The Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow

Markets

Buildings & places
Location

Glasgow
Client

The University of Glasgow
Completion date

2022

Designing a space for people to meet, learn, and collaborate.

In 2015, the University of Glasgow launched a transformative expansion of its city center Gilmorehill campus. This new campus would comprise several new academic buildings, as well as communal and public facilities and spaces.

AtkinsRéalis was appointed lead architect and multi-discipline design team for the Clarice Pears building – the new home for the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, and cornerstone of the new campus project. Our approach was rooted in human-centric design, ensuring the building would be functional, welcoming, and adaptable to the evolving needs of its users.

This five-story building was designed to be a part of the surrounding city, with street-level public areas and informal ‘third space’ work zones. It also brought together five different workgroups from across the university, creating opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, and facilitating world-class research.

Built for the users

The Institute of Health and Wellbeing had complex requirements, bringing together five teams with different space and technology needs. To truly bring these teams together, rather than merely relocate them, these facilities need to intersect, creating permeable spaces for collaboration and learning.

To facilitate this vision, our team interviewed over five hundred stakeholders – from university leadership through to academics and students. This allowed us to identify key requirements and ensure the space would support the flexible needs of its occupants.

Beyond utility, human welfare was central to the design and particular attention was paid to elements such as natural lighting, living walls, flexible working spaces, and ventilation. The building has since been awarded an ‘excellent’ BREEAM accreditation.

Our human-centred design toolkit was key on this project. It allowed us to really drill down into what people wanted and needed from the space and develop a holistic brief that could deliver on the vision of collaboration, learning and outreach that we had developed with the university.

Helen Groves

Technical Director, Architecture and Masterplanning, AtkinsRéalis

Inviting the city inside

The university wanted to move away from the traditional separated spaces of their Victorian campus buildings towards something that would invite conversation, facilitate collaboration, and connect the Institute’s members with the community they served. The Clarice Pears building would be not just a research hub, but a teaching and community space.

The ground floor of the building was designed to include a mixture of social areas, informal working and teaching spaces. These facilities link the two external public spaces of the building, connecting the building to the campus and city around it. This public heart to the space extends throughout the building, adjoining dedicated workspaces of the research groups via mezzanines and balconies.

Building features

The ‘Hillside’ – a landscaped series of stairs, living walls, and collaborative spaces
A range of articulated workspaces, promoting connections and enabling a vast array of uses
Simple, user-controlled systems for natural light and air
Social cafes, workspaces, and informal ‘third space’ work zones.

The heart of Glasgow

The Clarice Pears building was opened in 2022 and now hosts a thriving community of researchers, academics and students. Its array of articulated workspaces and bustling ground floor bring together the Institute’s different disciplines and connect the university with the city it serves.

It’s not just public engagement – the building has also flourished as a hub for partnerships, allowing the university to collaborate with government and the NHS, and turn their research into policy.

The Institute joins three other state-of-the-art academic buildings on the new campus site.