The UK's First Pods - Outside the Box
End of an era + start of another
The first Site meeting in Autumn 2001 prior to any construction - Local Naturalist David Crosthwaite - explains the military history and natural attributes of the Conservation Park to Julian Forester and the Planning Department.
Cove Parks Military legacy
Earth sheltered NIssan Huts as munitions stores.
Two Ex Taransay Pods rehabilitated at Cove Park on Ecological principles.
Completed in 2002
Andy McAvoy on site at Cove Park with the first Pod in 200
Two Ex Taransay Pods rehabilitated at Cove Park on Ecological principles.
Completed in 2002
Orientated to Loch Long and Sun
Wild flower meadow to roof
Up and over a sloping hillside on shuttered footings.
Taransay Pod completed as Artists residence at Cove Park
Pods ... before ... Cubes
In early 2001 Andrew received a call whilst on the Island of Harris, from the new proprietor of Cove Park - Peter Jacobs
" We hear you have buildings for Sale and we have a need ? "
I replied " not personally " and explained that I was "coordinating the flat packing of Pods I had made ... on behalf of the BBC's agents Lion Television.
"when can we have them ? "
Having designed the buildings for Castaway 2000 the practice (then called Blast architects) , was employed to remove them at the end of 2000 We were removing the Pods from their remote Island Home on Taransay amidst an environmentally conscious process of reinstatement of the Island as found. It had to be returned the to its uninhabited status .
The purchase by Cove Park was subject to Planning permission for positioning of 2 pods.
We secured the Planning Permission for this first strike of inhabitation and reversed the trend of removal of domesticity, in an area heavily controlled by The MInistry of Defence.
The sensitively negotiated permission allowed the Pods to find a new home and for the proper clean up of a small component in an "Area of National Scenic Beauty " back on Taransay.
Proprietor Eileen Jacobs named the First Pod - "Taransay" to reflect on the original location and asked for the other to be positioned in an association with a standing Sessile Oak tree, thence becoming " Oak Pod".
With the Planning Permission in place and the Kits flat packed, we went on to Self Build with the original carpenters + 2 of the original 4 Taransay Pods- later that year at Cove Park.
That left 2 kits and one was erected at Luskentyre facing back to Taransay and the other on the sma' island of Muck in the inner Hebrides.
And so began the process of creating with Peter and Eileen Jacobs , Julian Forester and David Crosthwaite Scotland's first residential Arts Centre.
The project was an early essay in creating something " outside the Box" with a tiny budget and with lots of local help.
That was important as the cost of a residency could then be minimised and Cove Park could successfully accommodate more people outside their own box.
Cove park had been a Conservation Park for small and rare animals. It was struggling and through its change in ownership was growing a new narrative of cutting edge Residential Arts Centre. The Glasgow artist Benno Schotz was Eileen Jacobs Uncle and something of him was driving this on.
The narrative before conservation at Cove Park was American Military who knew it as "Ardpeaton Hill " It was a munitions depot in the 2nd World war and functioned to some degree as that until the Americans left the Neighbouring Holy Loch in the 1980s . The most recent conservation park legacy extended to good ecology thanks to David . A flock of white doves of peace , a few renegade Black rabbits and a fence Jumping Highland Cow called Buzz Lightyear were tended by David.
The military's legacy was a fence , a series of concrete slabs and a number of Earth sheltered munitions bunkers.
We surveyed the ex military sight with David Crosthwaite who knew where the Buildings were or had been, he also introduced the Ecology and its tender spots .....including Humans. David was a gentleman and one of the most generous people you could ever meet . He had been a Falconer in The RAF and had eye for anything peculiar on the skyline ... He had functioned as the previous Conservation Parks land and beast manager. He was slight and smoked strong tobacco to the degree that only his Scottish Deer hound - Tess could bare .,but despite his frame and frequent coughing ...he was a one man Army.
The usual west coast fraternities could not stomach his nonalegiance to their institutions and his vehement alegiancies to nature ...
Increasingly during Construction there were fall outs with local Contractors due to what David referred to as "jobs for the boys".
With David guiding us and being at all times the quarter master, we patched + consolidated the existing 70s visitor centre . Not a thing of beauty or a thing of substance ... But it was present and due to its size it had to occupy and frame all arrivals.
It housed the communal kitchen , dining room , office, library, lounge and laundry functions.
We physically insulated, tiled and put some heat into that via a Hearth and On reflection brought it to some kind of basic standard for a while. .
As it turns out there had been a huge and overstated application to start again with everything on the park. A huge application to the Scottish Arts Council that overplayed the aspiration. We had came in following an application to create a new build artist centre quite detached from the existing narratives .That had failed at the first hurdle and the "scots granny " approach of make do and mend prevailed. This was paying off.
We re-serviced the site for roads water and power.
We created a deck from second hand timbers from a demolished pier at Helensburgh , to enable external activity in and around the old visitor centre and made that the Communal studio library and dining room.
We drove around the peninsula looking for redundant materials with David ..
