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Dunard Centre

Edinburgh, UK

2020–

Edinburgh is a city with a rich cultural heritage that plays host to the world’s largest performing arts festival every year. The Dunard Centre will address the long-identified need for a purpose-built, medium-sized performance venue in the city, serving as an Edinburgh base for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and providing a new space for a range of musical performances – both acoustic and amplified – as well as events. The venue will contain an almost-1,000-seat auditorium, a café, bar and multifunctional spaces for a variety of events as well as an educational outreach programme. Upon completion it will be Edinburgh’s first dedicated new space for music and the performing arts in 100 years.

The new venue is located within Edinburgh’s UNESCO World Heritage Site at the eastern end of its Georgian New Town at a point where this area’s formal qualities meet the more intimate atmosphere of lanes around Register House. It is set behind, and connected to, the Grade-A listed Dundas House (1771) on St Andrew Square which can serve as a formal entrance for special events. On an urban level the project seeks to provide a fitting terminus at the end of George Street, the New Town’s principal axis, in a position where a grand public building was originally intended to be built. It also resolves the immediate urban conditions of the site, which is relatively concealed. The venue connects the surrounding distinct neighbourhoods through several approach routes and entrances, as well as newly landscaped public spaces.

The building’s functions are distributed within three refined yet compact and intersecting volumes. The concert hall sits in the centre within a pure elliptical form; its shape and scale dictated by the acoustic requirements and its position on the site. The hall volume rises above the neighbouring buildings as an urban gesture which terminates the axial view east along George Street, framing Dundas House prominently in the foreground. The venue’s overlapping lower volumes are orthogonal in form and house its ancillary and public functions. These help to reduce the overall mass of the building and anchor it within the scale, geometry and atmosphere of the surrounding lanes, pocket gardens, and neighbouring buildings.

Façades relate to the architecture of the New Town in both their order and materiality. The expression of a base, middle and crown, found on other neoclassical buildings, is picked up by the composition of the venue’s massing while the texture and tone of its concrete references the various sandstones found in the New Town. External public spaces borrow from the scenography of the context creating a series of varied, interconnected areas between the venue and its different approaches.

Data and credits

Project start 2020

Construction start 2025

Completion due 2029

Gross floor area 7,600m²

Client IMPACT Scotland

User Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Edinburgh International Festival and others

Architect David Chipperfield Architects London

Partners David Chipperfield, Alasdair Graham, Billy Prendergast

Project architects Julia Loughnane, Craig Johnston, Nanami Sakimura, Sophie Roycroft

Project team Ricardo Alvarez, Stefan Costache, Patricia Fredborg, Jochen Glemser, John Han, Peter Jurschitzka, Maria Kabaaga, Graeme Laughlan, Julia Loughnane, Ele Mun, Charlie Proctor, Marco Paffi, Daniela Puga, Kacper Ryske, Juliette Sainlez, Carlo Vincelli, Yuxin Wu

In collaboration with Reiach and Hall Architects

Acoustic consultant Nagata Acoustics (performance space), Sandy Brown (venue)

Theatre consultant Theatre Project Consultants

AV/IT Theatre Projects Consultants (performance space), Atelier Ten (venue)

Landscape architect Gross.Max

Structural engineer Whitby Wood

Services engineer Atelier Ten

Sustainability consultant Atelier Ten

Lighting consultant Atelier Ten

Fire consultant Atelier Ten

Vertical transportation Atelier Ten

Access consultant Buro Happold

Facade consultant Thornton Tomassetti

Daylight sunlight consultant Thornton Tomassetti

CDM advisor Alliance CDM

Planning consultant Ryden LLP

Project management Turner & Townsend

Quantity surveyor Thomson Gray

Visualisations Hayes Davidson, David Chipperfield Architects

Project phase 1 (2017–20)

Project start 2017

Gross floor area 12,800m²

Client IMPACT Scotland

Architect David Chipperfield Architects London

Directors David Chipperfield, Louise Dier, Billy Prendergast

Project director Alasdair Graham

Project architect Johannes Feder

Project team Ricardo Alvarez, Freddie Armitage, Matt Ball, Nick Beissengroll, Francis Field, Micha Gamper, Sofia Gozzi, Christopher Harvey, Rory Hughes, Daniel Itten, Craig Johnston, Iga Mazur, Antonio Mazzolai, Matthias Odazzi, Charlie Proctor, Simonpietro Salini, Jana Schwalb, Richard Youel

Competition team Freddie Armitage, Alasdair Graham, Craig Johnston, Matthias Odazzi, Charlie Proctor, Hellmer Rahms, Jana Schwalb

Executive architect Reiach and Hall Architects

Acoustic consultants Nagata Acoustics (performance spaces), Arup (venue)

Theatre consultant Theatre Project Consultants

AV/IT Theatre Projects Consultants (performance spaces), Arup (venue)

Landscape architect Gross.Max

Structural engineer Whitby Wood

Services engineer Arup

Sustainability consultant Arup

Lighting consultant Arup

Vertical transportation Arup

Fire protection Arup

Access consultant Arup

Façade consultant Thornton Tomasetti

Daylight sunlight consultant Thornton Tomasetti

CDM advisor Alliance CDM

Planning consultant Ryden LLP

Project management Turner & Townsend

Quantity surveyor Turner & Townsend, Thomson Gray (Stage 4)

Visualisations Hayes Davidson, David Chipperfield Architects