Room to Grow Part 2 Project 2025 Inka Eismar Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | UK The UK is facing a critical shortage of affordable housing, with social housing waiting times spanning multiple years, even for high priority cases. Nevertheless, it is imperative not only to increase supply, but to address pressing issues related to climate, social isolation, and care provisions in future housing models.This proposal reimagines an industrial brownfield site in Edinburgh’s port neighbourhood Leith, introducing a layered social housing, industry and garden scheme. “Room to Grow” interrogates conventional notions of ownership and space standards in public housing, blurring rigid conventional boundaries between public and private domains.Drawing on Dutch architect John Habraken’s theory of adaptable mass housing, the design distinguishes between a long-lasting “support” structure and a mutable “infill” layer capable of evolving with residents’ needs. In the context of the climate emergency, this approach helps align material longevity with environmental impact: the durable support layer, arranging circulation and communal infrastructure, is the most energy-intensive, while timber-framed infill components remain more adaptable and lightweight.Central to the proposal is the inclusion of shared, unprogrammed threshold rooms between units, which encourages residents to claim space in accordance with need, following a model that reframes ownership as a matter of agency rather than possession.Note: The live-build project referenced on slide two was designed and built in collaboration with five students from another studio at the school. Credit for images shown on this page go to all the students involved. The main project presented in the 10 slides is individual work. Tutor(s) Kieran Hawkins Darren Park