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University of St Andrews, New College

St Andrews, Scotland

º£½ÇÊÓƵ is helping the University of St Andrews realise a transformative vision for New College by uniting a breadth of engineering and specialist disciplines to breathe new life into a historic landmark and create a world-class academic environment for the future.

At the heart of the project is the former Madras College building, a Grade-A listed structure that holds deep significance for generations of local residents, alumni and the wider Fife community. The University’s ambition is to protect this heritage asset by giving it a vital new purpose as home to the new St Andrews Business School and the globally respected School of International Relations. Our role has been to help honour the building’s past while enabling a sustainable, future-ready campus that will support teaching, research and collaboration for decades to come.

The development, supported by the University’s Making Waves fundraising campaign, reimagines one of the most recognisable sites in central St Andrews. The plans include the full refurbishment of the historic building, the creation of a glazed courtyard to unlock year-round use of the central quad, and a significant new build element to the rear of the site. Together these interventions will create an inclusive and modern academic environment with a distinct St Andrews character, enriched by improved public access, new landscape settings and a variety of study, community and conference spaces.

For º£½ÇÊÓƵ, the project showcases the power of a truly multidisciplinary approach, bringing together MEP, structures, civils, , facades, acoustics, fire, environments, transport, air quality, and specialist lighting and digital advisory expertise into a single coherent vision.

We integrated heritage‑sensitive engineering to refurbish the Grade A listed Madras Building while improving energy performance.

Our team delivered the multidisciplinary design that enabled planning approval for the glazed courtyard and new academic facilities.

Our sustainability experts combined operational energy and embodied carbon modelling to develop a holistic design that meets the net zero public sector standards.

We coordinated MEP, structures, civils, facades, acoustics, sustainability, fire, transport, lighting, and digital advisory to create a unified campus vision.

Challenge

The development presented a series of complex and interlinked challenges, beginning with the nature of the historic site itself. Working within a Grade A-listed building required meticulous sensitivity, balancing the need to preserve important heritage fabric with the University’s aspiration to meet modern standards of comfort, accessibility and energy performance. The existing building had significant constraints, from its ageing fabric and services to its inefficient thermal performance, making it unsuitable for contemporary academic use without a comprehensive and deeply considered refurbishment.

A core challenge was the proposal to introduce a new glazed courtyard roof over the central quad. This intervention, although architecturally elegant and operationally transformative, demanded close scrutiny by planners, conservation bodies and the local community. The design team had to demonstrate convincingly that enclosing the courtyard would both protect the sandstone cloister beneath and support the broader sustainability and operational goals of the project. Ensuring this addition sat respectfully within the historic context, while enabling new patterns of occupation and movement, required a sophisticated, multidisciplinary response.

Integrating new build elements behind the historic facade added further complexity. The modern extension needed to provide high performing, flexible teaching and learning spaces, including a 250-seat lecture theatre, while stitching seamlessly into the older structures. The interface between old and new demanded careful structural coordination, acoustics planning, facade engineering, MEP integration and fire strategy development.

Ambitious sustainability targets introduced another layer of challenge. The project is pursuing Scotland’s evolving Net Zero Public Sector Building Standard, requiring robust modelling of operational energy and embodied carbon. Achieving high thermal performance within a listed building, while minimising intrusive fabric upgrades, required sensitive collaboration between our sustainability, facades, structures and MEP teams. The site also had intricate utility constraints, including existing substations, telecom routes and historic drainage patterns that needed reconfiguration without disrupting neighbouring properties and the Schedule Ancient Monument in the North of the site.

Finally, the University’s aspiration to embed intelligent digital capabilities introduced an additional dimension. They aim to better understand how spaces are used across the campus to inform heating, ventilation, timetabling, maintenance and cleaning strategies. Integrating this vision into a historic building renovation required early alignment with our SMART Buildings specialists and a holistic approach to digital readiness.

Solution

º£½ÇÊÓƵ responded to these challenges through a fully integrated, multidisciplinary design approach that brought together the collective insight of our engineering and specialist advisory teams. From the outset, we worked closely with WilkinsonEyre to shape a solution that protected the heritage qualities of the Madras Building while enabling high performance, flexible and inspiring modern teaching spaces.

Our sustainability and environmental teams developed detailed energy, thermal comfort and daylight modelling to explore feasible upgrade pathways that respected the limitations of the listed fabric. Where intrusive interventions were unsuitable, we identified alternative strategies to reduce operational energy demand, support natural ventilation, and maximise daylight distribution.

The design of the glass courtyard roof was informed by close collaboration between our structures, facades, specialist lighting and acoustics teams to ensure it performs as an integrated environmental system. Mixed mode ventilation, motorised windows, shading strategies and displacement ventilation solutions work together to create a comfortable year-round internal environment despite the extensive glazing.

For the historic building, our structural and MEP engineers designed sensitive interventions to remove outdated services and introduce efficient, modern systems with minimal disruption to the original fabric. Fabric upgrades, including areas of heritage approved double glazing, were developed in consultation with Historic Environment Scotland. These improvements enabled the effective use of low carbon heating technologies, including heat pumps, which require carefully managed flow temperatures to operate efficiently in older buildings.

Our sustainability team carried out modelling to demonstrate the carbon savings the new glazing would achieve, which helped the University secure grant funding for this element of the project.

The new build extension incorporates high performing teaching and learning environments supported by demand controlled ventilation, efficient lighting systems and integrated environmental controls. Our acoustics team ensured spaces would meet the high expectations of a modern business school, while fire engineering and specialist lighting added essential layers of safety and quality. The design also integrates on site renewable energy generation, including photovoltaic panels, to align with the net zero aspirations.

Our civils and utilities teams coordinated essential infrastructure reconfigurations, including the relocation of a substation, the diversion of telecoms infrastructure, and the rationalisation of drainage connections across the site. Transport, environmental impact assessment and air quality specialists provided critical support throughout the planning process, helping secure the project’s planning approval. The project also establishes a foundation for future digital capability by incorporating sensor ready systems and aligning with the University’s ambition to monitor space utilisation. This will support ongoing improvements in operational efficiency, carbon reduction and user experience.

Value

The University of St Andrews has embarked on a landmark investment that will shape its academic landscape for generations. º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s value lies in our ability to bring together a broad range of technical disciplines to deliver one coherent, intelligent and sensitive design solution. For the University, this means a project that is not only architecturally ambitious but deeply rooted in long term sustainability, operational performance and heritage stewardship.

By preserving and renewing the historic Madras Building, the project safeguards an important part of St Andrews’ cultural and architectural identity. At the same time, the addition of new, high quality facilities enables the consolidation of the Business School and the School of International Relations into a vibrant, purpose-designed academic community. Our holistic approach ensures that improvements to comfort, accessibility, energy performance and building systems all work in harmony.

The glazed courtyard transforms the heart of the historic complex, creating a social and academic focal point that enhances collaboration and campus life throughout the year. Optimised environmental systems and the careful balance of natural and mechanical ventilation reduce long term energy costs, helping the University meet both its sustainability commitments and the financial realities of operating heritage buildings.

Crucially, by integrating structural engineering, MEP design, sustainability, facade engineering, fire, acoustics, transport, specialist lighting and digital advisory expertise, we have enabled solutions that no single discipline could have delivered alone. This multidisciplinary strength helped secure planning approval for a challenging site and will continue to guide the project as it moves towards construction and ultimately practical completion. New College embodies the University of St Andrews’ commitment to world-class education, heritage conservation and long term resilience. Through close collaboration, technical excellence and a holistic design approach, º£½ÇÊÓƵ is proud to help bring this ambitious vision to life.