane reported that "it was just the most wonderful entertaining space" and she is really pleased with how the space functions having tested it with 11 guests for dinner.

Meanwhile our clients at the mill are coping in temperatures of -15degrees, and with about 14 inches of snow in Torphins, the mill seems to be coping well, with a comment of "sleeping in the bedroom is like sleeping in the sky - amazing". The only initial difficulty has been the wheel icing up and making a lot of rather peculiar sounds on occasion as a result because the build up of the ice seems to unbalance it until the wheel spins the ice off. As a temporary measure the wheel has been locked, as we are slightly concerned about the potential for long term damage to the bearings with the sheer weight of ice.

The office we have been doing for our client Lili Hunter opened this week, and I am looking forward to seeing it dressed and the client getting full use of the space. The final item to be installed was the reception desk which has worked in very well, and other than the pink and orange Dalsouple rubber flooring for the kitchen and bathroom which has been delayed by the snow, the spaces are complete, and we are looking forward to her opening party.

Prospect House Kitchen Extension Completed

The second project to complete just before Christmas was the glass extension and kitchen refurbishment for our clients at Prospect House, culminating in us all being able to enjoy a glass of fizzy and a very enjoyable evening building Lego with their children just as the festive season got underway.

I am particularly pleased with the the numerous interesting shapes, textures and patterns within the space, and the way the light cast changes at different times of the day. Sadly I did not have my camera with me the last time we went to site, as when it is dark the space is almost at its most dramatic. Our PR Photographer Rory will be on site shortly to take some professional shots both day and night, and I am delighted with the feedback we have received from our client so far. The issue with the scratches by the installer on the glass has been resolved by polishing the glass, and the external works were almost complete by Christmas, other than the weather that was making pointing the granite cassies rather tricky. Having worked with our client at Prospect House for several years now we are really looking forward to the next phase of works - a replacement garage. No doubt it will be something special!

Little Maldron Mill Client has moved in

Well, 2009 was a long and very interesting year culminating with four projects largely complete in December. Our clients at the Mill have moved in and are busy adjusting to having a house full of entirely new things right down to cups and crockery, as most of their belongings went up in smoke whilst they were in storage in 2007.

Initial feedback has been very positive, and other than having been slightly hampered by nearly a foot of snow just at the moment, it looks at though the two spaces are going to work out very well and allow our client a great deal of flexibility about how they live and work in the two buildings.

The kitchen island unit is working particularly well, with enough space to comfortably have 4 people congregate to eat, as we found out tonight when we went over to join the client for supper.

The dining room table is on its way, due in next week, along with a final few bits of furniture. The mill wheel does not appear to be freezing despite enduring temperatures last week of -9deg C, and the water in the lade is flowing well and shows no signs of freezing much to every ones relief. The final few snags should be completed this month.