Won in competition against several well known architectural practices, Locate were commissioned to develop the feasibility for this major timber processing site.

The work involved broad masterplanning of the site, infrastructure development and initial designs both for the industrial sheds which will occupy most of this 6,000 sq.m development but also a high quality timber retail and office section housing administrative staff and doubling as an on-site showroom.

Naturally the office and show-room building (@ c. £0.8m) is to be made of timber from the plant and detailed to a very high specification. The use of timber externally is to be extended to other buildings on the site for visual continuity and to provide a showcase for Scottish timber cladding. The buildings will be highly insulated and avoid all toxic and environmentally unwelcome materials. Budget and robustness are of course the main other drivers in the design.

The complex is to be heated by the first woodfuel based CHP plant and district heating system, with onsite water catchment and ecological treatment facilities and high degrees of servicing for some sizeable and advanced continental processing machinery.

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