Estates: Architect & Lead Designer for the Madras New College Building at the University of St Andrews

Architect and Lead Designer.

To facilitate the development of the Madras / New College building the University of St Andrews require to engage a Professional Team incorporating the Design Team, which will be led by the Architect and Lead Designer.

The Architect and Lead Designer will ultimately be responsible for developing the Final Project Brief in conjunction with the University and subsequently developing/co-ordinating the design package, that addresses the University’s requirements whilst recognising cost and time parameters. Stakeholder engagement, presentations to all levels of the University and guiding the fully coordinated design team through the RIBA stages are key to the success of this project.

In the Town Centre, the redevelopment of the Madras site will realise a new build element at c8,000m² with c2,000m² of restored and refurbished historic buildings. This team will be required to work with key users, departments and the university community to progress a design that will capture both the university’s current aspirations to create an inclusive and innovative environment, and some future requirements, all to realise the full potential of this key site.

The site comprises an early nineteenth-century building, with a neo-Jacobean frontage and a neo-medieval quadrangle behind it. It includes outbuildings of a similar date to the right of the main building on South Street. All these buildings will be retained and reconfigured. Behind them is a jumble of post-war building occupying the site back to the Lade Braes Walk. These buildings are to be demolished. The University took possession of the site from Fife Council in October 2021. A standalone project to secure, make safe and demolish relevant parts of the building is now underway.

The University is committed to retaining and restoring the listed 19th-century buildings and marrying them to a new building to be erected on the site behind it, replacing the old school buildings. It is our vision that – together with the older outbuildings – this development will deliver an outstanding result for the University and the town. Hosting three of our Academic Schools (Economics & Finance, International Relations, Management), the New College will be a centre of excellence for research and teaching in the Social Sciences.

As the home to some 200 academic and support staff and more than 2,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, the New College will be the largest single building complex in the Faculty of Arts in the University’s estate. We expect it to deliver the very best conditions for teaching and research, for social interactions and public events. It must provide outstanding and future-proofed spaces for formal and informal teaching, for learning and studying both in groups and individually, for conviviality (café and meeting spaces) and conferences. The student experience is at the heart of our operation. We strive to provide a wide range of learning environments to suit different needs and preferences not just for students in the three Schools to be co-located at the New College site but from across the whole University. The suite of teaching spaces will include a raked, active lecture theatre alongside larger flat floored lecture/seminar spaces and a substantial number of 25-seater seminar rooms. Three specialised computer classrooms are also envisaged.

We expect a building of outstanding quality, that is aesthetically pleasing as well as highly functional, that fits sensitively into its historic setting and fully reflects the University’s commitment to environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The development of the design brief, procurement, and construction strategy will strive to attain net-zero carbon, aligning to the University target of becoming a net-zero carbon organisation by 2035. The project must achieve a minimum of BREEAM Excellent, EPC A rating, and Carbon Neutral for operations. Additional information: All tenders for the University of St-Andrews are adminitered through our e-tendering system (In-Tend). To express an interest please go to our tender web-site at: in-tendhost/university ↗ of st andrews

Please note that 'Notes of Interest' placed via PCS (Public Contracts Scotland) are not automatically accepted.