044 BRIEF ENCOUNTERS


drastic. ‘Te main things we talked about were wanting it to feel very social and inviting, making the kitchen the heart of the home,’ says Fairburn. On three floors, they designed the spaces so that they can be joined together for a whole house, three double-bed, six-person let, or let as two. Te ground and first floor form the larger, luxurious apartment, with a delightful kitchen on the ground floor – that offers views back to the pseudo Parthenon – and which connects with a glamorous dining/meeting room in the round tower. Tey demolished a connecting hallway between dining room and kitchen to expand the kitchen and open up vistas at both ends. A small bedroom on the first floor was turned into a bathroom to give the adjacent bedroom that en suite aspect. Te final intervention, says Fairburn, was a sunken courtyard on the lower ground floor ‘that hadn’t been touched for 15 years; it was kind of locked, you couldn’t get into it, and it had outhouses for storing coal. We rebuilt a little extension there to make a nice bathroom, just to elevate that lower floor flat into something special’. Te lower bathroom now looks onto that courtyard through glazed doors, and ferns are planned to fill up the enclosing wall.


‘In terms of interiors, we’ve very much created a blank canvas for Collective to get their artists involved in the more wacky interventions,’ says Fairburn. Tese include


bespoke wallpaper by Rabiya Choudhry, a series of paintings on the wall of the dining room by artist Christian Newby, a textile that wraps around the whole oculus-shaped bedroom ceiling in the master suite by Rachel Adams, and a kitchen for which the design, cabinetry and shelving were conjured by artist Tomas Aitchison. Tese are all people who the artist-run Collective had worked with in the past, and the commissions and briefs were managed by Gray. Gray also decided that all the floors should be the same colour, the walls and ceilings likewise, gallery-style, so that the art interventions stood out.


It is not unusual for art galleries to offer high-quality accommodation on the same site as their exhibition spaces, and cafés or restaurants are now a given for any cultural destination. But anything else of this quality – I am thinking Hauser & Wirth Somerset, or at Luma Arles in Provence – is usually funded by the super wealthy individuals who own the galleries, the income from which goes into their pockets. I love the fact that Edinburgh, this rather elitist Scottish city, has allowed the best spot to be taken by a group of artists whose mission is to enrich possibilities for other artists and for audiences everywhere.


Above An aerial photograph of Calton Hill, home of Observatory House, and its surrounding climes


Right The ground floor kitchen offers views to the pseudo Parthenon


ALL IMAGES: ANNA HENLY


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129