Build March Issue

Build Magazine 33 hat started as an opportunity to build a small facility to secure research and development jobs in Inverness over 10 years ago has resulted in the creation of world-class healthcare and life sciences hub for business, research and education in an unexpected location. Inverness Campus, which stretches out over 215 acres, is one of the UK’s most ambitious development projects. Situated on the edge of Inverness not far from the airport and close to the main A9 motorway, Inverness Campus enjoys spectacular views across the Moray Firth to the Black Isle across the Kessock Bridge and to Ben Wyvis beyond. Ruaraidh MacNeil, Project Director for Inverness Campus, says that when LifeScan, a Johnson and Johnson company based in Inverness, was considering options to locate R&D jobs the UK, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) decided to step in and ask what would be required to keep this key local employer in the area. “LifeScan said they needed access to academic and clinical research so we visited Oulu in Finland, Montreal, Ottowa and Halifax to look at best practice as it applied to rural areas, particularly rural health. Based on what we saw, we decided to create a multi-stakeholder building for a mix of academic, healthcare and commercial sector organisations as well as social enterprises in a space that encouraged partnerships and collaborations.” The Centre for Health Science (CfHS) was developed by HIE in partnership with NHS Scotland, NHS Highland and the universities of Stirling and Aberdeen and completed in 2009. It’s a stone’s throw from Raigmore Hospital and is built around a courtyard setting, has an internal ‘street’ and café to create common spaces where people can meet each other informally, or by chance, to exchange ideas. MacNeil explains that this not only provides a pleasant working environment but promotes the ‘collaborative campus’ model. “One professor from the Centre for Rural Health, one of the first tenants in the CfHS, came back to me within a week of moving in to say that the CfHS ‘does what it says on the tin’. He was bumping into fellow professionals every day, which kick-started research collaborations that otherwise would not have happened.” The CfHS is now full with 14 tenants, including six universities, 300 employees and is accessed by around 500 students. In 2007/8 HIE identified an adjacent stretch of greenfield land for the next phase of the Campus. Because it was such a large site, 215 acres, as part of the brief for Edinburgh-based architects 7N, MacNeil asked them to come up with design principles for the entire development. “The Campus Masterplan Design Guidelines specify scale, building heights, adjacencies and orientations within plots as well as set-back sizes. While not overly-prescriptive, the document gives a flavour of acceptable and unacceptable materials as well as a palette of colours. The colours schemes are based on the natural hues of the Highlands: greens, browns, blues and greys so there will not be any buildings in colours that jar aesthetically with the surroundings such as bright orange or lemon.” MacNeil explains that on such a large site, it was important to carefully balance the mix of building sizes. “We will have larger buildings that would not look out of place in cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as smaller-scale enterprises that are more prevalent in the region. Although the Campus is on the edge of Inverness, over time it will eventually become part of the main body of the city. Take the University of Glasgow for example, in the 1860s they moved from their High Street campus to a greenfield site to the west of the city in Gilmorehill. Now the university quarter is very much a core part of the city.” The latest building on Inverness Campus due for completion in the spring, An Lòchran (which means a torch or lantern in Gaelic), will house HIE, UHI and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). It too will be modelled on CfHS principles, says MacNeil, with plenty of informal meeting areas. “The building itself will act as a digital marketing tool for the region, using the latest technology to promote HIE, UHI as well as the Highlands and Islands itself. As investors walk through the main thoroughfare it will be possible to tailor messages on digital screens in line with their interests, whether that is information about the broadband connectivity rolled out across the Highlands and Islands or details about the Science Skills Academy established to encourage students to take STEM subjects.” Along with Inverness College UHI, other buildings already on site include the recently completed Life Sciences Building designed by Inverness-based Threesixty Architecture. Architect Andrew Lilley, says that while the design guidelines clearly defined parameters for infrastructure, landscape, materials and building forms, the resulting space also reflects an innovative and contextual approach to design. “The two storey building provides flexible and adaptable floor plates for office or laboratory use addressing the aspiration for a connected Campus that encourages dialogue and interaction. Inverness Campus itself is defined by its setting, so we used the locally-sourced Denfind Stone Inverness– theMaking of a Life Sciences Nerve Centre W www.invernesscampus.co.uk