The Ben Lomond View Point

Project idea

The project began when the RSPB, a wildlife charity, decided to open their site to the public. They commissioned some new nature trails and a visitor hub with the aim to have an official opening on the 14th of July 2017. The RSPB investigated what funding they could utilise, and came across the Scottish Scenic Routes Initiative. The initiative aims to promote the Scottish landscape through the use of interventions designed by young architects. This allowed them to approach Strathclyde to find a student to design and build a structure on their new paths within a budget of £5,000.

Project description

Initially, their brief was very simple. A view point to Ben Lomond under 8 meters squared and open to the nature without doors or enclosures. However, with such and interesting client and beautiful site, it was important to work with the client in creating a more detailed brief; the landscape then became the key to the concepts that led to the final design.

During an early meeting with the clients, a member of staff began to explain why they set up shop in Loch Lomond, they went on to explain how the site was of particular importance because of the highland boundary that slices the park in two. It allows for highland and lowland species of wildlife to be found in the one nature reserve, making it completely unique in Scotland. The site lies on the edge of the lowlands, looking over Loch Lomond and into the highlands, where you can see the Highland Ridge and Ben Lomond. I instantly knew this had to be the focus of the design.

This notion then informed the concept diagram: we have firstly have our site, with its beautiful backdrop of Ben Lomond and Highland Ridge; the main aspect of the brief is then to frame the view of the single mountain, Ben Lomond; the structure is then to provide enough seating to accommodate a family visit;
and then finally, the structure will have the contours of the distant boundary etched onto the wall which frames the view of Ben Lomond.

Technical information

Initially, the materials had been prepared for prefabricating in a Glasgow workshop - the entire design was based around the idea of prefabricating the structure in 4 sections, which were sized to fit in the clients own HIAB truck for ease of transport. However, the news came a day before the timber was to arrive that the workshop had an electrical fault and that alternative arrangements needed to be made. This resulted in a drastic change in the build process; the entire construction sequence had to be redesigned and the risk assessments needed to be updated and tweaked to reflect the change in circumstance. This consequently led to the build taking place in a large shed on site meaning the budget for the workshop had to be relocated into recruiting some experienced help — something that was to be provided within the workshop package.

The project’s tight budget meant that innovative ways to reduce costs needed to be explored. The opportunity to use diseased trees from the RSPB’s wood of Cree reserve meant that the structural timber and cladding could be provided for milling time and transport costs, this was a cost saving of over £2,000. Furthermore, the ebony stain needed two coats on all external timber, by using a vinegar and steel wool solution, it was possible to blacken the timbers enough to only need one coat of ebony stain saving almost £300 in extra stain. Steel wool and vinegar can blacken certain species of wood as it react with their tannin content; it turned out to be very effective on the donated larch.

The foundations were a particularly complex aspect of the brief, the client did not want permanent foundations so a unique alternative to concrete needed to be used. The structure was fitted with 300mm long threaded steel spikes with a steel plate screwed onto the feet to distribute the load called ‘QuickJacks’ by the company, Shed Base. This allows the structure to sit lightly on the landscape, and more importantly, allows it to be moved by crane in the future as it is not permanently fixed to the ground. This was a great solution for the client who had raised concerns about the sites future; they are applying for more funding to expand the visitor experience and thus, the paths may be altered/moved slightly. Engineers advised on 17 points in the frame which needed foundational supports, each QuickJack can take a 500kg load equating to a maximum total load of 8.5 tonnes, which is more than enough to accommodate snow and wind loads + maximum capacity of visitors.

The RSPB have been tremendously happy with the project. This has been emphasised further in their request for a document outlining the materials used in order to provide a budget for upkeep — something that was specifically ruled out in early meetings, therefore the project was designed to be as self sustaining as possible, with the birch plywood being the only material with potential upkeep needs. In order to provide the level of contrast envisaged in the early renders, we did not want to stain the birch. For this reason, we used a clear solvent based water repellant sealer which holds a guarantee of water resistance for one year. This will need reapplied annually, however the client ahem been advised to use yacht varnish if there is ever any extra budget available. The builders advised that the roof usually determines the life expectancy of a build, and for this reason, we made sure to upgrade the roofing felt to the best we could afford, with a layer of liquid rubber underneath and between all seems. Overall, the structure is very sound and should hopefully stand proud at Loch Lomond for years to come.