
University of Edinburgh Student Centre
Key Facts
Client
University of Edinburgh
Location
George Square / Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Value
£53m
Internal Floor Area
13,500m2
A Student City
Project Info
This ambitious scheme for the University of Edinburgh will create a new dedicated hub for students, bringing together Student Services from the University and the Students’ Association for the first time. The new Student Centre will provide a single location to access services that support student employability, finance, administration, wellbeing, and success, both inside and outside the classroom.
Teviot Row House, the oldest purpose built Students’ Union in the world, will be sensitively refurbished and extended, making the Category-B listed building accessible to all, and improving and expanding the range of services offered. Social spaces, catering, retail, bars, offices, and a new live music venue are included in the complex and comprehensive program of services. Multi-level connections will be formed with a new Student Services building at No.1 George Square; including across the re-imagined Charles Street Lane, which, at the centre of the development, will create improved routes through the city block.
Opened in 1899, Teviot Row House was designed in a 16th century ‘Scots Palace’ style, with the crow stepped gables and drum towers reminiscent of the Palaces at Falkland and Holyrood. The building also contains a distinctive stacking of Baronial-type spaces, from the ground floor entrance courts, to the first floor gallery rooms, to the second floor Debating Hall. The new proposals seek to preserve and build on these themes, with the contemporary elements adopting a similar conceptual arrangement.
Externally the project addresses a series of varying contextual situations with a unifying architecture style, presenting the appearance of a conjoined project, but ensuring that the two new elements maintain a distinct character, reflecting the two sets of users.





