News

Plans to revitalise historic centre of campus approved

Plans to revitalise the historic core of the University of Aberdeen's King's College campus have been given the go-ahead by Aberdeen City Council. Turley provided expert Heritage and Townscape services for the project.

The plans to enhance facilities in King’s Quarter – in the immediate vicinity of King’s College which includes several listed buildings– include the creation of a new flagship atrium, creating a central forum space with connections to the surrounding listed buildings. There will also be improvements to the interiors of several areas, including the Old Senate Wing, Book Stack and Cromwell Tower. We provided advice on the alterations to the listed buildings, and prepared the Heritage Statement to support the planning and listed building consent applications.

The available space in King’s Quarter is currently underused, and the development will revive redundant buildings in the heart of the campus, safeguarding their future use with quality new teaching and learning space, to accommodate both increased student numbers and provide more flexibility for teaching.

As well as helping the university modernise its teaching spaces to accommodate new learning styles, it will also maintain the magnificent facades of these historic buildings and avoid the need to build anew, thereby providing new teaching capacity in an environmentally sustainable way.

Professor Alan Speight, Vice Principal (Global Student Recruitment), who leads on the King’s Quarter and Johnston Halls redevelopment plans, commented:

“Today’s decision by the planning committee marks a milestone in our transformational plans to create a vibrant learning environment at the historic heart of the campus, and will provide a focal point for engagement with the local community.

“These new spaces will provide a modern, adaptable, high quality teaching environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students that will be ideally suited to working across academic disciplines, in line with the interdisciplinary aims of our Aberdeen 2040 strategy.

“I am pleased that in their recommendation to the planning committee, the planning officers noted our careful consideration of the historic environment to enable underused listed buildings to be brought back into productive use, which reflects the detailed work we have undertaken on the proposals over the past two years.”

21 June 2021