Ynys Y Big, Anglesey // Anglesey
Located on the southern coast of Anglesey on the very cusp of the Menai Strait, Ynys Y Big is a Prestigious Replacement Dwelling with a Beautifully Contemporary Boathouse Renovation
When the client came to us with a prior planning approval and a desire to progress to site, we were of course very excited to help in any way we could given the incredible setting. Accompanying the replacement dwelling is a strikingly contemporary renovation of the existing boathouse which allowed us to bring our own design sensibility into the site and to provide a strong connectivity to the Menai Strait.Richard Sandbach ARB RIBA (Architect)
Adopting a Design
It's sometimes the case that we are asked by our clients to pick up a project from a previously appointed architectural designer. While this does limit our ability to exercise our own design skills, we recognise that when a client elects to change their architect, it's usually because their needs were not being met previously. As such, our primary objective is to ensure that, should our clients trust us to do so, we aim to deliver the highest quality service we can. It is arguably a risk for the client to move away from the designers who know the brief and scheme intimately which is why it's not always an easy decision to make, therefore the onus is on us to ensure that they feel assured that we have taken the time and care to fully understand their needs.
Ynys Y Big is such an incredible site, that delivering on the client vision for it provides plenty of motivation for us to get stuck in.
Bringing the Waterside House to Life
JAR Architecture's involvement in Ynys y Big is, first and foremost, to progress the project on to ensure that it is fully compliant with Building Regulations and is sufficiently detailed such that it can ultimately be built. The principles underpinning this are to ensure that the building we deliver is safe and healthy to inhabit; as architects, our focus in the technical design is to work into the details so that the design is comfortable thermally, efficient to run and provides the level of finish that the client has in mind. Working closely with the design team of consultants, we take great care to ensure that by the time we're ready to break ground, hopefully in 2027, that there will no surprises.
Revitalising the Boathouse
Even with the approved plan, there was no design on the existing boathouse, a simple structure of stone, timber and metal sheet cladding, that nevertheless has some wonderful spatial qualities. Our approach was a simple one: to take the existing material palette and reinterpret it with a sleek, contemporary design in mind. The stone skeleton of the building is to be retained to keep the continuity of its unique architectural heritage; where there was once corrugated sheet metal, we have introduced beautiful standing seam zinc, the haphazard timber infill replaced with purposefully deployed acetylised timber.
The Menai Strait is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, any design on its shores must respect this. We have designed the boathouse to feature glazing with low light transmittance glazing and a movable facade to ensure that the boathouse does not unduly impact the surroundings through light spillage.
Can JAR Architecture help you push your project along?
If you have a project that needs some impetus to be developed further as the clients of Ynys Y Big or have a new scheme on a similarly tricky site, please feel to contact us or fill in the below for, we'd be happy to discuss.
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