The facts
Client:
Robert Gordon University
Location: Aberdeen
Services: Architecture, Interior Design,
Masterplanning
Sector: Education
Contract Type: Design &
Build
Project Value: £120m
Start/Completion: 2007
The project
Capita Architecture was shortlisted to
participate in a competition to design and deliver the existing
campus master plan, extending to five new buildings
and two refurbished buildings within the first phase of
development.
The competition focused on the development of a new
conjoined Arts and Architecture building. The building form is
conceived to reinforce the natural contours of the site (the
amphitheatre) whilst at the same time referencing the architectural
use of plinths within the Gray’s School. It makes best use of
the sloping site, linking the academic street directly with the
hitherto under-utilised central courtyard of the Gray’s school by
way of a landscaped grassed roof. This acts to encourage public
interaction with the buildings and the landscape.
The building design forms a
landmark in the immediate context of the precinct master plan,
announcing arrival at the Art and Architecture precinct through the
design of a spectacular and contemporary yet timeless tower which
both provides an iconic and recognisable marker as well as giving
status to the Architecture School. The body of the new
Architecture School forms a sculpted plinth beneath the existing
Gray’s School, taking full advantage of the sloping site and
emulates the existing architectural form of the Gray’s Arts School.
This affords an outward looking aspect to the natural amphitheatre
to the east and the tree-line, the river and the site for future
campus expansion across the river to the south.
Capita Architecture prepared Preliminary Conception
which contains proposed plans, sections, elevations, detail
drawings, functional schemes, material solutions and visualisations
for this project.