Tara Whitaker

Address: 4-6 Anderson Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5NP

Year built: 1947

Original Use: Biscuit Factory

The Biscuit Factory was built in 1947 for Crawford’s Biscuits, situated in the industrial area of Leith. The warehouse was home to the Crawford family business for 20 years and still sits mainly unchanged on Anderson Place.

The building suits the project perfectly as it is a large space of around 2000m2, with interesting historic architectural features relating to its previous use as a factory. The building is also unlisted, allowing the potential for significant architectural and structural changes. The large windows and skylights provide the building with considerable natural light throughout the day, which is ideal for the intended welcoming and open atmosphere of the space. Geographically, The Biscuit Factory is located in an area which is easily reachable by all of the community, either on foot or by public transport. Leith is an area of high deprivation and has a large and varied population, meaning it is the ideal location for a centre that tackles poverty and serves the community.

Concept

Community and inclusivity are at the heart of this project and have been a driving force in the design and concept. All facilities in the centre work on a membership basis, allowing customers to pay for the tier they can afford, whilst everyone is entitled to the same items or services. By using a membership service, no money is physically exchanged, helping to take away the stigma associated with poverty.

The supermarket was the function from which the project stemmed and became the focal space in the centre. When considering what other functions might occupy the site, a community kitchen and café were the next spaces included, stemming from the idea that the centre promotes healthy eating by educating visitors. The kitchen not only functions as a commercial kitchen to serve the café, but it also allows visitors to prepare meals using the facilities in the centre to take home. Other functions in the space came from various forms of research conducted early on in the project and are suited to the needs of the demographic of existing food bank users in the Leith area. These include a children’s play area, clothes swap shop, counselling and seminar rooms, and a co-working space.

Main Space and Detailing

As the centre is based around food, the supermarket was chosen as the main space. It is also the first space that the visitor arrives at and the space from which all other functions can be reached. When considering the design of the supermarket, the ethos of the project was heavily influential, as well as the strategic placement of products, the customer journey and display types.

The display design was an obvious choice for detailing, in order to show all products at their best. The brick display unit holds fruit and veg items and takes inspiration from the materiality of the existing walls of the building. The other two display types are steel framed units, one simply constructed of shelves, whereas the other incorporates a recipe or promotion board, and holds items relating to this. The main staircase was another choice for detailing, as it occupies a large proportion of the space, and leads up to the above floors. The staircase takes inspiration from multiple industrial design precedents and is painted in the green accent colour used throughout the space.