Crescent reflects old and new innovation

Kirsty Mcluckie meets architect Richard Murphy who sheds some light on his work at Donaldson’s in Edinburgh’s West End

It is not until you stand in the showhome at The Crescent in Edinburgh that you get the idea of just how the building works.

The double crescent of apartments, duplexes and penthouses are being built by Cala Homes, behind the A-listed Playfair Donaldsons building, formerly a school for the deaf, which is being converted by City and Country.

One, two and three-bedroomed homes are available in the first phase of The Crescent, ranging in price from £950,000 to £1,925,000.

They have been designed by acclaimed architect Richard Murphy, who also took on the conversion of the 1850 Jacobean-style building they overlook. While the conversion of the older building is impressive, the newbuild element at the site has allowed great scope for innovative design.

Murphy says: “The (Cala) apartments span three floors at the back, but the use of mezzanines and half staircases turn into two floors at the front. The result is a domestic scale for the bedrooms but maximum height and views framing the Playfair building.

“It is about capitalising on the view, but also making a much more interesting apartment.”

Another impressive feature is the front elevation, which consists of double-height windows that completely slide away into the space occupied by a mezzanine study.

Murphy says: “The entire living room effectively becomes a deep verandah.”

Certainly, with the doors open, you could feasibly sunbathe while cooking.

The ground-floor apartments are more conventional, but have outside spaces at the rear, which backs on to the city’s leafy West End and the Water of Leith. It is a surprisingly peaceful spot, given its city-centre position, but the new homes benefit from a share in the 18-acre grounds which helps to buffer any traffic noise.

Murphy explains that the inspiration for the design was the New Town; six Georgian crescents are adjacent to the site. The curve allows the focus to be the Playfair building but is in no way an imitation. Murphy says: “What you mustn’t do is a facsimile of Gothic. For a property in close proximity like this, you have to do something different rather than a pale imitation.”

The crescent is split in the middle so that you can still see the school from the lawns of the nearby Gallery of Modern Art.

Murphy admits that one of the biggest challenges was subterranean. “It is about maintaining the landscape so underground car parking was the starting point.” A discreet entrance leads to a carpark below with access to individual properties above.

Of the 84 apartments, 14 are now sold. Gillian Tait of Cala says that the opening of the showhomes has fuelled sales as buyers are able to fully see the complex nature of the design.

She says: “We started selling offplan with visualised walk-throughs but the complex design of the mulitlayered apartments, coupled with the Crescent’s curve, meant that many buyers have been holding back to view the properties when they were built. It was a difficult thing to imagine.”

“The quality of the site comes from the long views and a model cannot bring that to life.”