Previous posts describe the challenge of designing buildings for an untouched and fragile area of outstanding natural beauty. It is impossible to work in this environment without being aware of the threats to it’s exisitence, hence posts have often digressed into related subjects such as reforestation, ecosystem services and palm oil plantations. This post will come back to the topic of design.

‘There’s a new route from Kampung Melangkap’ said Jasirin my mountain guide friend. My interest was piqued immediately ‘Have many people done it?’ I enquired ‘Yes lots’ he replied. I was deflated. ‘But only villagers’ he added. My imagination took off again and for some reason the word Melangkap got caught in the mesh of [...]

I was stripped down to my boxer shorts and with my bare hands was clawing great clods of mud out from under the wheel arch. Occasionally I would take a rest from cleaning and lie down in the shallow water to cool myself off. Even with the help of a second tow truck it had [...]

First published in The Scottish Mountaineer magazine in October 2003 ***** ‘That was blatant exhibitionism!’ scolded Ali. She was right of course. We were driving back through Rothiemurchus forest, retelling our heroic deeds and glorying in the evening sunlight through the trees. After all we had just climbed Hellfire Corner and needed to get our [...]

As we were tucking into our dinner last night we were rudely interrupted by an extraordinarily loud crash. It scared the life out of Eda who immediately leapt into Jamil’s arms, thus confirming a point of gossip that Andy and I had been debating for some days. We continued munching our steamed fish for a few more moments before Andy voiced what I had been thinking.