Edinburgh College of Art

Edinburgh College of Art

Client: University of Edinburgh
Architect: LDN Architects
Cost: £15.0m

The Architecture faculty at the University of Edinburgh is being renovated to bring the teaching facilities up to the standard required to compete with other cutting edge architectural schools.  The Main Building, which houses the majority of the faculty, needed to be decanted into several other buildings around the University Campus to allow this to happen.  This involved WRD assessing the updating a number of other listed buildings to facilitate the decant.  Minimal structural intervention, whilst maximising the flexibility of the space, has been the approach with WRD working closely with the Architect and Services Engineer to achieve the design solutions.

The works have included bringing a previously unused derelict area of the building into use as a teaching facility.  This has required investigation and assessment of the existing structure and then proposing supplementary structure as required.  Works are also being carried out to the beautiful feature sculpture court.  These works include strengthening the rooflight trusses in a sympathetic manner to support new double glazed units and maintenance walkways.