Austin-Smith:Lord was appointed as Lead Consultants to undertake two parallel projects on King’s Building campus to create enhanced teaching and study environments for the College of Science and Engineering. Both projects were designed in response to thorough client and end user consultation and enshrine the new pedagogic methods being applied by the University.

The new build £4m Noreen & Kenneth Murray Library on the site of the demolished Robertson Library Building links into the retained KB Centre. The Library is a new studying and social hub on the campus, a landmark building providing a dynamic array of teaching and learning environments with the backdrop of the Campus Green.

Austin-Smith:Lord has developed a design with a two-storey ‘Podium Hub’ on the lower levels with a cafe, soft study and meeting areas for discussion and debate. On the higher levels there are a series of quieter and acoustically separated study spaces. There also exists an opportunity for an outdoor study environment on a second floor roof terrace area overlooking the Campus Green.

The Noreen & Kenneth Murray Library follows on from the very well received Learning and Teaching Cluster located within the refurbished Level 3 of the James Clerk Maxwell Building.

The new library:

• is designed as a low energy building that has universal, barrier-free access and future adaptability
• has achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating, the first achieved by the University of Edinburgh
• has almost twice the amount of insulation as required by the current building standards
• uses recycled newspaper and timber insulation
• has external walls designed with a “breathing”, moisture diffusive construction
• has free heating using surplus hot water from the adjacent CHP building
• uses natural ventilation – when windows in the south elevation open, windows at the top of the stairs also open, to draw air through the library and up the stairwells
• provides a high level of daylighting to all library spaces but uses timber louvres and blinds to control glare
• uses Scottish sourced European Larch timber cladding and Western Red Cedar louvres
• has a green roof – a sedum moss carpet laid over all the roof area, which provides an increased mix of biodiversity in the area as well as slowing down the rainwater run off from the roof

Download our Sustainability Case Study here:
Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library: Sustainability Case Study

The Library and other award winners displayed fantastic results that should be held up as exemplary case studies of best practice to show how a building can become more energy efficient, benefitting both the environment and the organisations’ bottom line. They not only embody low carbon design principles, but also deliver reduced energy demand and emissions, sustainability and a high quality of occupant experience

Paul Wedgwood -Manager, Carbon Trust Scotland