Edinburgh University's Charteris Land Building has received an external makeover care of an innovative use of stone-filled gabion baskets from installers, Maccaferri Construction Ltd.

Gabions are traditionally used as retaining wall structures but here, Edinburgh based Architects, Lewis & Hickey Ltd, chose the system to create an unusual but environmentally sympathetic external cladding to the original concrete facade.

The welded wire mesh gabion baskets form a new, non load-bearing external leaf and are up to 6.4m high in places.

At 300mm thick they are narrower than conventional gabions [usually 1000mm] and were hand filled with locally sourced red basalt to be in keeping with the surroundings and to reflect the exposed aggregates concrete panels of the original building.

The gabion cladding panels were secured to a new, block-work inner leaf using a system of bolts and whalers, entirely concealed within the gabion unit. The block-work leaf acts as a cavity wall and helps support the thin-gabion exterior facing.

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The Moray Campus of the University of Edinburgh, of which the Charteris Land Building is part, is in the heart of the Old Town near the Flodden Wall. Consequently, The City Planning Department wanted a finish that would be appropriate to the local heritage. The stone filled gabions provide a fresh modern feel but with a colour and visual texture that sits well with the surrounding architecture, and the treatment has been very well received.

In places, specially made trapezoidal shaped gabions with a sloping vertical face were installed to create distinctive feature walls. Above the gabion walls, Scottish Cedar cladding panels were installed, introducing a contrasting texture to further soften the hard rectangular lines of the original structure.

The six storey, Charteris Land building was constructed in the late 1960’s and is part of the University’s Moray House School of Education. It is sited near the centre of the city and close to the Scottish Parliament Buildings at Holyrood.

The building’s name "Charteris Land" draws its origin from Francis Charteris, the 7th Earl of Wemyss, whose family dates back to the mid 16th century and was the owner of the land on which the building sits.

The gabion walls were supplied and built by Perth based Maccaferri Construction Ltd under the guidance of Consulting Structural Engineers, Wren & Bell.

Work started on the project in January 2009 and was completed in September.

(GK/BMcC)