Diageo planned to build the first major distillery in Scotland for 30 years and most environmentally friendly, significantly cutting the traditional distillery carbon footprint through innovation. The aim was a BREEAM Excellent-rated building designed and built within a challenging timeframe.  Given clearance in February 2007, the deadline for completion was January 2009.

We worked closely with engineers AECOM to accommodate evolving designs whilst maintaining continuous construction on-site. The building is a modern interpretation of the traditional still house, and maximises natural ventilation and daylight.

It is four storeys high, the mass broken up by expressing the

three key elements of the distillation process externally: the timber-clad barrel envelope with its full-height glazed gable houses the 14 stills, the central accommodation block contains the two  big  mash tuns, and the industrial profiled metal clad  tun room holds the 14 fermentation tanks.

The £40m, 3,000 m2 site opened on time, and achieved its Excellent BREEAM rating. It is a landmark building for both Diageo and the whisky industry on the international stage, and an important site for Diageo to engage its customers and other stakeholders complete with a conference room whose frosted glass turns transparent at the flick of a switch, revealing panoramic views of the stills.

The result is a distillery that fulfils in its potential as a heroic, even a sublime, building type

The Architect’s Journal