dunard centre

The Dunard Centre, supported by Royal Bank of Scotland, will be Edinburgh’s first purpose-built music venue in 100 years. A vibrant, thriving hub for music of all kinds, the Dunard Centre will become home to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Edinburgh International Festival and an amazing array of guest artists from the worlds of classical, pop, rock, folk, jazz, spoken word and electronica. It will be a creative, collaborative space that hums with activity all day every day, bringing exceptional live music to everyone.

As the UK’s first Nagata Acoustics concert hall this landmark project will deliver life-enhancing, life-changing experiences for audiences of all backgrounds, cementing Edinburgh’s international reputation as a year-round cultural capital. No seat in the 1000-seater auditorium will be further than 25m away from the stage; an intimacy that will create extraordinary connections between the world’s best performers and the world’s best crowds.

Though the site for the Dunard Centre is little bigger than a football pitch, the ingenious building scheme conceived by David Chipperfield Architects also includes a generous series of additional areas for music lovers and community groups, including workshop rooms, bars and a welcoming inside/outside café space. These drop-in destinations, together with the hall itself, will create an open space in an open precinct, right in the middle of Edinburgh’s historic heart.

CURRENT STATUS

Planning permission was granted by City of Edinburgh Council in November 2021 and the City Region Deal Joint Committee approved the business case in March 2022.

Site clearance and enablement work is underway, with main construction on the concert hall scheduled to start in 2024.  

In parallel, work on community engagement has begun in earnest, with several waves of citizen research rolling out across 2023/24, in addition to ongoing consultation with a wide range of music, cultural and third sector stakeholders.

Total City Region Deal Investment: £10 million UK Government, £10 million Scottish Government and £5 million City of Edinburgh.

To find out more about this incredible space visit the Dunard Centre’s microsite; details on IMPACT Scotland, the charitable trust overseeing the project, can be found here

Lead Contact: Jo Buckley; info@impactscotland.org.uk

Last updated: 23 January 2024