Leading Edinburgh architect reveals plans for Summerhall venue including new hotel and student housing

Malcolm Fraser, whose cultural buildings include Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre, said his design would allow the beloved arts building to remain intact with no demolition required at the 130,000 sq ft site.

As reported in the Scotsman, Mr Fraser said his proposals were drawn up in consultation with Summerhall Arts, the charity which aims to keep staging events at the venue. It comes after the popular ‘arts village’ was put up for sale in May.

Edinburgh arts centre Summerhall was put up for sale in May 2024 | Mihaela Bodlovic

The Scotsman reported that plans include an 80-room ‘arts hotel’ alongside a 36-room ‘student wing’ with the proposal allowing all existing of Summerhall tenants to remain. 

The Summerhall blueprint states: “Summerhall is a city within the city, a maze of courts, closes, halls and back stairs, full of artistry and industry, with all sorts of galleries and theatres, brewers and distillers, tech innovation and quiet studios, but with the arts leading all.

"Like all cities it has backwaters, including abandoned or underused buildings and corners. But its future is uncertain as its vast contribution to the culture of Edinburgh and beyond relies on considerable philanthropic subsidy.

"This proposal looks to reorganise the creative uses more efficiently within the site’s historic sections, and release two ‘unloved’ 1960s-1970s Brutalist buildings."

Mr Fraser, a partner at Fraser/Livingstone Architects told the Scotsman his proposals were intended to mitigate risks of Summerhall’s redevelopment being held up by disputes over its future uses and proposals for demolition works.

Summerhall has been a popular arts venue since it opened in 2011

He told The Scotsman: "I am hoping to short-circuit that with a proposal that brings in funding to the site but keeps the main value of Summerhall and all the people who use it to the fore.

"The whole site is actually a bit chaotic. Nothing is completely in the right place. I’m proposing that some things get moved about a bit and the two Brutalist buildings are left to then become the parts of the site that funds the rest of it.

"I really care about the site. I’m basically trying to say: ‘What is the best for this site socially, architecturally and for the arts, that would be new energy, use and money to Summerhall?’ At the moment, it runs with a huge yearly deficit, which someone is going to need to make up one way or the other.”