Royal Opening for Scottish Buildings

Two BDP designed Scottish university buildings have had royal openings this week.

The Technology and Innovation Centre for University of Strathclyde was officially opened by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh today [3 July]. The £56m building was established by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on 16 December last year and was opened fully in February 2015.

The nine-storey building is a major milestone in the continuing regeneration of the city. It has been constructed to BREEAM Excellent standard and is the university’s largest investment in research to date. It houses specialist, shared and flexible laboratory facilities and will support leading academics in bridging the gap between research, technology and commercialisation.

The building sits alongside inovo, 3,900 sqm of office space also designed by BDP. Together they form Glasgow’s International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone (ITREZ) which developed to bring business and academia together and place the city at the forefront of this industry.

The previous day Princess Anne officially opened a new research and teaching facility at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and also unveiled the new name for the facility, the Sir Ian Wood Building.

Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, Principal of the university, said: "It is a great honour for RGU that Her Royal Highness accepted our invitation to open our new campus building. The university has invested £136m to date and we now have some of the best teaching and research facilities for professionals in pharmacy, engineering and computing in the UK."

BDP was appointed to masterplan the redevelopment of the Garthdee Campus in 2008. Phase 1 completed in the summer of 2013, while phase II, comprising the school of architecture and the built environment, is currently on site.