High levels of sustainability will be employed in the construction and use of the new facility, including use of local materials wherever possible and with energy efficiency as a priority. This will be one of the 'greenest' buildings in Scotland.
The SCENE facility
Sustainability for the future
An award winning building
Architects Page\Park have designed a facility that appears embedded in the landscape, "designed to appear to grow from the undulating rocky outcrops in amongst the trees...a unique frame for the world class research which is being carried out".
Accomodation for the 21st century
The new accommodation will enable a three-fold increase in the amount of research carried out at SCENE and allow for more students from our own and other universities to have top quality hands-on experience and training that few other places in Europe can deliver.
Sustainability for the future
The new facilities at SCENE will enable us to meet the needs of research and teaching in the 21st century through much larger, state-of-the-art premises built in the footprint of the existing buildings.
On a site within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, the plans for the new field station have been sensitively developed. The University sees it as very important to combine investment in SCENE with environmental responsibility towards its unique location. We will ensure that the surrounding area acts as a first hand teaching and research experience which benefits from responsible environmental management at the same time.
An award winning building
We are delighted that the high levels of sutainability of the Research wing, opened in May 2007, have been recognised by a number of awards - the Carbon Trust's 'Low Carbon Building' award, the Building Research Executive's 'excellent' award for best practice in environmental design and management and the British Institute of Facilities Management award for 'Best Practice in New Build'. The Teaching facility will meet the same stringent criteria.
Accommodation for the 21st century
SCENE will have two separate wings for research and teaching. The research facilities provide state-of-the-art laboratories, experimental streams and aquarium facilities, office space and living accommodation for resident and visiting researchers.
The new teaching wing will include a laboratory with 45 bench spaces, seminar room, lecture/dining hall and other learning resources including an invertebrate specimen room. There will be flexible bedroom accommodation to meet the needs of different sizes of visiting groups.