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Crime campus Gartcosh

The Scottish Crime Campus is a new Government initiative to enhance collaboration between various anti-crime agencies. It is a unique £82m Scottish Government-funded, facility providing 12,600 sq. m net of high quality office accommodation, forensic laboratories and support facilities. It brings together the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Serious Organised Crime Agency, Scottish Police Services Authority Forensic Services, Crown Office, and Procurator Fiscal Service into a single campus.

The concept developed for the research project was to find an architectural form and pattern language which would provide a semiological basis for the essence of the building’s operational techniques and also give outstanding environmental performance. This was achieved in the choices of both external and internal enclosing surfaces and the forms generated from them. The outcome of the research into these shapes and materials led to the design decisions for four blocks in a formal arrangement around a common gathering space – itself a series of horizontal and vertical planes. The organisation of the internal façades enclosing this space reflected the semiology contained in the external façades which enclose the buildings as well as on the roof surface of the Atrium.

The project was led by BMJ Architects as lead consultant and fit-out architects. Gordon Murray Architects (GMA|Ryder) were architects for all external works and the shell and core of the building. In addition, Professor Gordon Murray, the Project Design Leader for GMA|Ryder was also Client Design Champion for the project. During design and construction stages it has been written about and exhibited. It is also featured in the newly launched Scottish Government Architecture Policy document and web site as an exemplar project on the objectives of the policy in architecture, urban design and place making. Scottish Government Architecture Policy– Creating Places: First Life; then Spaces; then Buildings. :http:// www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/06/9811/4