UK: Glasgow-based architecture firm O’DonnellBrown has received planning consent from Edinburgh Council to convert a listed property on Thistle Street into an aparthotel.
The former printing works and warehouse at 11 Thistle Street, in Edinburgh New Town, will be remodelled and repurposed into a 72-room aparthotel.
Work is expected to start in autumn 2024 and will involve repurposing the open-plan office space spread over five floors, whilst retaining the iron supporting columns, brick vaulted ceilings and basement cross vaults.
New additions include a reception and lounge area as well as rooflights for the mezzanine bedrooms.
HubCap, the commercial subsidiary of residential developer HUB which acquired the building, was set up to deliver low-carbon urban living projects in UK cities. The aparthotel in Edinburgh aims to be all-electric with net zero operational carbon.
This would make the project “net zero ready” in assisting to achieve the city’s aim of achieving net zero carbon by 2030.
Jennifer O’Donnell, director of O’DonnellBrown, said: “Through balancing necessary improvements to the building’s energy performance, with carefully converting and celebrating the listed structure, this significant building will be given a new lease of life.”
Planning permission to transform the building was submitted in May 2023.
The site was built in the first half of the 19th century as a printing works and warehouse for Edinburgh entrepreneurs William and Robert Chambers – the creators of the Chambers Encyclopaedia and Dictionary. The brothers set up W&R Chambers in 1832. The building was category C-listed in 1996 as an example of Edinburgh New Town’s warehouse typology.
