The centrepiece will be a 1,000 seat auditorium, as well as a studio providing rehearsal, recital and recording space to rival the best in Europe. The auditorium will meet the long recognised need for a purpose-built, mid-sized performance venue, combining excellent acoustics with access for all forms of popular music, jazz, folk, chamber and other small classical music groups as well as solo and song recitals and small dance ensembles.
The open competition (https://www.colander.co.uk/competitions/impact-scotland) announced in December 2016, attracted 69 expressions of interest from all round the world, confirming the importance attached to such an exciting project on a sensitive heritage site.
The six teams to be taken forward are led by architects from Edinburgh, London, Switzerland and Canada. They were selected using the OJEU scoring system. They are (in alphabetical order of architect firm lead):
Adjaye Associates (London) with Sandy Brown, Buro Happold and DHA Designs
Allies & Morrison (London) with Charcoalblue, Speirs & Major, Harrison Stevens and Buro Happold
Barozzi Veiga (Switzerland) with Alan Baxter, Max Fordham, Kahle Acoustics, 3DReid and Ian White Associates
David Chipperfield (London) with Arup, Whitby Mohajer Engineers, GROSS MAX and Theatre Projects
KPMB (Toronto) with Simpson & Brown Architects, David Narro Associates, Arup, Sound Space Vision, rankinfraser landscape architecture and Transsolar Energietechnik
Richard Murphy (Edinburgh) with Arup, Graven Images, GROSS MAX and Montagu Evans
Sir Ewan Brown, who is the Chair of IMPACT Scotland's judging panel said, "We have an extremely strong shortlist to choose from. The submissions we received show that this project will transform the resource available to Edinburgh's Festivals and provide new opportunities for music groups across Scotland by building for greater inclusivity and access."
A decision on the winning team is expected to be taken in early April.