Edinburgh Architects’ Office Refurbishment and Retrofit in Abbeyhill
The practice had been working out of our home office for ten years and we had been looking for new workspace of around 50-60m2, both to give us the space to expand and also to give the business a public frontage.
We were introduced to a property in Edinburgh’s Abbeyhill by Galbraith, which was a perfect fit for us in terms of location and size, but it was clear from the outset that it required a lot of improvement and building work.
Much of our work as Edinburgh Architects involves a variety of scales of commercial and residential refurbishment, including retrofit, so the project was familiar territory for us.
Design Transformation
The design proposals were to open up the ground floor to return it to its original layout and ceiling heights, with a large front office and a smaller back office.
This exposed the original decorative cornice and allowed us to use the fanlight above the front door again.
We opted for fitted desks and shelving to the front office make the best use of the space (and because we really liked how it looked).
The rot and damp in the basement meant that a full strip out was required at this level, taking the wall finishes back to bare stone and brick and the floor back to the original concrete slab.
Energy Efficiency
As part of the refurbishment and retrofit, we wanted to maximise the energy efficiency of the office, to reduce running costs, reduce the environmental impact and to stay comfortable and warm!
To achieve this, the main ‘shop front’ window was replaced with a large doubled glazed unit and the damaged entrance area and back window were replaced with double glazed and draught sealed doors and windows.
To address the damp problem, the basement walls and floors were lined internally with a cavity drain tanking membrane.
The inside faces of the external walls were then lined with 45 x 70 treated timber framing, 70mm PIR insulation and composite insulated plasterboard.
This insulation build up is not always suitable for insulating stone walls, but worked well in this case.
The basement floor was framed in timber above the new tanking membrane, with 70mm PIR insulation between the framing and a new chipboard deck finishing one step up from the original basement level, so that the original staircase could be kept.
The timber joists to the ground floor of the back office were loose and rotten in some areas, so these were lifted and re-laid with 150mm of new Rockwool insulation between the joists, held in place with a new breather membrane to improve air tightness. See our blog for more detail on this project
We can help with your retrofit
If you’re considering a residential or commercial refurbishment, retrofit, or new build in Edinburgh or Central Scotland, our team can help guide you from design through statutory consents to completion.
Completed 2025
Main Contractor – AJB Building and Joinery Ltd
Additional Building Works – Fernandes Binns Architects Ltd
Estate Agent – Galbraith Group