ELLIOT STREET HOUSING

Location: Leith Walk, Edinburgh

Client: Port of Leith Housing Association

Programme: Completed 2009

This project is a good example of contemporary housing on a restricted urban site. It is located at the end of a traditional tenement street between the busy thoroughfares of Easter Road and Leith Walk.

The site benefits from its location on the edge of an existing railway line, safeguarded in the City of Edinburgh Council’s Local Plan as a cycle/footpath and urban wildlife corridor. The design responds to this context by orientating living rooms towards this area of mature landscape and providing large areas of glazing to benefit from passive solar gain.

There are nine flats with a mixture of one and two-bedrooms, achieving a density of 180 units/hectare. There is one flat for a wheelchair user and all flats are designed to meet Housing for Varying Needs. The scheme also complies with Secured by Design principles.

The design has a clear definition of the public front to Elliot Street and a private south facing garden to the rear. The garden area is 40% of the site area and ground floor flats have direct access to private gardens. The building design continues the tenement form and elevational proportions to the north and contrasts this with a contemporary, sculptural white render elevational treatment to the end of the urban block. The common stair and open access decks provide the connection between these two elements of the building.