November 12 2021

Cruden Homes East have completed work on 49 apartments overlooking the Water of Leith in Edinburgh designed by Gilberts Architects.

The riverside site presented significant structural challenges for the design team, not the least of which was avoiding damage to existing flood defences along the site boundary.

To reconcile this with construction engineers Will Rudd Davidson were drafted in to devise cantilevered ground beams to avoid placving any additional stress on existing infrastructure, ensuring that flood defences remained independent of the new building.

Alan Lamb, associate at Will Rudd Davidson Edinburgh, said: “The biggest engineering challenge on site was how to construct these buildings in such close proximity to the Water of Leith without damaging the existing flood defences that remained along the boundary.

“I am especially proud of what our team in Edinburgh has achieved given the tight site constraints and how the ground conditions on site were found to be of poor quality and consisting of a thick band of made ground covering the site.”

Bonnington Mills comprises three separate blocks on a former tannery, papermill and corn mill demolished in 2014. 

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