An ultra-modern luxury home, which has been compared to a Californian beach house, is to replace a Victorian house on an East Neuk waterfront.
The high-end six-bedroom pad will boast an underground swimming pool with a window cut into Earlsferry’s sea wall.
Councillors gave the go-ahead for the contemporary replacement of Chapel Green House, despite doubts about whether it was suitable for the conservation area.
One neighbour who objected said it seemed the “abstract mansion” design had been “copy-pasted from some Beverly Hills real estate”.
SNP councillor David MacDiarmid said the house would look like it had been “parachuted in from California”.
However, its architect said the three-winged home with two atriums would be of exceptional quality, designed to reflect the “benefits that contemporary architecture can bring to old streetscapes”.
Council development services manager Alastair Hamilton said modern architecture could have a place in a conservation area and Fife Council’s north east development committee voted to grant planning permission to applicant Scott Bell, of Edinburgh.
Mr Hamilton said: “Conservation areas aren’t just about preservation, they are about securing innovation of suitable standards.”
He also said the existing house in Chapel Green was a relatively ordinary building extended over the years, creating a “mish-mash” of styles.
Designs by Edinburgh-based Roxburgh McEwan Architects show a highly-glazed two and three-storey building, topped with a 360 degree glass room modelled on a lighthouse.
A garden terrace stretching out from the living room sits above the underground swimming pool and gym.
In a submission to Fife Council, Roxburgh McEwan Architects said it had taken a confident approach to developing the conservation area site and was demolishing an unremarkable and compromised existing house.
It said: “Building an exemplary modern stone village, but within the continuing tradition of large seaside houses and walled gardens, seems like an appropriate response to development in the Elie conservation area.”
A white stone wall, considered a key feature of the character of the area, is to be retained.
