‘Communist blocks’ scheme poised to go ahead – Daily Business

A plan for new housing on the edge of Edinburgh that was likened to the brutal architecture of Communist Eastern Europe looks like getting support from the city council.

Architect 3DReid’s project will replace a disused paper factory close to the Gogarburn roundabout and busy Maybury junction.

The scheme occupies a 6.3ha brownfield site and is backed by regeneration specialist Summix Capital.

It is part of the ongoing development at Edinburgh Gateway, close to the site of the former Saica packaging plant. A 170-bed hotel is included in the plan.

Release of images prompted widespread criticism on social media amid claims that new developments do not complement the city’s graceful historic architecture.

Planners say: “It is recommended that this application be granted.

“The proposal will form part of the emerging area in West Edinburgh as envisaged in the development plan.”

However, one commentator described the Gateway scheme as being “like Plattenbau in East Berlin”, while another lamented that there was “a global movement towards this gulag style in architecture.”

Peter Lederer, former managing director and chairman of Gleneagles Hotel added that it was “lazy, cheap architecture”. Social media specialist Fin Wycherley said: “Looks like we’re moving more and more into a prison state.”

Company director Greville Warwick described the scheme as: “Featureless Square blocks. A form of Lego architecture.”

Ian Tyler, an independent chair, non-executive director and senior adviser, said: “I suspect that even battery hens would refuse those lodgings!

“This ‘ugliness’ disease is not just an Edinburgh disease but across the whole of the UK. Architects seem to have lost all sense of beauty.”

In its submission to the council, the applicant said: “The flagship vibrant new neighbourhood aims to deliver a mix of uses.

“This includes the delivery of more than 950 homes, including 35 per cent affordable homes, plus a new hotel with over 170 bedrooms.”

Saica relocated to new premises in Livingston.