Louise Holway

Granton is a district in northern Edinburgh. Historically, it has been a hub for industry; one of the busiest ports in the city, a centre for exporting coal, making stone for urban development, car manufacturing, and importing materials. 

Granton has seen a series of redevelopment initiatives that aim to transform the area into a sustainable and fair economy. This includes housing solutions with thousands of net-zero carbon homes; economic opportunities and business start-up spaces; extending & enhancing coastal parks and green spaces; celebrating diversity with culture, creative arts, & leisure space; and providing key social services.

Identified Challenges

Inadequate services and infrastructure

A truly sustainable neighbourhood contributes to the success of current and future residents. This means providing essential resources that enables them to thrive. Some include childcare, communal space, libraries, food pantries, after-school programs, civic engagement, and opportunities to strengthen community involvement. In Granton, many of these services are either non-existent or outdated.

Series of disjointed neighbourhoods

Accessibility issues create a series of disjointed neighrbourhoods. Residential blocks are composed of similar typology without connection to one another, resulting in an absence of interactions. There is little incentive for residents to visit what could be a beautiful waterfront. A town centre would promote small businesses, engagement, relationships, public transportation, community character, and resource sharing.

Plethora of unusable open space

Much of the area remains undeveloped and unaccessible. Aside from pockets of roundabouts nestled in the residential neighbourhoods, there is little greenery in the area. While areas like Pilton Park and Cresent park provide some communal outdoor green space, links, variety, and quantity is lacking. There is tremendous potential to add more of these areas that are accessible to residents throughout the community.

Uncelebrated history, culture, and character

Employment status, housing typology, age, and relationship status were studied geographically.  Observing overlaps reveals four areas that share characteristics. These divides contribute to a lack of community pride and character. Granton has a rich history filled with culture and personality that goes uncelebrated. The waterfront was once a bustling port of commerce is now warehouses and their resulting waste. Historic landmarks still stand; yet many remain unaccessible.

Site History

The site has significant historical relevance, serving as the loading dock in the 1850s for the world’s first train ferry, The Leviathan. It transported goods from Granton to Burntisland. Rail wagons were able to run directly on the vessel and be unloaded at the other end. The historical “goody shed” (used for storage at a railroad-station or on a dock) still stands and is in operation today. The rest of the site was a “coal depot”, a timber yard, customs house, and rail line that starts/ends on the site. Shipments came off boats and were transported to the site to be shipped via train.

Site Description

The main entry point to the site is on the north side along W Harbour Road. Visitors enter off the sidewalk and onto a surface made of recycled concrete tiles incorporated with rain water collection. They can walk through the grassy area filled with benches and trees, or continue around to reach the gymnasium and spots fields.

Visitors reach another green space surrounded by the new buildings. On the right, the building will host services like classrooms, childcare, the library, tech spaces, cafes, and small-business pop-up shops.

Across the green space, the 2-story building contains administrative offices, bookable remote-work offices, multi-use flexible spaces, and a large event hall. W. Granton Street-level access will also be available through the double-height space or wrap-around balcony. The last stop on the site are the gardens, where fresh produce will be grown and led by the community.

Building Programmes

Building 1 houses services that residents will use on a regular basis. It is a single story with a clerestory on the library. The roof is left flat for solar panels, as well as potential usable rooftop space. The curved form helps to shape the site while optimising southern glazing exposure.

Building 2 provides space for flexible uses that can be reserved for community events, remote work offices, and administrative offices. It also acts as a southern entry point, where visitors enter from the upper level. A wraparound

deck provides shaded and unshaded areas, as well as an entrance for outdoor use when the building is closed.

The existing structure is retrofitted into a gymnasium facility. Construction techniques are out of the scope of this project,

but reusing an existing structure and fitting it to meet sustainability performance requirements mitigates the most embodied carbon intensive materials. Moreover, the structure has significant historic relevance and provides a sense of place for Granton.

Energy Modelling

Using building simulation software, the three buildings were optimised based on several parameters including window-to-wall ratio, shading devices, U-values, mechanical systems, solar heat gain coefficient, air tightness, mechanical equipment efficiency, and amount of solar panels.

