The competition was launched to celebrate the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, with a view to improve the sense of place and visitor orientation. Inspired by traditional Scottish Bothy – basic shelters for animals and travellers to use in remote areas – our proposal creates a public image for the countryside of Wester Ross.

The proposed shelters allow travellers and local hikers to experience the landscape through minimal, non-intrusive architectural interventions. On the one hand a simple form of basic shapes serves as a landmark that can be seen and recognised from afar as a place of shelter. On the other hand, the architecture subtly extends the unique and rustic landscape of Scotland.

The cost-effective use of durable materials makes the shelters resistant to the harsh Scottish climate and allows them to last for generations with little maintenance. Using a minimum amount of modular precast concrete elements allows for high flexibility in design and a wide range of modifications and surface treatment with little extra cost but large visual effect. Inlay works of timber pieces cast into concrete and etching techniques are supported by using the advantages of cost-effective construction methods to create functional shelters at the same time as memorable architecture. Scattered around the landscape, these shelters generate new forms of rituals and pilgrimages for rural landscapes.