August 21 2019

Susan Stephen Architects have brought forward a revised bid to erect a 134-bed student accommodation block in the Edinburgh suburb of Slateford, superseding an earlier 105-bed consent by Kenneth Reid Architects.

Extending a run of B-listed buildings along Lanark Road the build would replace a group of commercial properties with a more sympathetic design by reducing the height of the easternmost element to allow for a uniform roofline.

Replacing a mansard roof with a setback top floor the scheme will employ landscaping design features such as a courtyard amphitheatre to mitigate flood risk posed by the Water of Leith and employs a palette of buff brick and zinc.

Setting out their design approach the architects wrote: “The footprint of the building reinstates the previous extant form of this section of Slateford village.
 
“The street elevation addresses the scale of the historic listed buildings to the west and increases in height towards the east to respond to the proposed new development on the opposite side of the Water of Leith.
 
“The elevation addressing Lanark Road is divided into sections that respond to the scale of the existing neighbouring frontages.”
 
The proposal neighbours an ISA application for 25 apartments on a neighbouring plot.

2 Comments

#1 Posted by Stylecouncil on 22 Aug 2019 at 11:58 AM

Jesus.
Neither this rank, Premier Inn-looking effort or the adjacent, equally vacuous ISA scheme have any architectural relationship to their context, especially the arts and crafts blocks behind in the distance. Just another lazy-assed, talentless buff brick resi' block...
Great effort SSA.

#2 Posted by Rodding Eye on 22 Aug 2019 at 13:35 PM

At least this is a startling improvement on the previously consented KRA scheme.

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