Situated on the historic Haymarket Station Goods Yards site, the mixed-use development transforms the area into a new district featuring a hotel, offices, and retail, alongside public spaces that give life and animation back to an underused part of the city.
Haymarket is an important point of arrival for those travelling to the Scottish capital city by road or rail. It acts as an interchange between regional and local travel, while supporting different modes of transportation – making it a pivotal location in the city. The scheme sustains this interchange through organising the development’s massing eastward whilst opening a new public square to the west. The site sits at the confluence of two arterial routes from the west, providing access to the central attraction of Princes Street and Morrison Street – the busy street leading to Tollcross’ business district.
The East Coast mainline railway runs below the northwest corner of the site, rising to within one metre of the ground level to surface at Haymarket Station. Working within the site’s constraints, the practice’s design arranges the three new buildings around a central public landscaped space at the centre of the four-acre site.
The welcoming public square features a range of expansive and more intimate spaces with active frontages, making it a place for outdoor socialising all year round.
Three new buildings – all designed by the practice – flank the landscaped public square. The development features a standalone office space, a hotel building, and a further integrated office space that features two distinct buildings joined by a central glazed atrium. The office buildings feature innovative double-glazed glass façades with mesh inserts between the glass panels that provide effective solar shading.
