Base Glasgow

Developed as “exclusive” student residences for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), Base Glasgow is a purpose-built, eight storey 302-unit building. Located within three minutes of the RCS, the student accommodation scheme was designed and constructed to enhance the learning experience of the “finest music and dramatic art students in the world”. The rectangular, stone-clad urban block sits alongside the B-listed Piping Centre and A-listed Scottish Ambulance building. It offers a mixture of studio apartments, six-bedroom cluster flats and accessible studio apartments. The bedroom accommodation takes the form of a U-shaped plan, which reinforces the existing street pattern and steps back from the listed buildings at the upper level. Striking a chord with the residents, Base features soundproof music practice and rehearsal spaces, larger rooms to facilitate the storage of musical instruments, and an on-site cinema room.

Completed in time for the new academic term in 2019, Base Glasgow is RCS’s “preferred student halls of residence”. The steel framed development was carefully designed in response to the site’s immediate context and the surrounding townscape, and it provides a new urban block with appropriate scale and quality of materials. Designed by Mosaic Architecture + Design, we implemented a 73-week construction programme that included all associated external works and services.

The ground floor up to the fourth floor are uniform, with a unique mix for the lower ground, fifth and sixth floors. Indeed, the modern accommodation features several exclusive studios on the lower ground floor that overlook a spacious courtyard. Throughout the build, we utilised pre-fabrication techniques, where possible, to reduce on-site installation periods. The pre-fabricated units included services modules, bathroom pods, hinged and lock suited door sets and pre-glazed screens. With a number of timber-effect roof terraces, the building has a distinctive community feel, centred around the main social hub, spacious common room, study areas, a large games room and a state-of-the-art gym.