Across the University of Edinburgh’s student campus due to an increasing demand for high quality common room spaces BLOCK NINE were appointed to carry out a partial conversion of an existing student residence building, located on the University’s Kings Buildings Campus just off West Mains Road in Edinburgh.

The existing building contained multiple student flats with cellular accommodation, made up of several small bedrooms, kitchen and living space. However, there were no dedicated common room facilities within the building for students to gather to study or socialise together.

The cluster arrangement of the existing student flats did however mean there was an opportunity within the existing building to sacrifice some existing accommodation in order to provide a much-needed common room space.

The original Client brief was therefore to convert and refurbish an existing ground floor flat.

This would involve reducing the size of the existing flat, with currently 10 bedrooms, to 5 bedrooms.

These bedrooms and existing kitchen and living space would subsequently be reclaimed to form the new common room facilities which were to include study spaces, breakout areas, games area and kitchenette.

Several feasibility plan studies were produced in response to this initial brief by engaging closely with the University project management and client team. Architecturally, the existing stepped plan-form allowed defined areas for study/ socialising/ relaxing to naturally develop. Central to the space is a striking feature wall, wrapping up onto the ceiling which brings a sense of drama to the new common area. With budget also in mind, we specified birch plywood which could be used in its raw form and focused on the architectural detailing, incorporating shadow gaps and LED feature lighting to further enhance the design.