AN iconic university building based in the heart of a Scottish city has been named as one of the most beautiful campuses in the world by a prestigious international award.
The University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute has been honoured with the Special Prize for its interior in the United Nations-backed international architectural and design awards, the Prix Versailles’ 2024 World Titles.
The redevelopment of the category-A listed former Royal Infirmary hospital into a state-of-the-art space for teaching, research and entrepreneurship, has placed the building among some of the world’s most renowned teaching institutions.
Built in 1879 and located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, the building is well known locally, as many residents have visited or have been a patient before it was decommissioned as a hospital in 2003.
Its design was heavily influenced by the pavilion model developed by nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, and is now home to the Edinburgh Futures Institute, one of the largest institutes for interdisciplinary learning, research and innovation in Europe.
The building officially reopened in June 2024, following a seven-year, multi-million-pound restoration.
It was recognised at the awards ceremony on Monday evening as one of the world’s best as it competed in the campuses category.
Reflecting on the honour, Professor Peter Mathieson, vice chancellor and principal of the University of Edinburgh, said the buildings' innovative design has “surpassed all expectations”.
He said: “From the beginning of this hugely ambitious project to transform the near-dilapidated Victorian hospital, our mission was to create an inspiring space that enables collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking to flourish.
“The painstaking work to ensure that we achieved this for our students, staff and wider community – while preserving the beauty of the historic building for the city – has surpassed all expectations, and it is incredibly gratifying to be recognised at an international level.
“Through its innovative and creative design, the Edinburgh Futures Institute will help nurture some of the world’s much-needed future pioneers via world-leading innovative programmes of interdisciplinary teaching and research directed at solving the great challenges facing the human race and the planet which we inhabit.”
The 20,000 sqm building in the Scottish capital aims to bring together students, researchers and partners to focus on addressing global challenges including ethics of artificial intelligence, social inequality and climate change.
The University of Edinburgh carried out the extensive project along with a project design team led by Atkins Realis, including architects Bennetts Associates and construction partner Balfour Beatty.
Designers and architects made use of the former hospital’s Nightingale wards and corridors with flexible teaching areas and workspaces along with preserving and restoring much of the building’s historical architecture.
Since opening, the institute has already hosted a range of high-profile events, including the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, and is open to the public with breakout spaces, a café, an outdoor square, and a new 400-seater purpose-built space to host public events.
Rab Bennetts, the founder of Bennetts Associates, said the award recognises nine years of hard work preserving the historic building while breathing new life into it.
He said: “We are thrilled alongside our client the University of Edinburgh to be presented with such a prestigious award by the Prix Versailles jury, which is vindication of a strategy based on creative design interventions and interpretation of an important historic building for the University and my home city of Edinburgh.
“The building had been empty for nearly 20 years and was in very poor condition before we started, so the effort put in over the past nine years by our practice and wider team of conservation architects, engineers, project managers, contractors and many others was truly exceptional.
“The award also shows that the re-use of an existing building is a highly stimulating way of achieving low carbon emissions, pointing the way to limiting climate change – the greatest challenge of our time.”
The Futures Institute is one of six innovation hubs supported by the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal’s Data-Driven Innovation programme.
The University of Edinburgh has received £56m in capital funding from the UK Government and more than £2m from the Scottish Government.
