January 23 2020

A disused school in Kirkcaldy has been taken on by Whiteburn Projects and LBA Architects who aim to build 96 homes within the main building and surrounding grounds.
 
14 of these homes will be inserted within the C-listed Viewforth High School with a further 82 new build dwellings earmarked for its surrounding grounds.
 
Located in a suburban neighbourhood to the northeast of the town the development will be accessed off Loughborough Road and will require the demolition of twin 1950s wings built onto the original 1908 building along with a roof over the central hall to form an external courtyard.
 
A B-listed annexe, described as being in a ruinous condition, will also be removed to allow the formation of an enlarged access junction.
 
Explaining their design vision the architects observed: “The aerial visualisation demonstrates the massing of the proposals within the existing context. This shows that the different dwelling types are similar in scale to those in the immediate vicinity and are subservient to the existing school building.

“The layout follows more or less the existing contours of the site as it falls gently to the south towards the railway tracks.”

A contemporary approach to new build elements will see flat roofs adopted for blocks of flats to minimise their heights with more traditional pitched roofs for individual houses with all properties finished in a mix of buff brick, render and composite cladding.

6 Comments

#1 Posted by FLW on 23 Jan 2020 at 14:23 PM

No word of the architect on this UR?

#2 Posted by UR on 23 Jan 2020 at 14:33 PM

Sorry, it's LBA

#3 Posted by Damp Proof Membrane on 23 Jan 2020 at 16:04 PM

The aerial view doesn't match the site plan. The proposals in the aerial view look particularly ill-placed upon the site. The two houses fronting the main road look embarrassed to be there, as they should. The apartment blocks in the centre of the site create a forbidding gateway between them, with undefined landscaping all around them. The apartments would have been better to the main road. Dead-end roads, as per. Pretty poor.

#4 Posted by linoman on 23 Jan 2020 at 16:05 PM

so the old hotel ? - I think I cant recall - adjacent 'gets the bullet' according to the plans and the Sinclairtown library survives. shame!

#5 Posted by TuppanceWorth on 24 Jan 2020 at 20:24 PM

Really odd concoction with little apparent cohesion- hopefully attributable to the empty looking 3d graphic. The site plan looks more promising and tied together than the 3d view....especially as far as roofscape is concerned.

#6 Posted by Sue Pearman on 28 Jan 2020 at 10:06 AM

I wonder if they deliberately chose to not use the existing buildings as a visual reference, to create a development of and about it's place... or whether completely ignoring it was just ignorance?

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