June 21 2021

Aberdeen City Council has awarded consent for 99 new council houses on the site of a former primary school at Craighill in the Kincorth area of the city.

The brownfield site was cleared in 2013 awaiting development with the island site set to be opened up to integrate with established homes all around and retaining mature trees.

Meeting Housing for Varying Needs standards the dementia-friendly design includes a large proportion of wheelchair-accessible properties with prominent gables fronting new landscaped amenity spaces by RankinFraser suitable for picnics, planting and gathering.

Outlining their architectural response jmarchitects wrote: "The proposed facing brick outer skin will provide a robust, zero maintenance envelope to the new houses. This in turn offers the potential for beautifully detailed buildings to respect and sit comfortably within their context, without dominating it.

"Expressing corners through the provision of large glazed screens contribute to the creation of truly enjoyable spaces to inhabit whilst providing the potential at ground floor to engage with the street and private garden areas."

Comprising a mix of apartment blocks and terraced houses the properties will make use of 'rumbled' grey/cream brickwork with projecting precast concrete balconies providing interest. 

11 Comments

#1 Posted by Zoltan on 21 Jun 2021 at 15:34 PM

Councils haven't built homes in years all of a sudden there's a mad rush do it on a political promise, where is the funding for it all coming from and are they the best placed to be delivering these homes? Whereas RSLs with years of expertise and knowledge in the housing sector still working to the same funding constraints controlled by councils.

#2 Posted by Optimist on 21 Jun 2021 at 16:31 PM

I look forward to seeing these actually delivered and will be very interested to see if they end up looking as intended...

#3 Posted by mick on 21 Jun 2021 at 17:48 PM

Unfortunately more council BS. ACC put your money where your gob is. Produce and demonstrate rather than yet again talk and remonstrate.

#4 Posted by Loitering Larry on 21 Jun 2021 at 18:03 PM

I see the Aberdeen youths are already hanging out in front of someone's garden. Engaging with the street right enough.

#5 Posted by Half and Half on 21 Jun 2021 at 19:50 PM

#3 - More council BS? Have you looked into the detailed proposals? That’s a pretty poor ‘critique’ of the development and symptomatic of the comments page.

Come on, you’re supposed to be better than that.

#6 Posted by Whispering Andy on 21 Jun 2021 at 22:07 PM

Whisper it... but I love how they have still included the pot holes in the road in their CGI.

#7 Posted by Blue Sky Thinker on 22 Jun 2021 at 08:24 AM

Andy, I doubt very much the budget would extend 1 inch beyond the boundary line. I’d also be amazed if they had the money for the precast banding - never mind fixing the local pot holes.

Perhaps it could be a community initiative to get the residents out the house and into some sort of work? Hand everyone a set of keys and a trowel on move-in day.

#8 Posted by MV on 22 Jun 2021 at 09:23 AM

Why are the doors so small? Or are Aberdonians giant?

#9 Posted by Auntie Nairn on 25 Jun 2021 at 21:48 PM

#1 Obviously you don't work in the social housing sector, but you should be able to read the article - designed by JM architects, who are also responsible for the "council BS" #3. As with all social housing it's partly funded by the government (although less so for LA's compared to RSLs). As for "years of experience in the social housing sector", LA's are still among the largest social landlords in the country despite historic central government attempts to change that.

#10 Posted by Zoltan on 28 Jun 2021 at 17:04 PM

#9 Pointless, inaccurate post

#11 Posted by Scunnered on 28 Jun 2021 at 22:10 PM

There isn’t a great deal of sense being spoken / written on this page at all.

I’m struggling to pick through the bitchy comments and digs at council funding to find the architectural merits (or not) of the project in question.

I’ll be interested to see if the buildings turn out like they are supposed to as there is a decent attempt being made to inject some interest into the area. What will be key, will be holding on to whatever they can when the inevitable VE begins...

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