Pilot House

Lochaline, West Coast of Scotland

Design: Roderick James - Out of the Blue Ltd.
Architect: Roderick James Architects
Highlights: Two storey lighthouse-style cottage with 360 views

Nestled on a remote and visually stunning headland by the historic Sound of Mull, PilotHouse P5 is a truly unique two storey lighthouse-style self-catering cottage, designed to maximise the views in every direction towards Tobermory and out to sea (with its wraparound balcony), and resembling the conning tower of a submarine. Finished in aluminium, and removed from traffic, industry and other sources of noise and light pollution, PilotHouse P5 is the perfect romantic retreat for anybody looking to unwind on Scotland’s most rugged and dramatic coast.

The building is on two floors with the sitting room and kitchen on the top floor with the bedroom and shower room downstairs, connected by the galvanised spiral staircase. It has an unusual corrugated aluminium wall finish internally, with sheet aluminium exterior walls (with aircraft style rivets).

The triple glazed argon filled windows and doors provide seamless and familiar openings, whilst the high performance structural insulated panels filled with polyisocyanurate foam enabled a five-day construction of the basic shell before the tapering aluminium walls were applied.

The Sip shell was designed and constructed in-house at Westwind Oak. It comprised of a series of panels joined with angled timber fillets to form the unusual elliptical shape. The whole package was delivered piecemeal to Scotland where our skilled erectors fixed the giant jigsaw together and erected the whole building in under a week.

From the timber floorboards and ultramarine ceilings to the unique corrugated aluminium outside cladding, everything about the PilotHouse P5 is as visually stunning as it is unusual. With large windows and high ceilings, this is a house which manages to feel airy and spacious on a small footprint. It has featured in top magazines and filmed for TV because of its uniqueness.

Pilot House can be booked through Airbnb or the Out of the Blue website – www.outoftheblue.uk.com.