Dezeen Magazine

Aerial view of Simon Square apartments by Fraser/Livingstone

Dezeen Debate features "well-sat" mass-timber housing in Edinburgh

The latest edition of our Dezeen Debate newsletter features a mass-timber tenement-style housing development by Scottish studio Fraser/Livingstone. Subscribe to Dezeen Debate now.

Designed by the studio as a contemporary addition to the historic site, the building is Scotland's first developer-led, mass-timber housing development in Edinburgh.

Named Simon Square, it consists of six flats and replaces an old builder's yard on a site closely bordered by 19th-century stone tenements, in Edinburgh's Southside.

Readers had a mixed reaction. One described it as "out of character with its context" while another thought "it sits well" and a third agreed saying it's "sensitive to its period surroundings".

Exterior of Větrník Kindergarten in Czech Republic by Architektura
Architektura has created the colourful Větrník Kindergarten in the Czech Republic

Other stories in this week's newsletter that fired up the comments section include a "PoMo" nursery in the Czech Republic designed by Architektura, UK member of parliament Nick Fletcher's "nonsense" criticism of 15-minute cities and "scary" chatbot ChatGPT's warning to architects about the threat of AI.

Dezeen Debate

Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.