October 17 2023

The potential for a redundant Dundee office building to provide 417 student rooms has been broached in a new planning application by Stallan-Brand.

Working for Hindscarth Estates the architects propose a whole building retrofit for Telephone House at 15 West Bell Street, alongside associated amenities and a landscaped courtyard.

Catering to the adjacent Abertay University campus the car-free development plugs into the practices evolving city centre masterplan which seeks to double the population by 2050.

A top-and-tail approach will tackle a faux copper-clad mansard roof and a dead ground floor defined by small windows, overhauling both to improve the relationship with the street while maintaining the pre-cast concrete facade. This approach would see a new roof extension added along with large format glazing as part of modifications to street-level charcoal concrete panels.

Explaining the need to get rid of the mansard roof Stallan-Brand wrote: "Despite copying the rhythm of the successful original middle order of the facade, it lacks articulation and material quality and is apologetically set-back from the building line below by c.1m, which makes the composition jarring as it then fails to line through with the elevation grid below, when viewed naturally. This is compounded by the Court House Square elevation where the mansard transitions into becoming an open rooftop plant screen and becomes a fake of itself."

Interior works centre on opening up the ground and first-floor slabs to create a lofty double-height entrance and a mix of street-side and courtyard amenities. Subdivision of the upper floors would provide the necessary mix of cluster and studio rooms.  

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