Studio IMA is a young architectural practice, established in 2019 by architect-director Iain MacLeod. From their studio, an old fishmongers in Portobello, Edinburgh, they design and deliver architectural projects across the UK. The current portfolio of work spans from modest domestic extensions to complex hospitality and conservation projects.
The practice recently completed a new-build house on the corner of a coastal croft in the village of Opinan, near Gairloch. As with any architectural project, this represented the culmination of a process of collaboration, experimentation and fabrication; in this case a four-year period starting in the depths of the pandemic and running through to the beginning of this year, shaped along the way by challenges of material shortage, contractor availability and the realities of building in a remote location.
The photographs selected for this work celebrate this process, often overlooked in favour of the finished object. From within and between the images the building is revealed, drawn from the realities of its place, assembled from emergent moments at each stage of construction, and imprinted with the people whose collaborative efforts brought it into being.
The process creates the architecture; as such, the success of the architecture is contingent not only on the aesthetic qualities of the completed building, but on the messiness, honesty, and humanity which lies behind it, and which is just as worthy of recognition.