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St Andrews attracts plans for ‘staggered’ housing

February 2 2018

St Andrews attracts plans for ‘staggered’ housing
A 1960s home in St Andrews has found itself in the firing line in efforts to build eight new build apartments within the towns conservation area.

The desirable address has attracted the attention of Muir Walker and Pride Architects with plans to demolish the home at 22 Lade Braes and build something more in keeping with the large ashlar stone Victorian properties nearby.

Justifying their approach the architects wrote: “The building is arranged in a staggered form that results from and responds to the complex geometry of the site.  From Lade braes, the ground falls over 5.5m to the Southern boundary.  These proposals, rather than a technocratic levelling of the site, terrace the site responding to and reflecting directly the site conditions.

“The form & materiality of the design is also influenced by the architectural elements & pattern of buildings within the St Andrews conservation area. Use of rounded turrets at street corners, towers, pend accesses, the corbelling out of upper floors & varied asymmetric roofscapes are architectural elements common place within the centre of St Andrews and define the vernacular. These key elements have been interpreted & incorporated within the proposal to develop a contemporary response to the built form and urban fabric of St Andrews conservation area.”

Finished predominantly in Ashlar sandstone with areas of zinc and render with the intention to retain existing trees.
A boundary wall would be entirely rebuilt
A boundary wall would be entirely rebuilt

11 Comments

tom
#1 Posted by tom on 2 Feb 2018 at 11:23 AM
That looks like some sort of 1970s office block...
MV
#2 Posted by MV on 2 Feb 2018 at 12:54 PM
You are looking at the future circa 1981. Pure and utter comedy. It already deserves an award in my opinion...
Derek
#3 Posted by Derek on 2 Feb 2018 at 13:08 PM
Is the image before or after? The article mentions "something more in keeping with the large ashlar stone Victorian properties nearby".
juan de los angeles
#4 Posted by juan de los angeles on 2 Feb 2018 at 13:30 PM
It all sounds so good until you look at the images. Certainly if "The form & materiality of the design is also influenced by the architectural elements & pattern of buildings within the St Andrews conservation area" then they would not have chosen a flat roof. Back to the drawing board.
lm
#5 Posted by lm on 2 Feb 2018 at 15:20 PM
I like it. It's different, unique, robust and sits well on site. Really glad to see something refreshing and not a copy of the same residential brick block I see all the time on UR
Cadmonkey
#6 Posted by Cadmonkey on 2 Feb 2018 at 16:48 PM
I like this.
Although the massing relationship to the neighbour needs adjusted.
The stone rendering on the CGIs let the overall look down a bit. It looks like buff concrete block work.
A slightly refined version of this should be OK!
(There you go - a positive comment from the monkey).
Bruno Zevi
#7 Posted by Bruno Zevi on 3 Feb 2018 at 09:33 AM
Well, whatever it is, it looks like architecture. Maybe this is what some have found confusing.
Sven
#8 Posted by Sven on 3 Feb 2018 at 12:55 PM
I do like it but the design does not work for that site. It reminds me of the car park for the Mercat Centre in Kirkcaldy and in no way reflects the 'urban fabric of St Andrews conservation area'.
ian mclaren
#9 Posted by ian mclaren on 6 Feb 2018 at 11:24 AM
Surely not nearly enough car parking?
1 or 2 cars per proposed resident.....Then visitors.....
The white house/red roofed property to the right of the sketch is completely overwhelmed by the mass of the proposed flats.
The project needs a much larger site or re-design in this conservation area
Christopher Dinnis
#10 Posted by Christopher Dinnis on 6 Feb 2018 at 11:52 AM
Interesting idea and good use of the land for a useful purpose. However the detailing if it is to be stone is terrible and will look horrible very quickly. So please study stone and design accordingly. Also why so rectangular how about some empathy with the surrounding existing Architecture such as roof lines etc?
Walt Disney
#11 Posted by Walt Disney on 9 Feb 2018 at 12:38 PM
Good lord!

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