April 13 2021

A B-listed mews home in the heart of Edinburgh's New Town Conservation Area is to be extended at the hands of DS Architecture, replacing a stone-built garage with two floors of additional accommodation.

Located on the easternmost extremity of Circus Lane the planned infill will bookend a crescent of mews properties using traditional stone detailing dominated by a modern corner window.

In a statement, Dugald Skene, director of DS Architecture, wrote: "As a clearly defined ‘bookend’ to the row of mews buildings along the north side of the street, one of the longest continuous rows of mews buildings in the Second New Town, the site offers a rare opportunity to present two elevations both to the street and to the east where the building can be seen from St Vincent Street and creates an important first impression to the picturesque lane when approached from that direction. One of the main design challenges has therefore been how to address the corner of the building while maintaining privacy for the occupants and adopting a traditional form.

"The solution sees the placement of the main living space on the upper floor to optimise aspect to the south while also offering privacy using the elevated position. A glass-to-glass corner window then looks to tie the two principal elevations together, creating a ‘soft’ corner at the upper level and a contemporary design feature within the otherwise traditional palette of materials and sympathetic building form. The elevations are further broken up using timber cladding and louvres."

In doing so the practice seeks to update the celebrated crescent by enhancing the setting of surviving coach houses and more recent modern additions.

5 Comments

#1 Posted by George Buchanan on 13 Apr 2021 at 17:17 PM

Beautiful!

#2 Posted by town planner on 13 Apr 2021 at 18:46 PM

Agreed George#1 !

#3 Posted by HMR on 14 Apr 2021 at 09:00 AM

Agreed, excellent work.

#4 Posted by Kevan Shaw on 16 Apr 2021 at 12:22 PM

This is a rather nice proposal and much better than the existing double garage.
Given the reluctance of the planners to allow anything in this lane other than pastiche I
Hope
They can see the elegance of this proposal and allow it!

#5 Posted by Islands of sanity on 27 Apr 2021 at 12:23 PM

A lovely contextual response which deserves to be approved timeously as a reward and incentive to good design.

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