Granton Waterfront

In 2020, Collective Architecture, in association with Studio for New Realities and wider design team, developed a Strategic Plan and Development Framework for Granton Waterfront for the City of Edinburgh Council, Community and Partners in 2019-2020.

Granton is at the heart of Edinburgh’s Waterfront, 3 miles north of the City Centre on the shores of the Firth of Forth. It sits central to a ’necklace’ of coastal communities and stretches from Cramond in the west along the waterfront to Granton Harbour in the east. It also connects to the surrounding communities of Pennywell, Muirhouse, Pilton, Trinity and Newhaven. The site comprises around 200 hectares of open green space and parkland (to the west) and around 50 hectares of potentially developable former industrial land.

Granton’s successful transformation holds the potential to reconnect the city to the water and to build on wider ongoing regeneration projects to transform Scotland’s capital into a unique coastal city.

The team set out an ambitious Vision, series of guiding ‘Granton Principles’ and ‘Design Guidelines’ that will guide the future development of Granton Waterfront to ensure it becomes a unique coastal community. These principles have been developed to be flexible enough to allow for future uncertainty but be robust enough to maintain an overall vision for the area.

These set out a climate resilient, place-based and inclusive approach to regeneration. It offers Edinburgh and the wider region the opportunity to mark a step-change in how it develops in a sustainable, resilient and responsible way.

It aims to protect and extend the existing green space within its boundary and to transform the former industrial land at Granton Waterfront into a place where people want to live, work and visit. To create a place which links to and contributes to the regeneration of surrounding neighbourhoods and which becomes a vibrant and welcoming coastal community, attractive and accessible to all.

The Development Framework has been developed through a collaborative, design-led approach involving local communities, stakeholders, public sector partners (including The National Galleries of Scotland, National Museums Scotland and Edinburgh College), Architecture and Design Scotland, Scottish Futures Trust and Scottish Government partners. This process has ensured that placemaking and creating an area that reflects the needs of local communities and the wider city are at the heart of the framework.