THE first images showing a new neighbourhood of almost 1,000 homes and a new park on Edinburgh's waterfront have been lodged with planners.
Edinburgh-based 7N Architects said it has now submitted detailed plans to deliver a mixed use neighbourhood of 938 new homes at Western Harbour.
Western Harbour Park, once completed, will regenerate 4.4 hectares - the same size as Queen Street Gardens East and Central or at least four football pitches - of currently derelict land into parkland alongside new residential development, according to separate planning papers.
The practice said the initiative is a collaboration between Rankin Fraser Landscape Architecture and Forth Ports Ltd and Rettie and Co to respond to Edinburgh’s growing shortage of housing.
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The development will deliver 938 homes within a mixed use neighbourhood which will include shops, commercial space, a health centre, a new primary school which is being brought forward separately by the council, and one of the largest new parks in the city for over a hundred years.
It follows the approval of the revised design framework in October 2018 and it is claimed the proposals "will realise the next stage of the wider Western Harbour masterplan to transform empty, reclaimed, land in the Port of Leith into a new waterfront community".
The architect said in a statement on its website: "We worked in collaboration with landscape architects Rankin Fraser to design a new neighbourhood that focuses on the public realm and the spaces between the buildings, encouraging people to inhabit and activate their environment.
"The streets, spaces and buildings are designed to prioritise people over vehicles and to have a discernible character, within the coherent context of the wider neighbourhood, in order to cultivate variety, identity and legibility.
"A varied palette of robust materials references the historic waterfront buildings and the site’s direct relationship with the Port of Leith.
"The new park, designed by Rankin Fraser, will form the heart of the new community offering play space, large open meadows, varied woodland, a community growing space and an outdoor classroom for the adjacent primary school."
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