Woodcroft Residential

Luxury living in the heart of Morningside

Creating a luxury residential development in the heart of a conservation area required both sensitive design and communication with the community to ensure an appropriate response to the site.

Location Morningside, Edinburgh
Client Cruden Homes
Status Complete
Services Architecture
Photography Alan McAteer
Aerial Photography Ian Guthrie

The Site

The site occupies a prime area in the heart of the residential area of Edinburgh’s popular Morningside and had been the home to The Woodcroft BT Telephone Exchange and Offices since the 1960’s. The exchange had been decommissioned and vacated for over 5 years before development of the site began.

The old telephone exchange was incongruous in its location.

The new site layout was more sensitive to context

The completed development blends harmoniously into the neighbourhood.

Project History

In 2009 a previous planning permission was obtained to convert the existing building into flats, however, a renewed application by MLA for the then owners proposed to introduce a high quality mixed tenure development to the area which creates a more contextually appropriate spatial pattern on the site to reinstate synchronization with the surrounding area.

The development provides 3 apartment blocks and 24 townhouses with high quality finishes to create a more contextually appropriate typology for the site.

Townhouses have private parking

The apartment blocks have underground parking to 'hide' vehicles.

Integration of high quality landscaping was a priority.

An Open Development

Key to the development was the enhancement of permeability through the site by way of new routes which benefit pedestrian links, adds new trees to implicate a stronger urban structure within and enhances the green nature of surrounding spaces.