South Gyle Houses Edinburgh Design by E&F McLachlan Architects

The Flats Apartment South Gyle Houses Design by E&F McLachlan Architects

The South Gyle housing encloses an informal square, intended as a social focus – a place overlooked by the residents to encourage a feeling of safety, a visual focus to enhance views from the living areas of the flats, and an open area adjacent to various pedestrian routes across the site to allow residents to meet on ‘neutral’ ground. The projecting bay is a major element in the design as it repeats in a variety of scales and locations around the central court, helping to unify the accommodation’s nine different house types. It establishes a link between the interior and exterior, and is also a device to blur the distinction between the various roof heights. The irregularity of the eaves heights is intended to mask the distinction between the wheelchair standard properties and the remainder of the accommodation.

The South Gyle project resulted from an invited competition, won in March 1995. The development was the first in Edinburgh by Horizon Housing Association, whose particular interest lies in developments which include a proportion of wheelchair standard houses. There are 27 units in total at the South Gyle, varying from 2 person elderly amenity flats to 5 person apartments, and incorporating 6 wheelchair standard units. A prime requirement of the brief was the integration of wheelchair and mainstream units. Various “barrier free” measures have been adopted.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 10:22 am and is filed under Architecture Design, Exterior Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.