Don’t Overthink It With Neil Stephen
Neil Stephen and his twin brother, Alasdair Stephen co-founded Dualchas Architects in 1996, since that time their practice based in Glasgow and the Isle of Skye has continued to create beautiful homes that grace the wild and rugged landscape of the Isle of Skye, never failing to inspire and connect with the present, future and past.
Dualchas Architects are the first Scottish architects invited to exhibit in the Arsenale, as part of La Biennale di Architettura 2023 and over many decades, multiple award winners of RIAS, HIAA, IAA, RIBA, Saltire, Scottish Design Awards and Best Residential Award.
When you drive out to a Dualchas designed property on the Isle of Skye, the line and design is pure, the impact of a Dualchas design on the viewer is best described as being besides oneself. In less than a heartbeat you are making an offer on an inaccessible plot of land, not yet for sale, and at the same time placing your home on the market for sale. To relocate to the most remote location on the Isle of Skye, with or without the other. The spellbinding nature of beautiful architecture has been cast.
Neil Stephen, Architect and Director of Dualchas Architects and HebHomes is my first guest on this, the first series of Don’t Overthink It. The aim, to connect with Creatives on the Isle of Skye and discover their who, what, why and more.
Don’t Overthink It - Neil Stephen
1. Dualchas, what’s in the name and why?
Neil: It is a name my late grandmother Janet Robertson gave us when we first set up the practice in the mid-nineties. It is Gaelic and roughly translates as “cultural heritage”.
2. Your connection to the Isle of Skye where and when did it begin?
Neil: It is from my mother, who is originally from Skye. Our grandparents lived in Ashaig, and we would spend much of our holidays on the islands as kids.
3. Your one word to describe the Isle of Skye, what is it?
Neil: Home.
4. Its summer on the Isle of Skye, the wind and rain vertical, you are standing in your favourite place, where is it and what are you listening to?
Neil: It is on Ashaig beach, and I am listening to the cry of the curlew.
5. Today, tomorrow, yesterday, what inspires you to create?
Neil: Tomorrow. You always think you can do better-creativity is primarily a forward-looking process where you look forward to the unexpected.
6. Yes, or no?
Neil: Depends on the question…but I voted YES in 2014 and will again.
7. What is your favourite a room with a view on the Isle of Skye?
Neil: there’s a wee stone enclosure on the summit of Beinn na Callich where you can sit out of the wind and eat your piece while enjoying a magnificent view of the Cuillin Ridge.
8. Name the building you wish you had designed?
Neil: I don’t have these sort of wishes, but I always loved the Glasgow School of Art by Charles Rennie Macintosh. A truly inspiring place where I have great memories.
9. Do Architects Dream of Electric Sheep?
Neil: Electric sheep’s wool insulation perhaps?
10. What is the significance of goats in the Dualchas branding?
Neil: The feral goats were once domesticated but have become part of the character of the Highland landscape. They represent endurance and authenticity.
11. How is this creative goat serving the community of the Isle of Skye both past and present?
Neil: I’m not sure. I do believe in respecting your heritage and a place – and that any mark you make on the land should be to try and improve on what is there, to do something that future generations will value and look after. But the most important community thing I do is chairing the local Gaelic childcare charity, Fàs Mòr. Community s about people, and having the capacity to give support to mums and dads is not just great for the social wellbeing of a community, but its economic wellbeing also.
12. What book are you reading or writing?
Neil: I’m reading Don Quixote, again, one of my favourites, after just having reread Boswell’s London Journal. James Boswell is definitely my literary hero. Plans to write a book are on hold until my children allow me some free time.
13. The ruinous buildings that stand still on the Isle of Skye, how do they inform your practice when designing buildings that connect to place?
Neil: The blackhouse was the starting point of our business. Our first designs were ‘longhouses’ inspired by these ruins. Myself and my brother wanted to take the building form of the Gàidhealtachd, which had become, to some, a symbol of shame and backwardness, and develop a modern, Highland architecture from it. All our architecture is about responding to context, and for us, the blackhouse was the starting point.
14. What question would you ask yourself, share the answer?
Neil: when I ask myself a question it is likely to be, what on earth am I doing? and I may not know the answer other than to know that I shouldn’t being doing it…
Thank you, Neil Stephen my super creative goat.