The Papermeable Complex
A vision in Granton
The complex houses a recyclable paper-making facility integrated with residential floors. Situated in Granton, the project provides a permeable lifestyle through porous materials and domestic space.
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‘The Productive City’ brief invited us to propose new typologies for integrating living and working models within a contemporary, post-industrial urban environment. The proposal aims to localise production traditional to the area and design it within a contemporary context. Occupying a corner of disused land, it neighbours former industrial buildings and recent residential development. I explored means of living and working through the prefix of per-meability. The project houses a detailed paper production process on the ground floor of the complex. Layered with a double skin facade of glass and wire mesh, the project creates permeability between residents and the wider city.
As one of paper’s inherent qualities, the project explores permeability from an urban to a domestic scale. With a shared kitchen, utility and lounge areas, the scheme is designed for those who like a particularly sociable lifestyle. Ranging from small individual rooms to shared flexible units, occupants are given autonomy to choose their own ‘type’. The resident is given further control over their environment through use of a movable wire mesh facade. A perimeter threshold between outside and in functions as a circulation and sun space to provide access and light to each unit. For individual privacy, sliding screens have been designed to use recycled paper produced in the facility beneath. The Papermeable Complex aims to provide a sociable lifestyle in Granton, utilising a layered language of materials to envelop a porous domestic space.