The Chapelton of Elsick is a development that provides new homes in the Portlethen Stonehaven Corridor, just south of Aberdeen, on a 890-hectare site that is currently used for agricultural purposes. Our client is the family-run Elsick Development Company, which represents the Duke of Fife and local landowners.
The development aims to provide 4,045 private and affordable homes. Walters & Cohen has worked with Duany Plater Zyberk (DPZ), masterplanners of the overall site, to secure outline planning consent for the education provision, which includes three primary schools (Cairnhill, Newhall and Gillybrands), a secondary school and an all-through school in the first phase of the residential development. With DPZ we have placed the new schools carefully within their community; the new town has exemplary sustainability ideals and the school sites have been selected so that no resident walks more than 10 minutes to their school.
Creating strong communities has been a key design driver for the project: the schools are designed to be neighbourhood buildings with facilities available for community use, and the primary schools are positioned to allow children from more than one area to join the school, so that the schools act as bridges between different elements of the community.
Extensive consultation, including a week-long open charrette, invited the community and interested parties to be fully involved in the design process. Lord Southesk of the Elsick Development Company added: 'We are excited by the results of the intensive masterplanning process, which has produced a robust plan in a short timescale and in full public view.'
