page_title: Robert Gordon University - Garthdee campus
section_title: Aberdeen Business School building
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Gordon University - Garthdee campus / The campus today / Aberdeen Business School building
caption_attribution_description: English: Aberdeen Business School building, The Robert Gordon University, Garthdee campus, Aberdeen, UK. Main entrance shown.
context_page_description: The Garthdee campus is the Robert Gordon University's main campus, where all academic departments are located and teaching and research takes place. The campus is located in parkland on the outskirts of the city of Aberdeen and noted for its modern architecture.
  The Garthdee campus is situated in the south-west of the city, on the banks of the River Dee. For much of its history it was a greenfield site, with parts used as the gardens and estate of the manor of Garthdee House, farmland, and open meadows. The first university buildings were in use from the 1950s, with major additional developments in the 1960s, 1990s, 2000s and early 2010s. The design concept produced in the mid-1990s by architects Norman Foster + Partners was to separate the site into three zones; to the north, by the road, would be car parking; a central zone would contain the main buildings, and the southern boundary by the riverbank would be for parkland and wildlife. Ancient lines of beech trees and woodlands were retained in the concept. It also included a "university street" running east-west and connecting the buildings, which were to be "pavilions in the landscape".
context_section_description: The Aberdeen Business School building was designed by architects Norman Foster and Partners. It opened in 1999, with construction having taken over a year and at a cost of £19.5 million. It provides 12,500 square-metres of academic space and other facilities. Its design is a response to the constraints and topography of the sloping riverbank site, and no part exceeds 15 metres above ground level. It was designed to allow numerous departments of the then-Faculty of Management to move from separate small campuses to one central site, along with a large library, and was originally known as the "Faculty of Management" building. In 1999 the building won a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award for Architecture.
  Today the building houses the departments of Accounting & Finance, Communication & Media, Information Management, Law, and Management, and a large Study Centre which occupies the former library space. It comprises a six-storey stepped box, partially set into the hillside, with each floor as a terrace following the topography of the site,  enclosed by a dramatic curved aluminium roof supported by steel beams and columns, which was designed as a response to the rolling landscape and trees at the site. The steel beams were standard units but specially curved by Angle Ring in England, and due to a university policy of using as many local materials and contractors as possible, were erected on site by a local firm. The building is clad in New Kemnay granite (the same as that used to build much of Aberdeen) alternating with infill panels of aluminium and glass. Inside, heavily used areas have protective dados of concrete blockwork to protect the walls, such as classrooms and corridors, while other materials include maple, glass, stainless steel handrails, and black slate for the atrium floor. The entrances are on Level 3, leading directly onto a four-storey atrium which the "university street" passes through.  The Study Centre (previously the Georgina Scott Sutherland Library) and other classrooms occupy the upper four storeys on the south side, and on the north side overlooking the atrium are staff offices. Teaching accommodation dominates the lowest two floors (much of which are underground), including three large lecture theatres of up to 300 seats as well as many other classrooms, IT labs and other facilities.
  Until May 2013 (when the new University Library opened in the Sir Ian Wood building, then known as Riverside East) the university's main Georgina Scott Sutherland library was located here; the space now houses study areas optimised for group study, project work and individual study and is known as the Georgina Scott Sutherland Learning Centre (named after Tom Scott Sutherland's wife, who had lived with him at Garthdee House and found it too big). It provides study space which is very limited in the University Library in the Sir Ian Wood building, which has little space for study carrels. However, library facilities such as book lifts remain in place, perhaps should part of the space be needed again as a library in case of future university expansion.
caption: Business School building
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