Dezeen Magazine

Laidlaw Music Centre designed from "the point of view of the performer"

This video by Stephenson& offers a glimpse inside Laidlaw Music Centre by architecture studio Flanagan Lawrence, which is in the running for this year's RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award.

The film is the second in a series of videos being published by Dezeen this month with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) to spotlight the award's 2023 shortlist.

In the short film, Stephenson& captures how music students are using the space at the University of St Andrews while Flanagan Lawrence's co-founder Jason Flanagan tells the story behind it.

Violinist at Laidlaw Music Centre by Flanagan Lawrence,
Laidlaw Music Centre is in the running for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award

Specifically, Flanagan sheds light on how the design was developed in response to historic infrastructure and trees on the site, but also based on how it might sound to its users.

"We approached the design of the building from the inside out," said Flanagan.

"When you're designing for musical spaces, you have to start from the point of view of the performer and the audience and then design the room as much as anything about the way it's going to sound for them as how it's going to look."

Held annually by RIAS, the Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award celebrates the works of Scottish architects. The 2023 winner will be announced on 30 November and receive a cash prize of £10,000.

Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews is one of two university buildings vying for the title. The other is Campus Central at the University of Stirling.

The other two projects on the four-strong shortlist are residential – a house that incorporates a ruin and a castle-like dwelling overlooking a loch.