Category B Listed Villa Conversion
The project sensitively converted the existing Category B Listed Building, creating two substantial residential dwellings while faithfully retaining and restoring original features, and providing a new lease of life in remodelling the layouts to suit the requirements of modern family living.
Located a short distance from Edinburgh City Centre and within a Conservation Area, the site’s previous use as a nursing home had seen several unsympathetic extensions to the villa. The first move was to clear the site of the poor 20th-century extensions and associated fabric detracting from the original building.
The existing buildings required careful refurbishment to the highest degree of skill and care not only in the design but also in the execution, with specialist craftsmen commissioned from the stonemasons faithfully restoring and repairing intricate detailing to principal elevations, to the joiners fabricating and refurbishing timber windows, to the roofers replicating historic lead detailing and reusing the existing slate, and to the plasterers reinstating and repairing historic ceiling mouldings.
The completed project delivers two well-appointed residential units from what had become a compromised and underused historic building. The original character of the villa, including its stonework, joinery, roofline and interior detailing, has been carefully recovered and secured for the long term.
The building now reads as it was always intended to: a well-proportioned and finely detailed Victorian villa, sitting comfortably within its conservation area setting. The building fabric has been brought in line with current technical guidance, including thermal upgrades and a contemporary extension.
Project type: Category B Listed Building Conversion
Client: AMA Homes
Location: Edinburgh
Service: Preserve / Enhance
Scope: Full architectural design services, inc. planning, building warrant, tender packages and construction oversight
Contractor: AMA Construction
Project delivered as Project Architect at Oberlanders Architects.