New Practice
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Walk-Up Avenue

 

Walk-Up Avenue

Transforming a brownfield gap site in Craigmillar Town Centre into a biodiverse public space for gathering, play, community uses and commerce

Meanwhile Projects create activity on sites and in buildings which might otherwise lie empty. When these spaces are of genuine value and have long term benefits they become Worthwhile Projects. Commissioned by the City of Edinburgh Council in 2021 as part of a drive to invigorate the post-Covid high street, we were tasked with answering their question: “why would we leave a space underused, especially in a town centre?”

 
 
Architectural plan, with new designs in colour and context greyscale. Drawing highlights: growing space, extensive planting across site, playing field, stage, events plaza and seating, Cafe, groundworks for additional unit and Beacon entrance
 
Photo of the site before works began, a muddy field with timber and concrete debris. In the background a timber fence separates the site from brick residential gable ends.
Birds eye visualisation of Walk Up Avenue, showing the Beacon entrance and Cafe unit with red and pink cladding beside children playing in the surrounding green spaces
 
 

This Worthwhile Project enlivens a once-uninspiring, 0.25 hectare, vacant plot in the Edinburgh neighbourhood of Craigmillar.

Earmarked for future use by food & beverage establishments by the Town Centre Plans, in the years since the completion of nearby residential units and the neighbouring supermarket no interested parties have been identified to develop the plot.

 
 
Photo showing the entrance to Walk Up Avenue. In the foreground a slide and 'Wendy House' and in the background a pink and white slatted fence becomes the tall triangular beacon painted pink, yellow and blue

Located on the busy Niddrie Mains Road high street, Walk-Up Avenue is a boost of colour and nature including: sculptural entranceway, commercial unit, a stage facing onto a central plaza ‘market square’, play features and seating all nestled among extensive planting.

Photo showing the stage, cafe unit and beacon during the opening event. There are bubble from a bubble machine and a boy on a blue bike in the centre of the photo

Rain Gardens offer the opportunity to manage rainwater runoff from hard surfaces after downpours by planting an attractive, low maintenance, wildlife-friendly space.

Close up detail of the beacon, a white timber frame supports colours timber slats: yellow/pink in front and blue/purple behind

Walk-Up Avenue received significant additional funding from Nature Scot to elevate the landscape design to include preventing flooding and providing wildlife habitats.

In collaboration with the landscape architect, Liz Thomas, we designed a number of ‘blue-green infrastructure’ features: raingardens and swales, a rill in the central market square, tree-planted SuDS trenches and woodland areas, as well as wildflower meadows and a turfed play green.

The built elements form part of this strategy through the integration of rainwater butts and the addition of a green roof to the Stage and seating clustered around raised bed planters.

There is also a growing space, managed by local community greenspace organisation Edible Estates.

 
 
Close up detail photo of the planters and seating. Planters are pink with white tops and growing lavender and herbs. The seating is white and blue slats. The seating is surrounded by whindust, a pink gravel for the events plaza
Photo showing the stage, cafe unit and beacon during the opening event. There are bubbles from a bubble machine and a number of people with dogs in the foreground

Walk-Up Avenue supports small and local business through the provision of a commercial unit, which is fitted-out to house a café tenant.

Groundworks and service connections for a second commercial unit at the site have also been installed as part of this process with this last part of the project due to progress on confirmation of further funding. This second unit has been designed to house retail and/or community focussed activities.

 
 
Photo of the site from Wauchope Avenue, showing the colourful pink/yellow fencing and cafe with red cladding and purple window frames. A small boy is on a scooter
 
 

Sustainability and consideration of healthy environments was crucial to the design and development of this brownfield site, with soil remediation measures undertaken to leave the ground safe for the community to gather and young people to play upon framed by a variety of flora.

The site opened to the public in August 2022, to coincide with the Craigmillar & Niddrie Community Festival where it hosted various community and craft market stalls, musical performances and storytelling sessions. From this busy event it is clear that Walk Up Avenue will create a welcoming and colourful space for the local community to come together and take ownership of for many years to come.

A crowd makes use of the seating in the entrance beacon to watch a performance during the opening event. Parents and their children are watching a woman with a suitcase doing a puppet show
 
 
Close up detail of the beacon, a white timber frame supports colours timber slats: yellow/pink in front and blue/purple behind. A bird sits on the very top of the installation in front of a grey sky
 
Photo showing the entrance to Walk Up Avenue, a lady in red trousers walks towards the large opening in the beacon and a small child site on top of the 'Wendy House' in the playpark