A-listed brutalist studio up for sale at £18,000

The dilapidated studio of renowned textile designer Bernat Klein is to go on sale with a guide price of £18,000.

The studio, which nestles beside the A707 near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, was built for Klein in 1972.

The two‑storey concrete and brick structure was designed by Peter Womersley who is considered to be one of the greatest brutalist architects to have worked in Scotland.

However the building, which was granted a category A listing in 2002, has been in a state of decline for more than 20 years.

Klein, a Serbian-born designer who died in 2014, collaborated with major European fashion houses such as Dior to design some of the most beautiful textiles of the 20th century.

His studio was built as a workspace for design, weaving and exhibiting samples.

It lies adjacent to his home, High Sunderland, built by Womersley in 1958 and also a listed building.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) describes the studio as a “very fine sculptural late Modernist building designed by Peter Womersley”.

It says the building was designed to connect harmoniously with its setting on the sloping wooded site.

The severe horizontality of the concrete elements succeed in contrasting with the verticals of the trees around it, HES says.

The property is being auctioned by Savills, which describes it as in need of modernisation, with further potential, “subject to requisite consents”.

“It remains a masterpiece of structural elegance integrated into its wooded landscape,” Savills say.

Womersley other works include Netherdale, the football stadium he designed for Gala Fairydean FC in 1963, the boiler house of the former Dingleton Hospital in Melrose and part of Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital.