Public   University of St Andrews Music Centre

Following a design competition in the summer of 2016, The University of St Andrews appointed architects Flanagan Lawrence to design its new Music Centre close to the medieval heart of the ancient Scottish University town.

The project will provide a new home for St Andrews’ Music Centre in a building which will enable community access, professional performance, tuition and rehearsal, and the study of music as part of the undergraduate degree programme.

The University’s vibrant and ancient music tradition began with its first choristers 600 years ago, and continues today with hundreds of St Andrews students each year making music part of their degree by taking modules ranging from opera to electronic music. The University also supports a thriving culture of performing groups and events including; St Salvator’s Chapel Choir, St Andrews Voices festival, Byre Opera, and St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra, run in collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the University’s Orchestra in Residence.

The new facility will support musical engagement and complement the Byre Theatre by offering the range of soundproofed spaces needed for practice, individual tuition, academic lectures, and ensemble and orchestral rehearsals. Facilities will also include a music technology suite. It will replace the existing facilities in the Younger Hall on North Street (built 1828) where all activities are limited by the lack of sound-proofing.

The Centre will be built on a site on Queens Terrace, St Andrews, which currently has temporary buildings and a car park. The new building will restore an historic quad and preserve the features of St Mary’s Quadrangle, while complementing the neighbouring St Regulus Hall student residence and the Bute Building. This is a music centre for the community and the University – and as such its location with easy access for all from the town centre and its welcoming and outward looking appearance will create a new cultural venue in St Andrews.

The University have worked with Flanagan Lawrence to develop the brief, and the initial designs have been unveiled for public consultation. Subject to planning permission and the final approval of University Court, it’s anticipated the project will be completed in 2018.   Our plans for the Music Centre create a suite of spaces to act as a focal point for both the University and the Community’s musical activities. Each space is designed to be acoustically excellent, but with flexibility and ease of use in mind.  The quality of the acoustic in these spaces will allow the musical excellence of rehearsals and performances to flourish for students, teachers, performers and audiences alike.

St Andrews is Scotland’s first university with a long tradition of academic excellence. Our aspiration for the Music Centre is to create a suite of spaces which will each be acoustically excellent for their purpose to create a focal point for the community’s musical activities. The quality of the acoustic in these spaces will allow the musical excellence of rehearsals and performances to flourish for students, teachers, performers and audiences alike.

The images shown are the emerging designs.