Informatics Forum
Encyclopedia
The Informatics Forum is a major new building on the Central Area campus of the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. Completed in 2008, it houses the research institutes of the University's School of Informatics
University of Edinburgh School of Informatics
The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in Informatics....

.

Design

The Forum is designed by Bennetts Associates
Bennetts Associates
Bennetts Associates is one of the UK’s leading firms of architects, and has won more than 100 awards since its foundation in 1987.In particular, Bennetts Associates is recognised for its expertise in sustainability through innovative projects such as the Wessex Water Operations Centre in Bath,...

 with Reiach and Hall, architects, and Buro Happold
Buro Happold
Buro Happold is a professional services firm providing engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of buildings, infrastructure and the environment, with its head office in Bath, Somerset...

, engineers. The architects' brief was to provide a Forum for Interaction that will foster synergies among the 500 researchers in Informatics
Informatics (academic field)
Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Informatics studies the structure, algorithms, behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process, access and communicate information...

: Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

, Cognitive Science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...

, Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, and Systems Biology
Systems biology
Systems biology is a term used to describe a number of trends in bioscience research, and a movement which draws on those trends. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, claiming that it uses...

, who have been brought together, under one roof, by this development.

The building has been designed to achieve a BREEAM
BREEAM
BRE Environmental Assessment Method is a voluntary measurement rating for green buildings that was established in the UK by the Building Research Establishment . Since its inception it has since grown in scope and geographically, being exported in various guises across the globe...

 rating of "excellent", and was constructed by Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty plc is a British construction, engineering, military housing, rail and investment services company. It is one of the largest construction companies in the UK, and the 15th largest in the world...

.

History

One of the major recommendations of the 1997 international review that led to the formation of Informatics
Informatics (academic field)
Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Informatics studies the structure, algorithms, behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process, access and communicate information...

 as an academic grouping at Edinburgh, was that the University should provide a building for the collocation of Informatics. An options appraisal recommended that the University should plan for the collocation of Informatics in an 18,000 m² new construction within the University's George Square Campus, using the long-vacant Crichton Street site.

In 2002, the University embarked on a fund-raising campaign. This was followed closely by the Edinburgh Cowgate Fire of December 2002, which destroyed a number of buildings, including some 3,000 m² (30,000 sq ft.) of the School's accommodation at 80 South Bridge. The School took over four floors of the Appleton Tower
Appleton Tower
Appleton Tower is a tower block in Edinburgh, Scotland, owned by the University of Edinburgh.- History :When the University developed the George Square site in the 1960s a huge swathe of Georgian Edinburgh was demolished, leading to accusations of cultural vandalism and megalomania...

 as emergency accommodation. In the following years, plans for the School's accommodation were revised to include some 3,000 m² on six floors of the Appleton Tower
Appleton Tower
Appleton Tower is a tower block in Edinburgh, Scotland, owned by the University of Edinburgh.- History :When the University developed the George Square site in the 1960s a huge swathe of Georgian Edinburgh was demolished, leading to accusations of cultural vandalism and megalomania...

, and 11,500 m² of new build on the Crichton Street Site.

In all, £42M was raised from public and philanthropic sources. Planning approval was confirmed on 12 September 2005, and work on site commenced in October 2005.

The Forum is the first phase of the Potterrow Project, the redevelopment of a site, bordered by Potterrow, Crichton Street, Charles Street and Marshall Street, that was cleared for redevelopment by the University in 1963, and has been used as a car park ever since. The Potterrow Project is itself part of a more extensive masterplan, that will see the Potterrow underpass removed and the campus extended to link Old College to George Square.

External links

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