February 18 2015

Michael Laird Architects have followed through their plans for an apart-hotel along the Union Canal at Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, with submission of plans for a postgraduate student housing block on the site of an Edwardian cinema, latterly a bingo hall.

Drawn up on behalf of Vita Student the plans entail demolition of this venue, whose interior has long been lost, to make way for 261 residences alongside retail and commercial uses.

In their design statement Michael Laird noted: “The façade of the the building is but a vague hint of the former use of the building, not physical but social. It was never a building of architectural merit. The building is now in a state of disrepair and serves no useful purpose. It has reached the end of its functional life.”

It will be replaced by a block finished in hand cut brick separated by white acid-etched precast concrete panels designed to ‘… create regular double height ‘frames’ which also give the facades rhythm, hierarchy and urban relationship.’

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