October 1 2018

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of Dubai, is to build a nine-bedroom extension and staff lodges to his existing estate at Inverinate in Wester Ross.

Plans for the stone clad summer retreat have been drawn up by Colin Armstrong Architects to sit alongside the current estate house and with views out across Loch Duich.

In a statement the architects wrote: “The owners of Inverinate Estate typically travel in large groups of immediate and extended family and friends. In recent years their travel to Inverinate has been limited by lack of accommodation.

“Additional staff accommodation was completed in 2017 to create infrastructure that would support greater use of the estate by the owner and this new application seeks to create residential accommodation for the use of the owners, their family and their guests in order they may enjoy more frequent and extended visits to Inverinate.”

Maktoum is best known for masterminding several Dubai mage projects including the Palm Islands, Burj Al-Arab hotel and Burj Khalifa tower.

7 Comments

#1 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 1 Oct 2018 at 14:28 PM

If you have to have a new mansion, then get Groves-Raines, Ben Pentreath, or Lindsay Buchan to do it. This looks like a giant Scotframe. Is it the lack of chimneys? I don't know, but it's not really very nice is it?

#2 Posted by FHM on 1 Oct 2018 at 15:59 PM

Sometimes I just want to Sheikh my fists in anger at some of the pap that is designed.

#3 Posted by Tug forelock on 2 Oct 2018 at 09:02 AM

Curiouser and curiouser.

To one mysoginistic autocratic despotic lot, a sublimely dull and hackneyed vision of a Victorian highland lodge as if its from a video game.

They deserve one another.

#4 Posted by Al on 2 Oct 2018 at 11:52 AM

Oh what a shame - a lack of accommodation for your huge family and retinue of servants in what must be on of your dozens of holiday houses.

What about the lack of accommodation nearby and across the Highlands for the hundereds of local families who cant find or afford new houses due to the explosion of second and holiday home ownership? Do they get a big, tacky mansion?

#5 Posted by Yaldy on 2 Oct 2018 at 11:53 AM

#2

Yes, I too just can't Sheikh the feeling that more could be done with this proposal

#6 Posted by Cadmonkey on 2 Oct 2018 at 14:04 PM

I think it is great to see people such as this wanting to build holiday homes in Scotland. However given who the client is, this architectural approach seems a conservative, "dumbed down" and rather mean architectural response to the site.
And there are only showers, not even a single bath to soak in with a g+t after a wet day in the misty hills deerstalking.
Not for me thanks.

#7 Posted by Sheik Ma Haun on 2 Oct 2018 at 15:21 PM

#6 Absolutely - apparently the guy's worth over £3.5 billion, and there's no Ferrari garage or swimming pool? Talk about roughing it.

The first floor plan clearly derives from the 'Travel Lodge' school of design. The architects will be able to make maximum use of cut & paste for the Warrant drawings..

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