High Sunderland
Selkirk, Scottish Borders

The restoration of an iconic modernist home in Selkirk.

 

The vision

We were approached to oversee the restoration of the fire-damaged High Sunderland property, originally designed by Peter Womersley for renowned textile designer Bernat Klein.

Our appointment had two main intentions – establishing how the original property was constructed in order to return it to its original splendour, and developing solutions to decarbonise the house using modern technology. 

The A-listed home presented a unique set of challenges – namely the huge responsibility of preserving its exceptional original lines and features, while making changes which would restore the building and improve its efficiency.

The conclusion

At the outset of the project, we exhaustively surveyed High Sunderland in both the past and present. Working closely with our structural and service engineers, we devised a strategy to retain and re-use as much of the original property as possible. 

We developed plans to sensitively introduce new materials where faithful restoration wasn’t possible – additionally installing a new heat pump, roof insulation and underfloor heating to fulfil the environmental aims of the project. With so many wooden finishes in the home, it made sense to have a specialist cabinet maker leading the reconstruction. Laurence McIntosh were appointed as main contractor, ensuring an uncompromising and experienced approach to these materials was on hand to deliver a perfect finish. 

The house is now as beautiful as it was before – a gem of modernism, and an icon of its era. 

The results

The team

Structural Engineer:
David Narro Associates
Services Engineer:
Harley Haddow
Main Contractor:
Laurence McIntosh
Photography:
Dapple Photography