I am writing for your advice and the hope that we may begin a correspondence that will assist my research for my 5th year architectural thesis.

I intend to look at Leith (Edinburgh’s port district) as a community and settlement, and develop a proposal(s) for its future. My initial strategy is going to centre around a scheme that sees Leith as a self-sufficient settlement, not an eco-village as such, but with the means to grow its own food, produce its own energy etc. I would like the centre of this to be a 'cultural market' similar to Covent Garden in London, with spaces containing cookery schools, allotments, gardening schools, temporary and permanent markets and performance spaces etc. Other facilities would be dispersed throughout the community. Seeing as Leith has a diverse range of cultures living there, I foresee the market as a colourful, multicultural experience.

During my initial research I discovered your organisation and I would like to find out a little more. If it is convenient, I would like to arrange a meeting in order to ask you a few questions, and document the process. Can you please let me know whether this is something that might be possible?

I look forward to your response. CJH