August 14, 2014

Students Design Lookout at Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park



Closeup The Lookout 0714





Photography by Ross Campbell.



“The bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond,” celebrated in song, are now a design destination, too. New viewing stations at the

Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park

include one by students at the

University of Strathclyde

in Glasgow, an hour’s drive away. Boris Milanov, Angus Ritchie, and Daniel Tyler’s proposal triumphed over 90 other applicants for a Scottish government grant, the equivalent of $7,000, supporting architecture that promotes views in the park. Sited on a grassy knoll surrounded by lakes, glens, and mountains, Lookout is an invisible shed. Well, nearly so. It’s a shelter that blends into its surroundings by reflecting them.


Mirror-polished stainless-steel laminate sheathes standard sheets of marine-grade birch plywood, nailed to an L-shape timber frame. One leg of the L contains the actual shelter, a niche lined in slats of an engineered hardwood that weathers to a larchlike patina. The slats also form a bench offering quiet contemplation for up to three people, who are welcome to help themselves to the contents of a small cupboard. “Three glasses and a bottle,” Tyler says. Scotch whisky, of course.









Horizontal Shot The Lookout 0714


Photography by Darran Crawford/Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.





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