University of Edinburgh campus to gravitate around ‘town centre’ hub
April 29 2019
The University of Edinburgh has progressed plans for a £20m hub building at its Kings Buildings campus to designs by Sheppard Robson and landscape designers Harrison Stevens.
Nucleus forms part of a 2015 masterplan for the sprawling site which seeks to establish a signature ‘town centre’ hub building to serve as a focal point for the university through provision of a shared teaching, learning and administrative space.
Bisected by a full-height atrium avenue and central stair the facility will be clad in timber acoustic paneling internally to minimise noise. Externally the building will take the form of several distinct metal rain-screen ‘boxes’ all sharing a colonnaded ground level brick podium and utilising vertical fins to increase apparent depth.
The architects observed: “The colonnade will be complimented by sharp contemporary detailing in the boxes above that pick up the spacing of the brick piers in the vertical split of the bays. These lighter boxes are a response to the more modern architectures of the campus reflecting the desire of the university for open and light filled study interiors.
“The building develops a more solid appearance to the north side around the internally focused lecture theatres through textured metal infill panels between the regular rhythm of structural bays.”
The project is expected to be delivered by summer 2022 with help from Arup, Curtins, Kirk and Marsh, Sandy Brown and Atelier 10.
Back to April 2019
Like us on Facebook
Become a fan and share
Inspired by R+H's Riverside Campus perhaps? Not a bad thing I suppose, although it lacks the proportion and elegance of Riverside and looks more akin to a bland speculative office.