Clash of the architects as underground cinema comes to Edinburgh

Published on Friday 11 April 2008 01:33

A LONG-AWAITED new home for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Filmhouse would be built under one of the capital's main public squares under plans drawn up by the city's design champion.

Terry Farrell, the architect who designed the original phases of Edinburgh's financial district in the 1980s, is proposing a "Louvre-style" glass entrance be created to the film complex from the square, which would also be used to house open-air film screenings.

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 20 million 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."

However, rival architect Richard Murphy, who designed the original film centre, was scathing about the new vision for the area.

Sir Terry, recently retained by the council for his "design tsar" role, 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."

Sir Terry, who designed the MI6 headquarters in London,

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 cafs 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."

Ginnie Atkinson, managing director of the Filmhouse and film festival, said: "We are very keen to pursue plans for a dedicated centre for the moving image, which would be a home for both the festival and the Filmhouse. These are very interesting proposals by Sir Terry."

However Mr Murphy, who has been responsible for designing Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery and the Maggie's Cancer Care Centre at the Western General Hospital, said: "Having an underground cinema below Festival Square would do nothing for this area at all.

"You only have to look at the impact the Traverse Theatre has had on the area outside. You wouldn't know it was there at all."