Science Centre Edinburgh, Building, Images, Proposal, Design, Location, Picture

Science Centre, Edinburgh

Science Centre, Market St, Edinburgh, Scotland – design by Reiach and Hall

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Science Centre Edinburgh

Location: south side of Market St, Old Town, Edinburgh
Reiach and Hall Architects

Science Centre Festival information from EDI 23 Apr 2007:

Science Centre, Edinburgh: image from Reiach and Hall Architects

PERMANENT HOME FOR EDINBURGH SCIENCE FESTIVAL MOVES A STEP CLOSER

Following another successful year for the Edinburgh International Science Festival, contractors are now being short listed to build the Festival’s permanent home in Market Street.

The property developer, The EDI Group, has already issued bid documents for the new Edinburgh Science Centre to interested companies.

Situated on a prominent city-centre gap site, the new Science Centre will help also drive forward the continuing regeneration of the Old Town.

Science Centre, Edinburgh: image from Reiach and Hall Architects

As well as providing a permanent home for the Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF) the building will incorporate year-round science exhibitions.

The EDI Group will develop the project on behalf of the Edinburgh International Science Festival and the City of Edinburgh Council. A site start for the centre is expected in Spring 2008.

EISF Director, Simon Gage said how pleased they were to be moving the project forward. He said: “This is a significant milestone towards the delivery of a permanent home for the Science Festival. Generating interest in the sciences among young people in Scotland is something in which the Science Centre will have a crucial role.”

On the ‘gap site’ opposite the Fruitmarket there is proposed to be a Science Centre: listed building consent has been granted for a high-level link to the adjacent City Arts Centre. The centre is not on site currently.

Edinburgh Science Centre : Building information from EDI 23 Apr 2007

Science Centre Festival information from EDI in Aug 2004:

Science Centre, Edinburgh: image from Reiach and Hall Architects : sorry, no larger image

DEVELOPERS OFFER ART BUS TEMPORARY STOP

Developers are often faced with the challenge of what to do with an empty site before construction starts. Now Edinburgh-based property developers, EDI, are taking an unusual approach to a city-centre gap site earmarked for a future Science Centre and residential development.

Science Centre Edinburgh
Science Centre, Edinburgh: image from Reiach and Hall Architects: sorry, no larger image

Approached by a contemporary art gallery looking for a temporary home for a 6-metre long art installation, EDI offered the city-centre gap site as a perfect stopgap. For the next six weeks, 6 Market Street – a derelict site and unused car park – will host “The Pumpkin Palace”, a temporary art installation comprising a 1954 GMS transit bus by British artist Mike Nelson.

The exhibition concludes in early September, when it is also hoped that the business plan negotiations between The City of Edinburgh Council and The Edinburgh Science Festival about the planned development will have concluded. The gap site on Market Street is an important piece in the jigsaw of regenerating the Old Town where EDI has an excellent track record of sensitive re-development.

John Mark di Ciacca, EDI’s Director of Property and Development said: “If it is given the green light, the development will provide a permanent, city-centre home for Edinburgh’s Science Festival, alongside a restaurant and 14 new build residential flats. Thousands of local people and tourists will be able to enjoy year-round exhibitions and explore the world of science.”
Mike Nelson’s work – has been transported from San Francisco’s Watts Institute of Contemporary Art to the gap site for the 2004 Edinburgh Festival. Mike Nelson, nominated for the 2001 Turner Prize, is known for his meticulously detailed installations. This work provocatively reminds visitors of the casualties of war, both abroad and at home. The bus resembles, from the outside at least, a Red Crescent hospital bus. Inside, visitors find themselves in an environment that is a cross between an opium den and a mobile field hospital.

Mike Nelson (Britain), The Pumpkin Palace is part of the Off-site series of exhibitions curated by Sarah Munro at the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh.

Science Centre Festival: information from EDI 26 Aug 2004

Follow curving Cockburn St. to the Stills Gallery at No.23

Also by Reiach and Hall Architects in Edinburgh:

Stills Gallery