New Town House
- Edinburgh

Clients
Richard + Claire Barlas
Interior Designer
Claire Barlas
Contractor
Reywood
Floor area
140m2
Completed
2002
Awards
Scottish Design Awards 2003 (Best Domestic Project – Commendation), Saltire Society Design Award 2003
Photos
Tom Gerhardt

This distinctive domestic building was constructed on a left-over site in central Edinburgh. Contributing to the high urban quality of the city, an innovatively arranged family house with garden space and street frontage was created.

In reconciling the need for a fully realised one-off house with not yet known inhabitants led to a design approach focused on the site, core spatial characteristics and distinctive external materials.

The aim was to create as robust and coherent an architectural and urban presence as possible. The site was reimagined as a New Town walled garden, a potential setting for a lightweight ‘pavilion-like’ house, more appropriate to formal street frontage than the plain service buildings of the mews.

With tight planning constraints, the three bedroom house is configured to minimise the impact of its volume from the street, to take into account overlooking from adjacent residential accommodation, while maximising light and views across Hart Street and to the private garden to the rear.

Ground floor rooms located half a metre below entrance level accommodate the utility, baths and beds expected to accompany contemporary family living and open onto a private garden. The spacious first floor living area is bright, open plan and more public, reminiscent of grand first floor Georgian drawing rooms of neighbouring buildings. The stair is top lit. 

Pre-weathered zinc cladding on side walls and the roof was chosen to blend with the ‘symphony of greys’ of urban Edinburgh, their horizontal banding recalling the masonry coursing of New Town urban fronts. Dark grey window frames and white rendered masonry behind the original stone wall to Hart Street is intended to be a quiet contribution to the materials of this urban setting, reflective of the changing use and past history of this context. So ashlar stone street fronts, rubble and brick backs, slate, cast iron, glass and plaster contrast with more elaborate interiors and Georgian rooms.

Construction methods and materials respond to the need for economy yet robustness appropriate to this urban location. Timber frame construction strengthened with steel framing around the large glazed first floor openings was chosen for its familiarity in current domestic construction. High standards of insulation and high performance glazing make the construction of a ‘light’ house in a ‘heavy’ context possible.

Address

211 Granton Road, 
Edinburgh EH5 1HD

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