xshop: an assemblage of workshops and associated studios where the art and science of working with tools and machinery is taught, Leith, Scotland

«Populated by students, artists, craftsmen and artisans who wish to study, teach and work outside the norms of an 'art school', xshop provides spaces, machinery and tools for the creation of works through manual creative processes. With a student population of around 220, xshop has 15 FT academics, 8 PT academics, 8 workshop technicians and a large pool of occasional lecturers on an ad-hoc basis. Courses include metal-design, wood-working, glass-blowing, printmaking and associated print arts. A fiercely independent film photography unit is found deep within the workshops. Teaching mainly occurs within the large workshops and associated studios, with teaching rooms available for non-technical tution. A library and other student services are also located on site.

Surrounding urban masterplan
xshop fronts the newly formed Constitution Square at the heart of a larger urban plan which reintroduces the typology of the back-green workshop to the tenement block. The surrounding housing is planned around a contemporary version of this traditional Edinburgh typology in order to provide small workshops where those involved in xshop can apply their skills in anyway they see fit. Constitution Square acts as a terminus for the Constitution Street of established Leith while pointing towards the new Leith to the north within what is currently the Forth Ports property. xshop also provides affordable shop/studio units for recent graduates on-site. These individual units combine a small street-fronted gallery space with a studio space and provide a first step for artisans to establish their work.

Delight in materials & making
The building takes cues from both the activities that occur within it and the activities that surround its peripheral urban situation. These activities are dirty, noisy, hard and messy yet the products of these activities can be clean, subtle, beautiful and discrete. This apparent contradiction is explored most visibly in the materiality of the building, where two very different types of metal are used in various forms of refinement. The main workshop shed sits as a massive block of tough weathering steel solidly forming a wall along Constitution Street. Occasional perforations reveal the true thin profile of the block through large scale openings and smaller scale peep-hole perforations where the movements of those inside can be viewed and activities can spill onto the oversized pavements.

Refining & rationalising
The weathering steel block gives the impression of having been there for some time, evoking the steel ships that were so important to the development of Leith. In contrast, the second block appears more recent, pushing up to and somewhat enveloping the main steel block. The form of the block is more complex in form than the main workshop shed: as the second shed structure merges with the studio block it appears to slide under the studio block at the north corner. A refined copper cladding module carefully integrated with glass wraps around the whole block creating a tight skin that unifies the various forms. This module reveals the various finished floor levels that run through the building, largely driven by elevation lines in the Corn Exchange building and by the height requirements in upper studios and workshops.

Consistency & legibility
Internal spaces are intended to be generous and appropriate to the activities within, safely allowing the handling and development of large scale pieces. Heavily serviced activities and 'black box' requirements are handled within discrete 'pods' that sit within the shed structures. As with the larger blocks, materially these pods also explore the qualities of metal on their curved exterior surfaces whilst using sacrificial wood interiors.»