Raeburn Farquhar Bowen’s design for the landscape focuses on creating a clear welcome into the heart of the University, providing external gathering and seating spaces that encourage social life, legibility in way-finding as well as beauty and sensory delight.

Referencing the meandering River Forth that bisects the nearby Ochil and Campsie Hills, the design concept envisages a valley, the University Library to the north-west and Macrobert Arts Centre to the east forming the valley edges, framing the movement and life of the University whilst creating a spine that extends from Queen’s Court through to the refurbished study area and Airthrey Loch.

The refurbishment of the atrium, study area and retail concourse provided an opportunity to re-imagine the incoherent and down-at-heel existing spaces to create a more legible, engaging, and comfortable environment, intended to connect seamlessly with the new extension.

Informed by the original central courtyard that preceded the glazed rooflight installed to create the central atrium space in the late 1990s, our interventions at the heart of the atrium sought to frame this space and create more of an open room, reinforced by carefully considered furniture settings.

Utilising the inherent flexibility of the original 1970s steel framed structure to the study area enabled the space to be opened back-up, improving ventilation, daylight, and maximising views out across Airthrey Loch and the Ochil Hills beyond.

The existing shopfronts were also opened, removing the existing glazed screens, and generating a new rhythm of frontages with retractable shutters and reinforced by lightbox signage integrated into the thresholds of each unit.

Stripping back to the existing structure also afforded the flexibility to increase the extent of the main café and servery area, improving visual connectivity and working with 442 catering consultants to enhance the customer experience.

The extension’s west elevation provides a new civic entrance to the upper ground floor with a terrace overlooking the loch-side setting. The south elevation addresses the open courtyard of Queen’s Court, creating a new front door to the Macrobert Arts Centre, with the projecting bays to the top storey orientated to make the most of spectacular views south through the tree canopy towards the Wallace Monument on the horizon.

Drawing upon the expressive structures of the original late-Modernist buildings, the new extension has been designed to offer a flexible form, with a wide-spanning exposed in-situ concrete frame to the lower levels rising to meet an articulated glulam and CLT roof structure.

Dramatic top-lit voids are conceived in the spirit of gulleys or chasms, characteristic of river formation, bringing daylight deep into the plan. A sculpted feature staircase serves as a distinctive focal point connecting the floors, supplemented by a new lift.

The University’s ambition for a highly flexible environment necessitated the development of a clear zoning strategy, characterising different spaces by drawing upon stakeholder feedback whilst responding to the specific technical and logistical requirements of the teaching, catering and commercial activities.

The project phasing, with works taking place whilst parts of the building were still occupied, required ongoing dialogue and briefing with key stakeholders, helping ensure all members of the University and wider community were aware of how the project was progressing up until completion. This was particularly critical during Covid-related restrictions.

Alongside the natural landscape, the visual art, design and fashion of the early seventies has also influenced the choice of colours and textures to the interiors, including the acoustic wall and ceiling linings, decorative features and lighting.

These themes also influenced the loose furniture, which was critical in defining the variety of individual and group learning settings. Products were selected through an in-depth stakeholder consultation process. This included setting up a test-lab to determine the success of different settings within the space, strategically organised towards the completion of the first phase refurbishment works to inform the final choice of furniture throughout.