This distinctive domestic building was constructed on a left-over site in central Edinburgh. Contributing to the high urban quality of the city, an innovatively arranged family house with garden space and street frontage was created.

In reconciling the need for a fully realised one-off house with not yet known inhabitants led to a design approach focused on the site, core spatial characteristics and distinctive external materials. The aim was to create as robust and coherent an architectural and urban presence as possible. The site was reimagined as a New Town walled garden, a potential setting for a lightweight ‘pavilion-like’ house, more appropriate to formal street frontage than the plain service buildings of the mews. With tight planning constraints, the three bedroom house is configured to minimise the impact of its volume from the street, to take into account overlooking from adjacent residential accommodation, while maximising light and views across Hart Street and to the private garden to the rear.