This four storey block of apartments at Beaconsfield Mews comprises ten 2 bedroom flats and two 3 bedroom penthouses on the top floor. The site was formerly occupied by a 3 storey derelict 1970s accommodation block originally built for Grampian TV that provided hostel style accommodation up until it fell out of use and into disrepair several years prior to our client acquiring the site. It sits between a lane, the Denburn and a recent residential development to the South and the Church Hall car-park to the North. Immediately to the east is a large granite tenement block that has a food store at ground level. Immediately to the west is the garden ground to traditional properties on Beaconsfield Place

The design solution aims to provide a high density of living accommodation within a relatively small space that fits into and responds to the surrounding context. The block consists of a three storey base that reflects the size and general position of the previous building on the site and is topped by a recessed upper storey. The ground floor is entirely taken up by car-parking, bike stores and the entrance lobby. The building sitting entirely on its own car-park. This has the advantage that none of the properties are at risk from flooding from the Denburn and that in this central back lane location there are no vulnerable ground floor properties. Care has been taken to screen the car park as much as possible. Every property has a balcony to provide amenity space. The block is divided in a tri-partite fashion to the north and south elevations to break the horizontality of the building into elements that are more in proportion with surrounding buildings

The building uses a mixture of granite, smooth white render and dark grey cladding. The dark grey cladding chiming with the nearby slate roofs and the quantity of granite greater on the north elevation than on the south reflecting the context of Beaconsfield place. Two finishes of granite are used, bush hammered and fine picked.

The lane to the south is in private ownership, and although an existing access our clients were advised that any increase in use caused by the block would be potentially problematic, therefore agreement was reached with the Church Hall to improve the existing access from Beaconsfield Place to provide the main access to the development.