1 Old Bellsdyke Road

Designed for local house builder, Ochilview Developments, this group of apartments and cottage flats are proposed to occupy a disused garage site. The massing of the apartments responds to Bellsdyke Road by providing a strong frontage, creating a new gateway into Larbert from the west. Within the site these taller apartment buildings step down to a scale more reflective of the residential context, sheltering softer landscaped areas and more intimate access to cottage flats. This provides a quiet and safe environment for the houses to be accessed from, allows the opportunity to meet neighbours and a place for children to play. Crossings and signage extend beyond the the site extents in order to knit into the existing pedestrian and cycling links to the Forth Valley Hospital network. The site will offer 26 apartments including a proportion of these allocated as affordable housing. Open plan living areas reduce corridors and hall space to maximise room sizes. Sales information for the properties available can be found on the Ochilview Developments website.

Fitzmorris Gardens

Designed for local house builder, Ochilview Developments, this group of houses cleverly occupy what was once the plot for a single cottage. Four houses with long, narrow plans are grouped around an access courtyard set back from the main road. This provides a quiet and safe environment for the houses to be accessed from, allows the opportunity to met neighbours and a place for kids to play. Open plan living areas reduce corridors and hall space to maximise room sizes. Photovoltaic panels on the roofs combine with high levels of insulation to provide very efficient, 3 bedroomed family homes. 

The Potteries

Designed for Ochilview Developments this site was formally occupied by a small pottery that closed. The scheme comprises a mix of 4 and 3 bedroomed, detached dwellings and a block of six, 2 bedroomed apartments. Like other housing developments we have been involved in, we looked to group these buildings around a landscaped parking court so that the development had a strong sense of place and it’s own identity. A prestigious environment is achieved through the use of good quality materials for both buildings and landscaping and the retention, where possible, of existing mature trees.  Some properties in this development are still available for purchase www.ovdev.co.uk

Stevenson Avenue

Stevenson Avenue is designed to cater for a range of buyers. The development comprises 2, 3 and 4 bedroom properties and combines open plan spaces with large windows, bespoke oak and glass staircases and a range of contemporary fittings and finishes. Utilising simple robust detailing with a high level of air tightness, very high insulation levels and solar thermal hot water heating, these houses are very efficient to run. Use of a quality facing brick and accent areas of larch cladding give these properties great kerb appeal.

SCOTTISH HOME AWARDS 2013 – SHORTLISTED

Queen’s Drive

A robust contemporary addition to the Falkirk townscape, this new dwelling house is designed as a play on the traditional ‘house shape’. The building’s red masonry exterior is punctured sculpturally to expose the inner skin of render and glass. Very much an object building, the house sits on a prominent corner plot within an already established neighbourhood. Internally, a winding hall with two staircases links all levels tying together generous living and family spaces with the bedrooms which have controlled views to the town beyond.

STIRLING SOCIETY ARCHITECTS 2014 – BEST BUILDING – HIGHLY COMMENDED

Easter Greenrigg

Arka were approached by GRS Homes to design 3 dwellings forming a courtyard steading development in a fantastic rural setting. Keen to blend the traditional and contemporary, the design strategy employed retained a traditional aesthetic to the courtyard whilst allowing each dwelling a contemporary elevation to the stunning panoramic views beyond. This approach imbues each dwelling with a strong sense of individual identity whilst allowing the three to work together as a traditional rural building cluster.

STIRLING SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS – BEST BUILDING AWARD 2009

THE ANDREW DOOLAN AWARD 2009 – Shortlisted

Sikorski Gardens

As a well known local landmark, the ‘Big Polish Club’ that occupied the site had fallen into disrepair over a number of years since its closure as local social club. Whilst the original building did have a strong presence it did not relate to the context which had built up around about it over the years and had sadly gone past the point of saving. Tasked with a brief to maximise the redevelopment of the site for GRS Homes, Arka designed a proposal which essentially formed a courtyard development of 5 houses.

This was a mix of 3, 4 & 5 bedroom properties. The houses themselves present their gables to form the ‘street’ whilst at the same time stepping back from each other to allow for light to filter between them.

Due to the prominence of the gable elevations these were modelled to allow for the inclusion of the entrance porches as recessed elements and alsoto inform the articulation of the elevation in a such a way as to reduce the perception of the ‘traditional’ gable form.

Tigh Culloch

This house sits on a plot created by subdividing the very large garden of a 19th century manse. The existing stone walled garden allows the living spaces of the house to fully open up to the south without compromising privacy. These large glass-walled rooms remain quite hidden from view until entry, adding a sense of drama to the spaces.

Diagonal views through the open planned areas increase the sense of space in what is a relatively tightly planned dwelling. The whole plan is devised to incorporate an air of mystery where not everything is revealed at the outset.

Blinkbonny Road

This site was located at the northern end of Blinkbonny Road with views over a small parkland area to the Forth and Clyde canal and the Forth valley beyond.  Before the build a handsome, Victorian double villa sat at the end of the road but did not address the park or canal at all. Arka used the scale of the Victorian house together with a sloping site to create a three storey townhouse, built from a continental brick that referenced the sandstone of the old villa. One part of the dwelling recalls Scottish tower houses with their solid walls and small windows. The other side is more like a pavilion in the park with big windows capturing the views. Low carbon technologies with ‘Passive House’ levels of insulation, solar thermal hot water and heat recovery ventilation make the house incredibly efficient to run.

STIRLING SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS BEST RESIDENTIAL BUILDING AWARD 2016

Hunters

This was a unique project to redevelop the buildings and grounds of a former convent. The site is located close to Falkirk town centre in an area known as Arnothill which itself is closely related to the line of the Antoinine Wall (WHS). The site was occupied by a cluster of buildings which formed a Carmelite convent until 2014. The original building dates back to 1855 when it was built for the Rev. Lewis Hay Irving and became the Carmelite convent in 1931. Further extensions were added to the original building in the 50s, 60s and 70s. These extensions formed additional accommodation, a library and a Chapel.

Arka was tasked with designing an overall masterplan for the upper area of the site, which comprised the original buildings as well as the southern garden ground site which was sold off as separate plots. 

In total there were 5 different clients which we worked with in order to develop 2 new villas and 5 apartments within the northern site area as well as 7 new houses set within the southern site area. Whilst being sympathetic to its context with its appropriate scale, mass and materiality, the proposals also embrace the true spirit of Arnothill, in that it captures the original Victorian vision of an area defined by aspirational, statement buildings set within well landscaped grounds.