The Estate

The Mackintosh Project will need to align with the developing GSA estate strategy and principles – these estate principles have informed the critical success factors and options assessment criteria in the Economic Case.

The Estate:

  • Needs to be agile to accommodate changing academic needs over time, efficient, fit for purpose, complaint and inclusive in design and optimised to minimise its financial and environmental impact.
  • Will embrace digital and technological infrastructure and solutions where this supports efficiency, effectiveness, user satisfaction and environmental objectives.
  • Will be managed to be welcoming, secure and accessible to staff, students and visitors in a balanced approach.
  • Will adopt a whole life approach to costing the operation, management, and development and we will systematically capture and respond to feedback on the estate to enhance the experience of students, staff, and visitors.
  • Will support of the GSA’s sustainability and carbon reduction objectives. The GSA is committed to supporting the UK and Scottish Government Net Zero ambitions and has developed a specific set of sustainability principles. These principles will guide and direct investment in built assets and ensure that whole life carbon is measured and assessed when options are being considered and encourage the adoption of processes, materials and technologies that combine to allow the GSA to promote exemplar sustainable projects.

The Mackintosh Project presents several opportunities to address shortfalls in the estate such as:

  • Consolidate the estate.
  • Raise the overall quality and fitness for purpose of the estate.
  • Generation of capital to help finance any new building – and reduce running costs through consolidation.
  • Provide additional teaching learning space to accommodate anticipated growth in student numbers.
  • Enable the growth of the School of Simulation and Visualisation which is at or near capacity in The Hub.
  • Remedy fire-damaged building at the heart of the School.
  • Provision of collaborative space to support academic vision.
  • Enable GSA to better compete with its UK and international peer group.

Investment in, and management of, the estate will recognise the strong link between the brand, culture and heritage of the GSA and its estate and will be managed and operated to support the local economy and the wider cultural and creative economy of Glasgow and Scotland.