ScottishArchitecture.com

Design and heritage experts have backed plans for a striking modernist extension to a grade A listed 16th century merchant’s house near Edinburgh, despite local authority concerns.

The Leith scheme, by Highland Housing Fair masterplanner Caddell2, working with Wiszniewski Thomson Architects, involves the redevelopment and expansion of Lamb’s House — which dates from the time of Mary Queen of Scots — to provide apartments and new office space.

Edinburgh City Council planners have claimed the concrete, steel and oak extension is over-complex and impedes views of its historic neighbour.

Case officer Stephen Dickson said: “The scheme is overly complex for the location. We’ve no problem with the actual architecture, but it’s not suitable for the building that it sits alongside.”

But the scheme has been strongly backed by heritage consultant and architect Charles McKean, who said the council was wrong in its claim that views towards Lamb’s House are “an established part of the character and setting of the building”.

In a report for client EDI Group he wrote: “It was never a view that was originally intended… The council’s proposal [for a more formal space in front of Lamb’s House] appears to give greater priority to a theoretical photo opportunity than to the recreation of a dynamic space in keeping with this ancient building.”

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