The designs for the new €51.42m concert hall in Edinburgh have been displayed as part of a public exhibition and consultation. The Impact Centre, will be Edinburgh’s first purpose-built music venue in over a century. It will provide a new home for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and host to a number of Edinburgh International Festival events.

Following an international two-stage competition, a team led by David Chipperfield Architects was selected by the International Music and Performing Arts Charitable Trust (IMPACT Scotland) to design a new 1,000-seat concert venue in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town. The new building will be located adjacent to the Grade A listed Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters on St Andrew Square, designed by William Chambers in 1771.

The venue will serve as a permanent home for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and provide a new space for a range of musical performances much needed in a city which hosts the world’s largest arts festival. In addition to the main hall, the programme includes a smaller studio, educational facilities and an open, public lobby.

Together with Arup, WME, Theatre Projects and Gross Max, they aim to develop a design that sensitively integrates into the New Town and we look forward to working closely with the acoustician Nagata to create excellent performance spaces.

The full planning application will be made this summer. Subject to approval, the Impact Centre would open in 2021.
Read more
Read less

More information

Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

Read more
Published on: March 20, 2018
Cite: "Designs for IMPACT Centre by David Chipperfield Architects revealed " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/designs-impact-centre-david-chipperfield-architects-revealed> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...