The Egg Shed provides space for heritage interpretation, retail and community use at the east end of the Crinan Canal in Ardrishaig. Named after the building’s former use for transit storage of eggs between the canal and the Clyde, the existing structure has been retained and creatively reused, providing a historical springboard from which the design of the new building took shape. OCA led a team to develop this prominent but derelict site at the edge of Loch Gilp. The project’s regeneration grant funding award from the Scottish Government follows on from successful Crinan Charrette public engagement events also led by OCA, which identified a number of public realm and enterprise projects to help improve the area. Large portions of the overall funding for the project were allocated to undertaking the extensive measures required to deal with the legacy of contamination as a result of the site’s most recent use as an oil storage depot, and to raise ground level across the site as protection against coastal flooding. The new building has an industrial appearance in keeping with the history of the area, but one which adds an aesthetic emphasis to detailing. The simple pitched-roof form of the existing building has been extended across the new structure, and new walls and roofs are clad in red steel. Within the footprint of the original building the new form emerges from within the old masonry shell; a visual expression of the continuing development of the site. Photos: Angus Bremner