Edinburgh architect Sir Terry Farrell is proposing a £20 million underground cinema in one of the city's most popular squares.

The cinema would be the new home for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and would be accessed via a "Louvre-style" glass entrance.

His plans have been unveiled more than three years after the film festival's chiefs said they hoped to build a cinema complex on top of Festival Square. The proposal received a hostile reception from the city council and the five-star Sheraton Hotel.

The £20m scheme has been given fresh impetus after Sir Terry recommended the development could help transform Festival Square if it is created below ground and linked with a scheme to improve the public "piazza."

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Sir Terry envisages the area between the Usher Hall and the Sheraton Hotel becoming a new open-air piazza with pavement cafes and event spaces. He has urged the council to redesign the entire roads network in the area to help bring his vision to reality, describing Lothian Road as "one of the worst examples of suburban highway planning foisted on a town centre."

He envisages a whole new cultural quarter being gradually developed to link the new-look Filmhouse and film festival base, with the nearby Usher Hall, the Traverse and Royal Lyceum theatres, and Festival Square.

Sir Terry said: "We've proposed a new cinema, which would be set below ground, with a Louvre-type pavilion entrance, along with cafés on the square, offering the opportunity for outdoor film screenings.

"The most significant urban improvement is the connection of the Usher Hall with a wide pedestrian crossing to Festival Square, thereby linking a major cultural venue with the square itself."

(GK/JM)