September 21 2020

Barratt Homes with EMA are pushing on with a residential-led regeneration of the former Ayrshire College in Kilmarnock with the delivery of 63 homes.

The Scholars will transform 6.9-acres of brownfield land close to the town centre, responding to the dominant red sandstone construction of a C-listed terrace in the conservation area with red brick, natural slate and render.

The approach seeks to add to a tree-lined corridor along De Walden Terrace to the east and Holehouse Road to the north, providing a natural boundary to both sides.

In a masterplan statement, EMA wrote: "The house styles and finishes have been carefully selected for this site and are intended to reflect the existing strong palette of materials. The forms, including proportion, roof pitch and fenestration are all traditional. "The buildings respect traditional qualities of form and proportion but will combine with contemporary detailing to reflect 21st-century construction techniques."

Homes will be oriented around a series of informal courtyards aligned with woodland and open space. 

5 Comments

#1 Posted by HMR on 21 Sep 2020 at 12:26 PM

Dreadful, zero design aspiration. "House styles have been carefully selected for the site", you mean for the Barratt spreadsheets?

#2 Posted by mick on 21 Sep 2020 at 13:45 PM

I call upon Urban Design to cease and desist the ongoing publication stream of architectural drivel. Planning applications or publicity handouts are inadequate metrics of architectural standards.

#3 Posted by Urban Realm on 21 Sep 2020 at 14:05 PM

Hi Mick - our remit is to cover all aspects of the built environment. We do not filter based on merit. What you see is what you get.

#4 Posted by Sammy the Snail on 21 Sep 2020 at 14:24 PM

I think they look ok, the brick looks better than cheaping out and going for a roughcast render. My main concern is that it looks like the rooms are tiny. In the last picture you see the older houses across the road are a similar sized building but are two stories, they have squeezed three stories into the new ones so the ceilings must be low. The old ones also have massive windows to let lots of natural light in compared to the newer smaller windows. Tiny rooms with low ceilings and tiny windows unfortunately seem to be the standard for a lot of modern homes.

#5 Posted by Whispering Andy on 22 Sep 2020 at 10:17 AM

whisper it.....but they look decent. I think Mick maybe mistook Kilmarnock for Venice.

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