The first community-use WikiHouse being built in the UK, the innovative and sustainable community project is temporary and uses the site of the former Fountainbridge brewery in Edinburgh. The site will be permanently developed by EDI to provide a new canalside development ‘India Quay’.
Headed by the Fountainbridge Canalside Initiative (FCI), and supported by EDI, the WikiHouse is the new community meeting space for the temporary-use projects based at Fountainbridge.
WikiHouse is a system initiated by Architecture 00 (zero, zero) based in London. The WikiHouse approach is now used all across the world and enables people to build their own housing with only basic tools and skills required. The design plans are freely available for people to replicate or customise.
Denise Havard, Community Development Manager at EDI, explained the background to the project:
“We have been working with the meanwhile-use groups supporting and enabling them to deliver what they want on the ground until EDI begins development of the permanent site. A significant amount of planning has gone in to delivering the project and EDI would like to thank all of the people who have dedicated so much time and enthusiasm into creating this very special structure. I think there will be a lot of other communities in Edinburgh wanting their very own Wikihouse.”