Home to the research institute that created Dolly the sheep – the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell – the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush campus is the focus of some very big plans. Jess Unwin reports
The university is six years into a four-phase, 20-year development of the campus to establish it as a world-leading centre of excellence for animal science. The Roslin Institute, which brought Dolly into the world in 1996, has already relocated there. Phase three of the development includes the £32 million Innovation Centre and Campus Hub, which will act as a gateway to the rest of the campus with its iconic styling making it very much stand out from the surrounding facilities. Atkins, the global design, engineering and project management consultancy, was selected through a design competition to bring the university’s vision to life. Neil McLean, Associate Director at Atkins and Head of Architecture – Scotland, reveals:
“This is intended to be a unique building in that it’s meant to be the very heart of the campus for the people located there.”
The 7,000m2 building brings together veterinary students, university staff and research scientists in much-needed shared facilities: a gym, student services, cafe, teaching laboratory and exhibition space. Above that will be research and development ‘incubator’ laboratories and offices, to be let out commercially to bioscience companies at different stages of maturity, including start-up, that have appropriate synergies with the activities of the campus.
The new building will also benefit the local community: it is home to the Midlothian Science Centre, which will provide a teaching laboratory to be used by the public, especially schoolchildren, via school visits/placements and science days in order to encourage and stimulate interest in science. It will provide access to scientific equipment that cannot be easily resourced or supported within a school environment and will work with local schools to support science teaching staff. The gym and shop will also be available for public use as well as for those working on the campus.
Neil says:
“The University of Edinburgh is quite keen that the building become something of an outreach centre to breakdown barriers between campus users, the university and the wider community.”
Neil says Atkins worked with local planning authorities “to break the mass of the building down” so that when viewed from the Pentland Hills to the north of the campus the building would be visually sensitive to the wider agricultural surroundings, which includes smaller-scale structures. He continues:
“To this end the building expresses itself as two elements. One is a grounded triangular block, clad in natural stone, a green wall and glazing. Its shape leads people from the north end of the campus through to the entrance of the building. In contrast, the other is an elevated glazed ellipse form. Together, they create a unique identity.”
The glazing features a geometric pattern that’s designed to resemble leaves, making a connection with the surrounding landscape, and at night creating a dappled light effect. A central atrium entrance area linking the two parts of the building creates a visual connection between the north and south areas of the campus. It will also frame a view from the entrance back towards the Pentland Hills and a proposed central green space on the campus.
Neil explains the building structure is post-tension flat concrete slabs, which allow for maximum adaptability and flexibility within – a key driver and requirement. This means the laboratory and office spaces can be formatted in open-plan, group or small-scale arrangements with no changes to the servicing strategy.
Neil adds:
“We don’t know yet exactly how new tenants will want to use the space and the building has to be able to accommodate their requirements. So, we examined facilities of a similar nature to establish what tenants might require but then set a very loose, flexible building that could adapt and accommodate both those requirements and those we’ve not thought of.”
The building’s category 2-level laboratories (category 4 is the highest level) allow for an overall approach that encourages, as much as possible, open-plan spaces that “foster a sort of community feeling between the people who use the building”, says Neil.
Sustainability is also a key driver with the Innovation Centre and Campus Hub targeting a BREEAM excellent rating as a minimum and an ambitious 60 per cent CO2 saving over 2007 Scottish Building Regulations. The post-tension flat concrete slabs will allow for exposed soffits within office and shared facility areas, bringing the benefit of thermal mass cooling and storage. The aforementioned green wall is a soil-based living wall system, complete with irrigation.
Another passive strategy for high sustainable performance is orientating the building with offices facing north, which means a mixed-mode cooling and heating strategy can be adopted within those spaces, avoiding the need for traditional mechanically cooled systems.
Energy Centre
When Atkins began considering other sustainability issues, like the best way to provide electricity, heating and cooling, a standalone Energy Centre was proposed to serve the Innovation Centre and Campus Hub. However, subsequent studies demonstrated the benefit of this being linked to all buildings within the campus, both existing and future. The result is that Atkins is also now designing an Energy Centre that will provide the energy requirements of the entire Easter Bush Campus and its Advanced Computing Facility – that’s eventually some 20 buildings in all.
Stephen Clark, Principal Engineer, Design & Engineering at Atkins, explains that a tri-gen CHP system will supply heating, electrical power and also cooling. An absorption chiller will reuse some of the heat given off by the electric generator to make the cooling function possible.
The 1.5MW CHP engine is just the starting point for the Energy Centre, with contingency planning for more plant if required as the campus grows. The university’s overall plan for Easter Bush is to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent.
Construction of the Innovation Centre and Campus Hub and the Energy Centre is currently planned to commence this spring, with completion before the end of 2017. The overall Easter Bush master plan for redevelopment is set to cross the finish line in 2025. Easter Bush already has the largest concentration of animal science-related expertise anywhere in Europe, but it aims to become internationally recognised in animal science by 2025, leading efforts to address livestock improvement, food security (the ongoing availability of food) and alleviation of poverty in developing countries.
Philip Watson, Atkins UK design director, said:
“Universities around the UK are working harder than ever to attract students, staff and wider investment. Good design has a key role to play in meeting these strategic goals, which is why we’ve grown our education studio over the past couple of years.” Val White, Easter Bush Campus Operating Officer, believes the Innovation Centre and Campus Hub will act as “a vibrant interactive core at the heart of the campus at Easter Bush” and will continue to “reflect the ongoing synergy between the Vet School, The Roslin Institute, Scotland’s Rural College and our research partners by providing a physical collaborative gateway to the commercial activities on the campus”.