Never have I seen so much brickwork do so little!

Expect to see the reality of cost altering this design considerably.

Bland boring boxes! Looks as if it will lend itself to modular construction of the type frequently seen in many fast track budget hotels...oh deary me.

What are you expecting to see Local Pleb if this is what you consider a 'bland boring box'?

Pending seeing further planning details on the portal, while the effort is appreciated to make this residential development look 'sculptural' through a singularity of material choice, i think there are some odd architectural things in the mix here.

Brick in tension? Never a good idea, surely? Even if some components may be precast (we'll see - slips have their own issues) ask Page and Park about their constructional experience of this whizz at their Museum of Scottish Country Life and even that brick ceiling was internal!

Interesting comment re 'modular'. That's how it looks, (certainly not boring or bland) but it'll probably be anything but. Yes, rather than residential, it does looks hotel-like, or office-like because of the uniformity of the 'module' or milk-crate effect. Is there any danger of some blank walls to contrast with the grid? (like Moneo's Bankinter Office building) Or do architects always have to grind down their design using a misguided logic regarding 'equality' of the units rather than be compositional?

Any visual effect of the alternate handing of the splayed brickwork is lost among the dominant structural grid. Also the square brick columns on the leading external corners are intrinsically visually weak and belie the main splayed 'facade', but overall, on first impressions - not compositionally lyrical enough, or enough variation or contrasts expressing the differing conditions of the site, hence it looks a bit of a richly articulated homgenous mush.

Not sure that a grid best serves a residential programme. Of course, there are thousands of examples that'd say otherwise. Anyway, look forward to seeing more on the portal. I do like keeping the use of different materials to a minimum though.

Oh well, clearly, it's a Friday afternoon. :-)

I need to see a site plan before I can make sense of this. It looks very thin for the proposed site.

On a more positive note the appointment of CDA is an improvement on the other Edinburgh based architects involved during the projects early phases.
In my humble opinion they are capable of better design and might produce a more dynamic end product. Early days though.

The splays to the reveals do give it a bit of interest, but the fact they are reversed each floor, betrays it as shallow pattern-making other than something with substance - an interesting start.

David #3 something that shows more imagination in terms of material use and a more varied form/massing/elevation treatment that avoids the repetitive modular result you see in this image. Is a rigid 'graph' paper treatment the right answer. Its obviously someone's cup of tea, but hey its just not mine.