Inka Eismar

Tectonic Agenda

The design ethos of Unit 6: Civic Structures considers the external urban rooms shaped by a built intervention to be equally important as the space enclosed. Within the fragmented territory of South Leith defined by three modernist towerblocks, the studio seeks to shape civic spaces between new and old edges, helping revive gathering grounds for the community. To achieve interventions that are successful in the long run, buildings are designed as systems of layers, each with a different rate of change.

My proposal for a townhall is enveloped in a load-bearing stone exoskeleton. This most permanent building layer, providing skin and structure in one, frames and characterises newly shaped civic spaces. Stone was chosen as the structural material for this most critical part of the intervention due to its longevity and material relationship to Leith’s historic institutions. Even after the townhall itself is dismantled, parts of the stone skeleton may remain in place, ensuring the continued framing of external gathering spaces. While structural stone is suitable to generate a contextual civic presence, it also presents a lower carbon alternative to concrete. The external stone skeleton is laterally supported by a timber frame, which defines a series of internal gathering grounds.