A Theatre for Making

Location: Meadows Lane, Edinburgh, Scotland
Duration: Yr 2 Semester 1
Project type: Adaptive Reuse Community Centre
Medium: Handrawn, digital, handmade models

Meadows Lane, situated in the vicinity of Edinburgh Universities campus and the city’s main green space, offers an area of vast movement through the urban fabric. What I particularly drew from the group site analysis was the movement in and around the site, noting periods of dynamism and stasis. Through this thought process and by following the lines created by the existing urban fabric, I generated several iterations of building composition in both sketch and model form. The spatial opportunity for connecting walkways through the site into Buccleuch Terrace and the Meadows area, would allow for this strip of urban fabric to become unlocked and interacted within the community.

The final proposal is based on a narrative of the theatre of making. Articulating the building through its relationship to the site, in terms of acknowledging movement, surrounding geometry and materials, allows for the building to be interactive with its surroundings. The creation of a sunken courtyard space creates a central sense of drama, from which the buildings complex grows out of. This plinth like element suggests the idea of creating internal and external observation of making and creativity, suggesting a theatrical narrative.