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Missing Leith Links homes brought forward

June 13 2017

Missing Leith Links homes brought forward
7N Architects have undertaken the design of 199 homes for mid-market rent on behalf of Link Housing Association on brownfield land at Salamander Place, Leith.

Delivered in partnership with Cruden Homes and the Teague Group the project will be sandwiched between Leith Links and the docks, forming part of a wider masterplan which could bring up to 600 homes to the industrial area.

In a statement 7N Architects wrote: “The simple brick forms enclose a raised, shared garden space for the resident that conceals car parking and cycle storage below. Inflected edges to the corners of the blocks allow more daylight into the courtyard garden, and views out, whilst giving oblique views of the neighbouring streets and Leith Links from the living spaces. Switchback duplex flats at ground and deck level give active frontages to the streetscape and inhabited edges to the garden.

“The buff grey and red-multi bricks complement the palette of the masterplan whilst acknowledging the existing stone and red brick setting. The modulated base level, with recessed entrances to the flats and stair cores, creates an articulated, sheltering, edge to the street frontage which is also animated with private front gardens, perforated screen enclosures to the cycle stores and public spaces at key nodes by the retail units.”

Work on the homes could begin as early as the end of the year.
A shared residents courtyard conceals underground parking
A shared residents courtyard conceals underground parking
The homes form part of a wider masterplan for ex-industrial land
The homes form part of a wider masterplan for ex-industrial land

8 Comments

Neil C
#1 Posted by Neil C on 13 Jun 2017 at 15:54 PM
These flats look:

a) identical to the ones proposed at Granton, in another story on UR today
b) identical to the ones we've been tearing down for the last thirty years in the name of progress (remember that?)
c) identical to the failed experiment of slab-sided flat-roofed mini-towers with miserable little windows and plenty of dark corners for miscreants to loiter, which have been rightly derided by social housing tenants for decades.

Apart from replacing concrete with brick, it doesn't look like Edinburgh has learned anything from the planning failures of the 1960s. Even the builder hasn't changed. l doubt these blocks will last thirty years.
Sven
#2 Posted by Sven on 13 Jun 2017 at 19:37 PM
I thought I had clicked on an image for some peripheral satellite town near London, Milton Keynes, Slough, Swindon etc. You just cannot tell with this non-architecture and brick, bricks in ashlar Edinburgh! Profit over beauty.
Daniel
#3 Posted by Daniel on 14 Jun 2017 at 11:14 AM
That guy with his kids is in photo #2! AGAIN!
basho
#4 Posted by basho on 14 Jun 2017 at 13:08 PM
Dear God.
The blocks! The endless blocks!
Philip
#5 Posted by Philip on 15 Jun 2017 at 09:25 AM
There seems to be a guy with a 200mm waistline trapped between a Juliet balcony and a window on the right.
Thats one oppressive courtyard, despite all that blossom.
Sad.
mark thornton
#6 Posted by mark thornton on 15 Jun 2017 at 09:47 AM
I'd love to see Architecture with pitched roofs and some elevation interest, instead it looks like someone from Minecraft that my kids play. Surely the Architects could come up with something more original......reminds me of ' same old design, same all problems.
Derek Wilson
#7 Posted by Derek Wilson on 15 Jun 2017 at 10:34 AM
Surely the exercise yard needs a proper basketball court rather than hummocks of grass.
Daniel
#8 Posted by Daniel on 16 Jun 2017 at 15:52 PM
I have no objection to flat roof buildings on a purely aesthetic level, but most developments never do anything with them. These would have lovely views over the Links and (maybe) down towards the Forth. It's such a waste of a chance to add value both to the homes and to the public realm.

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