The buildings - Pods and Containers that we brought to the place were all recycled and of minimal cost .
Over the following year Andrew joined Peter Eillen and Julian in a serious of Conversational dinners that attracted people and trickle funding.- Funding that supported the programme of Artists residencies .
We explained at each one-, the process being undertaken and at an appropriate pace the programme evolved without the stress of huge annual running costs .
That ethos of make do and mend and a locally engaged methodology , got the place going .,And a process of careful upgrades as funds became available became ever more possible. The dream of replacing the visitor centre more possible in 5 or ten years once the programme was established.
The first residents arrived in September 2002 - Just 6 months after the first telephone call.
Anyone that could lift a spade or Paint Brush was employed.
15 minutes before the first Artist residents "Nick and Sacha Craddock" arrived in the First Pod we were hanging the bespoke textiles by Kim Macormac and Vishali Lhonda. We developed a textile pattern with them that played on the Sighting of Submarines.
Cove Park was an instant success and after one year there were not enough beds .,We worked with the proprietors to unearth affordable ways to boost the accommodation levels at the lowest sq meter rates possible . We later went back on site with the Cubes - a 2nd residential strike of 3 residential Container based apartments in a simple terrace ., A simple terrace was embellished by a sky pond to bounce light into the modest interiors.
Scotland's first Container homes had been created.
From there, the owners knew what to do.
Andrew has been back as a resident Artist and it remains to be a Joy.
A quiet Earth sheltered + understated place, where the dark shadow of International Armement's and manouvres plays itself out on the horizon..The Trident fleet is very visible and audible and forms the sinister backdrop and world reality to otherwise gentle creative behaviours.
Cove Park connects visitors instantly with the spectrum of nature.and world.
The entire project inclusive of pods, containers and adaptation of visitor centre was completed by 2003 for under 200K -
It was by no means perfect, but mainly robust .
Its carbon footprint was very low and a lot of people learned a lot ...on the Job.
Detailed knowledge of context was at all times gleaned from David Crosthwaite the land manager we inherited with the topography.
As you approached Cove park a flock of Davids white doves always circled you. " Just for peace" David would say, knowing full well the significance of them in that very specific place.
I still wonder to this day who put sand in the petrol Tank of his quad byke ?
Rest in Peace David
In early 2001 Andrew received a call whilst on the Island of Harris, from the new proprietor of Cove Park - Peter Jacobs
" We hear you have buildings for Sale and we have a need ? "
I replied " not personally " and explained that I was "coordinating the flat packing of Pods I had made ... on behalf of the BBC's agents Lion Television.
"when can we have them ? "
Having designed the buildings for Castaway 2000 the practice (then called Blast architects) , was employed to remove them at the end of 2000 We were removing the Pods from their remote Island Home on Taransay amidst an environmentally conscious process of reinstatement of the Island as found. It had to be returned the to its uninhabited status .
The purchase by Cove Park was subject to Planning permission for positioning of 2 pods.
We secured the Planning Permission for this first strike of inhabitation and reversed the trend of removal of domesticity, in an area heavily controlled by The MInistry of Defence.
The sensitively negotiated permission allowed the Pods to find a new home and for the proper clean up of a small component in an "Area of National Scenic Beauty " back on Taransay.
Proprietor Eileen Jacobs named the First Pod - "Taransay" to reflect on the original location and asked for the other to be positioned in an association with a standing Sessile Oak tree, thence becoming " Oak Pod".
With the Planning Permission in place and the Kits flat packed, we went on to Self Build with the original carpenters + 2 of the original 4 Taransay Pods- later that year at Cove Park.
That left 2 kits and one was erected at Luskentyre facing back to Taransay and the other on the sma' island of Muck in the inner Hebrides.
And so began the process of creating with Peter and Eileen Jacobs , Julian Forester and David Crosthwaite Scotland's first residential Arts Centre.
The project was an early essay in creating something " outside the Box" with a tiny budget and with lots of local help.
That was important as the cost of a residency could then be minimised and Cove Park could successfully accommodate more people outside their own box.
Cove park had been a Conservation Park for small and rare animals. It was struggling and through its change in ownership was growing a new narrative of cutting edge Residential Arts Centre. The Glasgow artist Benno Schotz was Eileen Jacobs Uncle and something of him was driving this on.
The narrative before conservation at Cove Park was American Military who knew it as "Ardpeaton Hill " It was a munitions depot in the 2nd World war and functioned to some degree as that until the Americans left the Neighbouring Holy Loch in the 1980s . The most recent conservation park legacy extended to good ecology thanks to David . A flock of white doves of peace , a few renegade Black rabbits and a fence Jumping Highland Cow called Buzz Lightyear were tended by David.
The military's legacy was a fence , a series of concrete slabs and a number of Earth sheltered munitions bunkers.
