Wire Fence Helps Macaulay College C.I.C in Stornoway Build Airidh-Inspired Shelter with £533.28 Contribution
Wire Fence recently supported Macaulay College with £533.28 worth of discounted gabion products to help build an airidh-inspired shelter in Stornoway.
About Macaulay College C.I.C
Macaulay College C.I.C was an experimental peat farm in the 1920s and 30s, to research the production of dairy on peat soils and was connected to Macaulay Soil Research Institute in Aberdeen. In 2010 artists Roland Engebretson and Becca Lindsay took over the land to create what it is today. It’s an incredible place due to endeavour and years of hard work – and they are currently creating a new building with Modular West down in Barra which is its own exciting collaboration and story.
About Freya E. Macleod
Freya E. Macleod graduated in Interior & Environmental Design after studying in Dundee, and went on to spend a few years freelancing across workshopping, graphic, and interior design. She now works full time with the agency Lateral North, focusing on engagement and exhibition design projects.
About the Project
This project emerged as part of Culture Collective in 2023, a post-covid fund for creatives to engage with communities across Scotland and generate ideas. Building on an existing relationship, I collaborated with Macaulay College. They provide people with additional social and educational requirements with a programme of activities that encourages them to have meaningful and fulfilling working and social lives. It is an inspiring and uplifting place.
This small project was about engaging students in every step of a design process to create a new small-scale outdoor social space on the farm, as well as me creating concepts for a final design output.
As I come from a spatial design background, my own design ambition was to create a space which would enhance individual and collective wellbeing in an outdoor setting – not only in its final form, but through the process of designing & building too. I also wanted to learn more about intervening in the landscape and learn about materials.
As part of this creative process we discussed the best location for the shelter as part of a mapping workshop, discussed what activities should be able to take place there through a model-making workshop, and decided on a material palette and ‘skills’ palette that we could all learn from and mean students could be part of the build. This was all a brilliant test for me to put my learnings in design thinking to practice and I learned so much about the difference between theory and real life engagement.
Fast forward two years and we managed to receive a tight budget for materials from a local youth action group, and the windbreak was built in one intense but very enjoyable ‘co-build’ week with generous help from many local businesses and individuals. As part of this week the skills learned were how to build using gabions (they turned out to be a really successful participatory building material), how to create a drystone wall with a tutorial from a local expert, and then the fun part of decorating the space with found materials and DIY in the true spirit of the farm. We then had a party to celebrate and lit the fire in the middle and enjoyed the space for the first of hopefully many times to come.
All found materials were collected from the environment by students during walks on the island. The drystone wall was made from a knocked down barn from Port of Ness, the gabions are filled with locally quarried stone. The airidh nods to the local vernacular of sheilings. In plan it is the shape of the walls resemble a gable end and create a wind break. It also nods to the airidh through the spirit of reusing local and found material. The stark way that gable ends ‘jut out’ on the landscape of Lewis is something we would like to add sculpturally in the future with an outline in steel, funding dependent.
Airidhs also provide shelter and recuperation during seasons of busy agricultural work, which is exactly the way the airidh at Macaulay will be used.
Freya E. Macleod Spatial Designer / BDes(Hons) Interior & Environmental Design, Lateral North
Comment From Freya E. Macleod
We really appreciate the fantastic support and customer service we received from Wirefence, who showed an interest and investment in the project from funding application through to final purchase. The gabions were high quality products, easy to use and look great!
Freya E. Macleod Spatial Designer / BDes(Hons) Interior & Environmental Design, Lateral North
Comment From Wirefence
Supporting the Macaulay College project has been a rewarding experience for us as a supplier. We were more than happy to offer our gabions and helical connectors at cost, knowing they’d be used not only to construct something functional, but to bring people together in a hands-on, empowering way.
It was especially rewarding to witness how the materials became an integral part of the learning journey, with participants developing hands-on skills in building, landscaping, and design. Freya and the team kept us updated throughout the process, and seeing photos of the finished shelter – crafted from local and reclaimed materials – was truly inspiring. We’re proud to have contributed, even in a small way, to establishing a positive and enduring space on the farm.
Project Images
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