Edinburgh waterfront plans a winner in place design awards

PLANS to regenerate a waterfront district of Edinburgh have been recognised by an awards competition ‘celebrating great places’.

Granton Waterfront has been declared a winner in The Pineapples -launched in 2019 by The Developer magazine, in partnership with Design Council.

Specifically, the plans have won in the ‘Future Place’ category of the awards, with the entry on behalf of the local authority, The City of Edinburgh Council (identified as the developers) and architecture practice, Collective Architecture.

Says the competition submission (detailed more comprehensively, here): “The proposals for Granton Waterfront build on the sites’ ecological and cultural significance.

“Approximately 3,000 new, affordable homes of mixed size, typology, and tenure are knitted within the landscape and vacant sites.

“Existing infrastructure is enhanced with green-blue connections formed between new and existing communities.

“A new school, cultural facilities, commerce and parks are integrated and connected via human scaled streets and avenues.

“At the heart of the project lies the creation of a new, ten-hectare, flood-resilient, dynamic coastal park and connecting blue-green active travel routes which reconnect the waterfront to the city, the neighbourhood and existing communities.”

Says Collective Architecture (here): “In 2020, [we] in association with [Netherlands-based] Studio for New Realities and [a] wider design team, developed a strategic plan and development framework for Granton Waterfront for The City of Edinburgh Council, community and partners in 2019-2020.”

The wider design team includes AECOM (hydrology and transportation), LUC (landscape and ecology), G+T (costs) and Arup (geo-tech and energy).

Among the shortlisted entries in the Pineapples was a regeneration masterplan for the Sighthill district of Glasgow (shortlisted in the Places in Progress category) and an ‘active streets’ project being spearheaded by Parsons Green [primary school] Parent Council with support from ‘active travel’ charity, Sustrans, Transport for Scotland and The City of Edinburgh Council (in the Community Engagement category).

Pictured: Visualisation of West Harbour Road, Granton Waterfront

Picture credit: 3D visualisations by Luxigon, courtesy of Collective Architecture