We surveyed the ex military sight with David Crosthwaite who knew where the Buildings were or had been, he also introduced the Ecology and its tender spots .....including Humans. David was a gentleman and one of the most generous people you could ever meet . He had been a Falconer in The RAF and had eye for anything peculiar on the skyline ... He had functioned as the previous Conservation Parks land and beast manager. He was slight and smoked strong tobacco to the degree that only his Scottish Deer hound - Tess could bare .,but despite his frame and frequent coughing ...he was a one man Army.
The usual west coast fraternities could not stomach his nonalegiance to their institutions and his vehement alegiancies to nature ...
Increasingly during Construction there were fall outs with local Contractors due to what David referred to as "jobs for the boys".
With David guiding us and being at all times the quarter master, we patched + consolidated the existing 70s visitor centre . Not a thing of beauty or a thing of substance ... But it was present and due to its size it had to occupy and frame all arrivals.
It housed the communal kitchen , dining room , office, library, lounge and laundry functions.
We physically insulated, tiled and put some heat into that via a Hearth and On reflection brought it to some kind of basic standard for a while. .
As it turns out there had been a huge and overstated application to start again with everything on the park. A huge application to the Scottish Arts Council that overplayed the aspiration. We had came in following an application to create a new build artist centre quite detached from the existing narratives .That had failed at the first hurdle and the "scots granny " approach of make do and mend prevailed. This was paying off.
We re-serviced the site for roads water and power.
We created a deck from second hand timbers from a demolished pier at Helensburgh , to enable external activity in and around the old visitor centre and made that the Communal studio library and dining room.
We drove around the peninsula looking for redundant materials with David ..
The buildings - Pods and Containers that we brought to the place were all recycled and of minimal cost .
Over the following year Andrew joined Peter Eillen and Julian in a serious of Conversational dinners that attracted people and trickle funding.- Funding that supported the programme of Artists residencies .
We explained at each one-, the process being undertaken and at an appropriate pace the programme evolved without the stress of huge annual running costs .
That ethos of make do and mend and a locally engaged methodology , got the place going .,And a process of careful upgrades as funds became available became ever more possible. The dream of replacing the visitor centre more possible in 5 or ten years once the programme was established.
The first residents arrived in September 2002 - Just 6 months after the first telephone call.
Anyone that could lift a spade or Paint Brush was employed.
15 minutes before the first Artist residents "Nick and Sacha Craddock" arrived in the First Pod we were hanging the bespoke textiles by Kim Macormac and Vishali Lhonda. We developed a textile pattern with them that played on the Sighting of Submarines.
Cove Park was an instant success and after one year there were not enough beds .,We worked with the proprietors to unearth affordable ways to boost the accommodation levels at the lowest sq meter rates possible . We later went back on site with the Cubes - a 2nd residential strike of 3 residential Container based apartments in a simple terrace ., A simple terrace was embellished by a sky pond to bounce light into the modest interiors.
Scotland's first Container homes had been created.
From there, the owners knew what to do.
Andrew has been back as a resident Artist and it remains to be a Joy.
A quiet Earth sheltered + understated place, where the dark shadow of International Armement's and manouvres plays itself out on the horizon..The Trident fleet is very visible and audible and forms the sinister backdrop and world reality to otherwise gentle creative behaviours.
Cove Park connects visitors instantly with the spectrum of nature.and world.
The entire project inclusive of pods, containers and adaptation of visitor centre was completed by 2003 for under 200K -
It was by no means perfect, but mainly robust .
Its carbon footprint was very low and a lot of people learned a lot ...on the Job.
Detailed knowledge of context was at all times gleaned from David Crosthwaite the land manager we inherited with the topography.
As you approached Cove park a flock of Davids white doves always circled you. " Just for peace" David would say, knowing full well the significance of them in that very specific place.
I still wonder to this day who put sand in the petrol Tank of his quad byke ?
Rest in Peace David
Looking west over Loch Long from Pod site - Little would you know that a percentage of the worlds Nuclear arsenal was sitting within a miles radius .
...A peninsula full of contradictions
View from Ardpeaton hill over Peaton House to Loch Long
Summary of Process
Interior of Cove Park Pod
Furniture by Terence Conran
Pod kitchen
Affectionately known as the beaks , Bay windows were added to the Transay Pods at Cove park to extend vigilance over the landscape
For the occasional sleepover by guests
The sit upperie, spare bedroom or "Loch Long" Sea trial viewing deck
Hit + Miss Ladder to sleeping Deck + Textiles by Kim Macormac ( DNA )
A minimal Oak chair by Cove Park resident + maker of bridges - Richard La Trobe Bateman and his contribution to the One Tree exhibition. Nothing more than it had to be. A good lesson in commodity.
Homes + Interiors Scotland Article - August 2005 - Hit the Link to see full article
Homes + Interiors article - August 2005 cntd
Homes + interiors article cntd
Homes + Interiors Article cntd
Homes + interiors article cntd
Whilst building the Pods and upgrading the visitor centre we helped Richard La trobe Bateman develop this swing bridge. Sourcing timber and discussing strength of native timber and fixings. The bridge now leads to the Pods and Cubes.
Great lesson in commodity.