Westfield Avenue, Edinburgh
Client: Dunedin Canmore HA / Hart Builders (Edinburgh) Ltd
Architect: 7N Architects
Cost: Phase 1: £3m to £5m (3 Blocks) / Phase 2: £5m (1 Block)
New build, affordable apartments with office accommodation. Modular light steel frame for 3 No. 5-7 storey blocks with 8 No. open plan business units constructed using hot rolled steel podium frames. Our brief included the design of access roads, drainage and a new pedestrian access bridge over the Water of Leith, adoptable roads, cut and fill, infrastructure, SUDS, greenfield runoff assessments, highway and adoptable foul and surface water drainage, private below ground foul and surface water drainage, Ground investigation procurement and verification, services procurement and reconfiguration, access road design, highway reconfiguration, unit structural design and certification.
Specific Aspects
The site was brown field comprising of the demolition of a 30 year old bus garage and industrial units. Localised ground remediation was required with Isolation capping was used to break the source path receptor chains.
All drainage designs were in compliance with CIRIA 697. We also had to coordinate our drainage designs with the district wide Flood Defence designs and construction contacts running concurrently with ours. This with our input to the sustainability profile of the project contributed to adherence in BRE Code for Sustainable Homes, ECO Homes and BREEAM. Simple examples of our contribution involved the specification of sustainable materials such as:-
• FSC / PEFC certified timber
• Replacement Cement (pfa /gbbs etc)
• Recycled Aggregates (6f2, 6f3 etc)
We certified compliance to The Scottish Government’s Building Standards section 1, under SER for all building structures, under two stages; 1 – Foundations and substructure below DPC and 2 – Pressed Metal Frame Superstructure. We used our broad knowledge of the Scottish Governments Building Standards to assist in dovetailing the structural designs with requirements for architectural compliance with the remaining sections. Form Q items were specified and managed in detail to foster as smooth a transition to Completion Certification as possible.