Edinburgh International Book Festival Headquarters Part 2 Project 2007 Sara Edmonds Edinburgh College of Art | UK The brief called for a new headquarters for the Edinburgh International Book Festival on a site nestled at the foot of Calton Hill, the New Calton Burial Ground. The site is strongly contextual and the scheme proposes to reopen the connection between Calton Hill and Holyrood Park. The building embeds itself in the site, the bookshop and box office inhabiting the space behind the retaining wall. Offices glide above the wall and an event space appears as a paradoxically floating volume of black granite with windows framing views of the graveyard. The café, at the top of the circulation tower alludes to the existing watchtower, providing passive form of surveillance. Sara is an exemplary student and approached each task with an enthusiastic brio which energies her work. She is receptive to new ideas and able to channel her expertise in architectural technology to inform her creative process. She is responsive to the complexities of working within Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site, thoughtful in approach and articulate in the subtle manipulation of tectonic form to enrich the city. Sara adopts an iterative approach to design, simultaneously working through models, free-hand sketches and computer drawings. Being Irish, an appreciation of literature (and its evocative power) pervades her overall approach and is allied to an eclectic employment of different materials.