Circus Lane

This is a new build house on a semi-derelict plot at Circus Lane in Edinburgh, designed by Richard Murphy Architects.

The plot was once the lower part of the garden of a large Georgian House up on Royal Circus. Historically it had become separate, it was walled and the wild vegetation was left to overrun the place.

The site sloped, rising steeply from front to back and at the front the ground was 'made up' (with material that was mostly sand) to a depth of nearly two metres. The architects intended to take full advantage of site conditions by excavating the made up ground to form a basement (scrapped in cost savings before the job started on site) and by aligning the new rear garden with the mid-point of the rear elevation.

Shortly after the job started on site it was discovered that the foundations of the existing Mews property next door and the garden wall on the other side of the site, both followed the lay of the land. It was assumed, wrongly, that those foundations would track back level with the site at street level. Trial pits had been dug here to ascertain the depth of the existing foundations. No trial pit was dug at the rear of the site.

Because of this it was necessary to consolidate the ground that the existing walls sat upon and since that was largely sand poured there decades before to level out the land, the solution had to be very carefully planned and executed.

So almost before the job had begun it was delayed. The engineering solution involved forming a kind of raft foundation, heavily reinforced that turned up at either side of the site above the bases of those existing walls thereby preventing any movement.

Not quite underpinning, the process was similar and it could only be undertaken a metre or so at a time. A similar amount of the existing ground was left before moving on to the next section. This continued across the site, finally coming back to the missed sections once the alternate concrete upstands were sufficiently set, a bit like working across the squares on a chess board, black ones first and then the white ones.

It was a fraught period but when the job eventually got back on programme it progressed under supervision and pretty much according to the new deadlines despite the inevitable tinkering that always happens as the building progresses.

The house is split on four different levels with a beautiful oaken, illuminated spiral staircase connecting each space. At the ground floor levels there are three bedrooms and a garage space. The upper levels are principally an open plan living area comprising a galley kitchen and dining area overlooking on one side the street and on the other a large living room facing the rear garden. There is also a private and enclosed study at this level also facing the street. At the top of the stair and virtually overhanging it is a very comfortable upholstered seated niche and TV viewing area.

There aren't many domestic buildings that give you a choice of favourite elevations but it is difficult to choose between front and rear at 10a Circus Lane. Because the main living orientation of the house is towards the rear this has placed an added emphasis on its design. The main living space as it overlooks the rear garden is virtually fully glazed and an external stone stair and galvanised steel balcony give direct access down to the garden via a sliding glazed doorway.

The garden layout, including plant selection, was designed by the client to be in keeping with the formal layouts traditional to a Georgian property and it sets off the contemporary elevation of the house perfectly. The entire garden area was levelled and pitched midway between the two main levels of the property and as well as being accessed from the living space of the house both its principal bedrooms also connect to the garden by means of sliding glazed screens.

This was another job we did that met with huge objections from the locality and planning permission was granted only after appeal to the Secretary of State. As in the case of others we have built at Strathearn Road and Moray Place, once completed, what was the fuss? Who seriously would now replace what we have built with what was there before?

The question should be about the quality of the design and more importantly perhaps, the quality of the construction and the construction materials themselves. In the end it's not what you build but how well you build it and what its built with. If it lasts long enough, whatever it is, it will become the treasure of some future campaign to preserve it.