The heart of an island supporting development

An Cridhe is a new community building for performance, sports and social events, with meeting rooms, bunkhouse, nursery/play facilities and flexible office accommodation for the community and visitors to the Isle of Coll.

Due to the rural and remote nature of the site, we devised a web-based consultation strategy, which, together with drop-in days in the local hotel, ensured that we had maximum user input to the design.

The building has at its heart a flexible space designed to feel like a large and welcoming living room with casual seating, a hearthside and fire. There is also a kitchen servery, a PC for internet use and a small library. We put in place a comprehensive energy strategy, incorporating a ground source heat pump, super insulation, local materials and off-site construction.