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Edinburgh Building News 2026: Architecture

post updated 2 January 2026

Lothians property updates from last year for now!

5 December 2025

Best building in Scotland

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland has made history by naming a public realm project as Scotland’s best building for the first time.

Union Terrace Gardens — delivered through a collaboration between Stallan-Brand Architecture + Design and LDA Design — received the Andrew Doolan Award for its exemplary partnership approach to revitalising the city centre, transforming a long-neglected area into a vibrant green space.

This marks the first time a public realm scheme has been recognised with the honour. The project blends contemporary architecture, heritage conservation and landscape design, showcasing what can be achieved through close collaboration between design disciplines.

5 December 2025

Radisson Collection Hotel, Royal Mile Edinburgh Scaffolding

On one of the busiest tourist streets in the heart of Scotland’s historic capital sits a monolith of scaffolding, report BBC Scotland today.

For five years this building on the corner of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and George IV Bridge, has been a plastic-wrapped eyesore.

Remedial work started in 2020 and was only expected to last a few months, but now fed-up residents have been told the scaffolding could remain until 2027.

Hotel Missoni Building

5 December 2025

Challenge facing SME home builders laid bare by latest planning statistics

Local housing applications decrease by 11% as number of SMEs hits lowest level in 20 years

New planning application statistics published today covering the period 2024 / 2025 have shown a worrying decrease in the number of local housing applications for developments of 49 homes or less, highlighting the challenging operational environment of Scotland’s SME home builders, the number of which is now at a 20 year low. The average processing timeframe also remains more than twice the statutory eight weeks at nearly five months.

HFS Director of Planning Keving Murphy said:
“Whilst it is encouraging to see an increase in the number of major housing applications being processed and their average decision timescales decreasing, they still far exceed the statutory timeframe of 16 weeks. More concerning however, is the fact that local housing applications (49 homes or less) have decreased for the fourth year in a row whilst average decision timeframes for these sites have continued to increase against their statutory benchmark of 8 weeks.

“These performance statistics for local housing applications highlight the constrained operating environment our SME home builders are facing when trying to be bring forward the homes of all-tenures the country so desperately needs to tackle the housing emergency, particularly in rural communities where we know they are most active. With independent research already showing that SME home builders are at their lowest level in Scotland, with a 70 percent reduction since 2008 we need to see concerted effort across both national and local governments to speed up and make the planning process more proportionate for SMEs.

With the Cabinet Secretary for Housing committing to an ambition to see all-tenure housing completions increase 10 percent year on year over the next three years, we now need to see pace and urgency taken to alleviate the regulatory blockers that exist within our planning system. With the Scottish Budget approaching in January 2026, the sector needs to see clear financial backing for local planning authorities to increase resource and capacity, as well as ensuring the local and national planning digitisation budgets are increased to invest in digital solutions to help increase productivity.”

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