 

The qualitative goals contribute to creating a high performance building by UK standards, and solar PVs can overall lower the energy demand. Comfort levels are set close to exterior conditions in spaces where occupants pass through quickly. Other areas are kept flexible to be able to adapt to future climate conditions, space use, and individual preference. The lighting is also specified by space use, so they are well designed for each of the given tasks. Optimising daylighting, incorporating occupancy sensors, and ensuring efficient fixtures lower the lighting energy demand.

While the goal is to ultimately design a net-zero building, the project’s buildings aim to be high performing by UK standards and use electric mechanical equipment. Scotland’s energy grid is powered 99% by renewables, mostly coming from off-shore wind. Using on-site renewables in the form of rooftop solar PV panels and using Scotland’s increasingly sustainable electricity grid, the building can have its energy demands powered by renewable sources.

Building Two Design

After obtaining the results from the simulation to optimise passive techniques, a closer investigation was done for building 2. One of the primary focuses of the project was ensuring the buildings are well designed, so that their socially sustainable benefits are not outweighed by the environmental impacts of the new construction. Passive design was prioritised to work with the climate and reduce energy demand.

Using materials manufactured in Scotland provides many benefits. Not only does it support local businesses and a sustainable economy; it reduces emissions associated with transportation. Moreover, using vernacular materials ensures the materials work within the environment by providing passive gains like serving as thermal masses, reflecting or absorbing light, and carbon sequestration.

The chosen facade materials are a mix of western red cedar cladding and light-coloured concrete. Cedar was chosen due to is local accessibility, low maintenance, and small carbon footprint. In addition, its gray aging is commonly found on beach houses, celebrating the place and Granton’s waterfront. The light coloured concrete with a stucco render was chosen due to its thermal mass capabilities, durability, and light-reflecting properties. High recycled content with fly ash and slag is specified to reduce embodied carbon further.

Building Assembly

Not only was low embodied carbon a criteria in material selection; performance, passive heating, tight envelope construction, and high insulation values were also considered. The walls and floors can be modularly fabricated to reduce on-site waste, mitigate disruptions to the neighbourhood during construction, lower cost, and result in quicker erection. Modular and prefabricated assemblies also contribute to a tightly-sealed building envelope. This results in a less leaks and unwanted infiltration that reduce heating and cooling demands by keeping the internal conditioning constant.

Thermal performance and insulation were also a high priority when composing the wall and floor assemblies to reduce unwanted heat loss and gain through conduction.

The specified assemblies have the following U-values (W/(m²K):

• Ground floor: 0.19

• Roof: 0.16

• Exterior Wall: 0.17

• Windows: 0.8

Embodied carbon is tracked through a lifetime carbon analysis (LCA). It measures the total embodied carbon of the building by obtaining the quantity of each material used and their individual embodied carbon, and summing the total impact. They can be used in the design stage to compare broad material choice, as well as which manufacturer is best fit for the project. Data bases of existing projects can benchmark by building type to create industry standards and measure performance.

The United Nations Global Alliance for Building and Construction rating system benchmarks projects, so they can be compared on a uniform scale. Based on the 2021 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, Building 2 receives the highest A-rating.

Part of the LCA was measuring the impact of each material to see where the most effective improvements can be made. The concrete and stucco façade have the largest impact. Using innovative concrete that uses recycled materials is a possible improvement. However, its thermal mass properties have potential for operational carbon reduction. It is followed by the timber structure. The structural system usually accounts for the majority of the building’s embodied carbon. If a concrete or steel structure was used instead, it would likely outweigh the stucco façade’s contribution. Gypsum and insulation also account for a large portion. This is to due with the large quantity used, being a component of the exterior walls and floors.

Holistic Approach

The project contributes to the broader goals of Granton Waterfront Restoration and sustainable development aims of Edinburgh. The proposal laid out in this report is not a master plan, but rather a component in series of interventions created to serve the community at a micro scale.

Macro (global, national, and regional levels): working towards organisational and governmental goals and frameworks.



Meso (community and neighbourhoods): Grandon Waterfront Development; community services; improving open space.



Micro (building level and human experience): building materials, construction, and performance; human experience on the site