Commercial \ Edinburgh Sports Club

Edinburgh Sports Club 2005. Unbuilt

The Edinburgh Sports Club exists in a buiding which has characteristically grown over the years and is now seriously substandard and unable to compete with modern sports centres. The club sits on an island next to the Water of Leith surrounded by wooded river banks but remarkably close to the city centre.

Our client Cala Homes asked us to completely redesign the entire island site to construct a new tennis and squash club, four tennis courts and parking and provide 24 luxury flats on this exclusive site.

The flats are arranged in three identical towers so as to minimise the view of the river from nearby houses. The lowest flat is an L-shaped garden flat, the top flat an "upside down" maisonette with the intervening flats being a series of interlocking maisonettes with double height living rooms and balconies facing onto the river.

The sports club is organised around an internal steet connecting the landward entrance side to the river side. The "dumb boxes" of the squash courts form a base for the social spaces of the club on the top floor.

Negotiations between Cala and the Sports Club have proved inconclusive and the project has been abandoned.