Student Accommodation Non-Statutory Planning Guidance

3.5 Design

Proposals should meet with the relevant development plan policies and requirements of the Draft Edinburgh Design Guidance 2024. 

3.5.1  Safety

Design and layout play a key role in deterring and preventing crime and anti-social behaviour and promoting and enhancing people’s perception of safety in streets and public spaces. Development of PBSA should incorporate design measures that promote personal safety and security and reduce the risk of crime and the fear of crime.

Ensuring more activity and lines of sight can help discourage criminal and antisocial behaviour. This is important to help make surrounding streets and public space feel safer for all, including the students themselves.

An active frontage, including at night, where the ground floor is designed to promote visual contact and pedestrian movement between inside and out can provide a feeling of safety.

Provision of active frontage should be considered from the outset of the design process and opportunities taken to maximise this element of the design. 

It is important that students feel safe in their living environment. Consideration should be given to the perception of safety of the area in which the proposal is located. Streets and spaces that attract high footfall or offer good passive surveillance are more likely to signal that an area is safe, particularly at night.

3.5.2  Accessibility

Design of PBSA should provide for the needs of people with a range of disabilities and impairments, not just those requiring wheelchair access. This includes not only within individual study bedrooms and studios (see 4.2.5) but also within the accommodation as a whole and along key access routes to and from the site.

This could include but is not limited to other mobility, sensory, dexterity and learning difficulties, as well as needs arising from particular mental health conditions. Design responses should consider the use of colour, light, sound proofing and wayfinding; and the ease of opening doors and windows.

Applicants should demonstrate how they are meeting the needs of people with varying needs.

3.5.3  Adaptability

PBSA should be designed so that it can be adapted and reconfigured internally and externally to meet the needs of mainstream housing use.  A sustainability statement should be provided in line with LDP Env 7 Sustainable Developments.  

3.5.4  Parking

Standards for car and cycle parking are set out in the Draft Edinburgh Design Guidance 2024. PBSA is expected to be zero car parking. However, care must be taken to meet the needs of mobility impaired drivers and passengers. If there are insufficient accessible parking spaces in proximity to the site, it may be necessary to provide accessible spaces as part of the development. Cycle parking should be provided at 0.5 spaces per bed and conform to requirements set out in the parking standards. Any proposed reduction in the number of spaces will require clear justification.