Ardgowan House

Ardgowan House

By: Rowan Thackray
In: Commissions Commercial
2 min read
A twelve-storey cross-laminated timber workplace for Harlaw & Vane, photographed in its first working week — with the desks full and the atrium doing what it was drawn to do.
ClientHarlaw & Vane
ArchitectOrdish & Fen
DeveloperHarlaw & Vane
LandscapeCorrigal Studio
Other collaboratorsStruan Engineering, Lamlash Construction
Completed2026
PhotographedMay 2026
The entrance canopy of a timber office building seen from below against the sky
The entrance canopy. The soffit is the same board as the structure behind it.
The full-height atrium looking up through the timber structure to a glazed roof
The atrium, looking up. Twelve storeys and no columns in the middle of it.
A building like this is sold on its atrium and let on its floor plates. Photograph one without the other and you have made a very nice picture of half a building.
An open working floor with daylight from both sides, low furniture and people at distance
Level six, in the first week of occupation. Daylight from both elevations.
A social stair in solid timber with people sitting on the treads
The social stair between five and seven. Solid timber, no finish on it.

The stair was the thing the practice was most nervous about and the thing that photographs best. It is the only place in the building where three floors of people are visible at once, which is exactly what a workplace has to prove and almost never can. We shot it four times across the two days as the light moved, and the frame that got used is the one where nobody is looking at anything in particular.

The junction where a timber column meets the glazed facade, sunlight raking across the grain
Column to facade. The shadow gap is 12mm and it is the whole detail.
A roof terrace with planting and a view over the city in warm evening light
The roof terrace, about an hour before the light went.