New Darwin Bioscience Hub, Edinburgh building design, Scottish university architecture images

New Darwin Bioscience Hub in Edinburgh

4 September 2024

Design: BMJ Architects

Images: BMJ Architects

New Darwin Bioscience Hub, Edinburgh, Scotland

BMJ Architects have submitted a major planning application for a proposed new building to replace the existing Darwin Tower at the University of Edinburgh’s King’s Buildings Campus for the School of Biological Sciences. The development, tentatively named ‘New Darwin’, will deliver a building of a reduced height and more appropriate scale, akin to the adjacent buildings and landscape, offering significant visual and environmental improvement to the campus, city, and surrounding areas.

BMJ Architects’ design will create both a new “front door” and focal point for the school, and with physical linkages to the existing buildings, will transform this corner of the campus into a modern bioscience hub. This will foster a collaborative environment that will align with the University’s vision for interdisciplinary biology and support the translation of ground-breaking discoveries and 21st-century solutions to address global challenges.

Central to the New Darwin building is a series of cutting-edge research laboratories, supported by an innovation environment encompassing incubator space, collaborative workspaces, and public engagement facilities, all working in harmony to support the diverse and evolving needs
of the biological sciences community. The building will provide state-of-the-art postgraduate teaching laboratories and learning spaces, embedding research-led learning amongst world class bioscience to equip graduates with interdisciplinary knowledge and industry-ready skills.

New Darwin Bioscience Hub, Scotland

The overall design embodies a natural contemporary feel throughout, from the earth tones in the façade to the natural materials and daylighting in the interiors, to provide a sustainable, collaborative and welcoming environment that supports health & wellbeing, and fosters community and interaction.

Professor Thorunn Helgason, Head of School said:

“It has been exciting to work with BMJ Architects to co-create this inspirational space. Designed to bring together diverse communities, it will foster the formal and informal connections that lead to the ground-breaking interdisciplinary research and teaching for which the School of Biological Sciences is celebrated.”

Sustainability and biodiversity have been embedded within the design process from inception, to reflect both the University of Edinburgh’s and BMJ Architects’ commitment to deliver a sustainable design that is innovative and collaborative in reducing whole-life carbon emissions. Designed to meet the LETI and CIBSE agreed ‘Net Zero in Progress’ definition, and in accordance with the Scottish Futures Trust NZPSB Standard, the New Darwin building will be an exemplar in establishing a benchmark for future campus development in respect of achieving the University’s Climate Strategy goal to become a Net Zero Carbon university by 2040. In addition to University funding, the project is supported by external funders including the UKRI Research Partnership Investment Fund (RPIF), The Darwin Trust of Edinburgh and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

New Darwin Bioscience Hub, Edinburgh – Building Information

Architecture: BMJ Architects – https://www.bmjarchitects.co.uk/

Renders: BMJ Architects

New Darwin Bioscience Hub, Edinburgh images / information from received 040924 from BMJ Architects

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Scottish Capital Buildings

Edinburgh Architecture Designs – chronological list

Contemporary Scottish Capital Property Designs – recent architectural selection below:

Health and Wellbeing Centre, 7 Bristo Square, south of the city centre
Design: PagePark Architects

photo : Keith Hunter
University of Edinburgh Health and Wellbeing Centre

New National Centre For Music, Calton Hill

image courtesy of architects practice
New National Centre For Music Edinburgh

St James Quarter, central Edinburgh
Architects: BDP Glasgow studio + Allan Murray Architects

St James Quarter Edinburgh

Literature House for Scotland, John Knox House, off the High Street, Old Town
Winning Architects: Witherford Watson Mann ; Groves-Raines Architects Studios ; Studio MB

photograph © Daniel Lomholt-Welch
Literature House for Scotland