Leith Granary

Retrofit & conversion

The granary is a four-storey brick box with cast-iron columns and timber floors the width of a tram. It had been empty for thirty years and the pigeons had opinions about the roof.

The move was to touch the outside as little as possible: the window openings were widened by one brick course top and bottom, which is enough to make a room habitable and not enough for the conservation officer to notice from the street. Inside, six flats sit on the upper floors between the original columns, and the ground floor is a shared workshop that the residents run as a co-operative.

We kept 94 per cent of the fabric by weight. The new structure is a single steel stair tower on the north wall, painted the colour of the iron it leans on.

Project info

Location: Leith, Edinburgh
Year: 2024
Area: 1 180 m²
Structure: Brick and cast iron, retained
Status: Complete

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