more than that in this building, because the university had the aspiration to open the building up to the city, and be a new front door for the institution.” For example, all of the corridor seating areas, and the large dwell spaces with their comfortable seating, desks, meeting booths and power sources, can be freely used by the public, in addition to the large and welcoming cafe and restaurant spaces. However, the most signifi cant design
move, and which really “unlocked the whole scheme,” says Tinsdale, was “managing to persuade Historic Environment Scotland to let us demolish the gatehouse, which was actually Grade B listed.” Previously, there was no level access to the main entrance, and the gatehouse plus its railings and the gates were a “real blocker for anybody coming in; it didn’t feel welcoming at all, and for the longest period of time, nobody used the entrance.”
ADF JANUARY 2025
New additions & facades The other main addition was a 500-seat events space at lower ground level beneath the public square, which “wouldn’t fi t anywhere else in the plan.” Making this space accessible, as part of “opening the building and reinstating its civic presence to the city” was a very important part of the brief for the client. This was also a major challenge, but the building has DDA compliant ramping all the way up and around the sides of the refurbished and reinstated steps. The public square is enhanced by the double-height light boxes at grade which bound one edge of the new space and “signify something new has happened to the city,” says Tinsdale. Accommodation was added on either side of the main corridor, including four- storey extensions to the north providing fl exible teaching and events spaces, as well as surrounding ‘touch-down areas’ needed by the Futures Institute. The wards
LIGHT BOXES Two double-height light boxes bring light down into the new below-ground events space © Peter Cook
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