RIAS Consultancy – the competitions and procurement arm of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland – has launched a design competition to find an architecture team for a major new cultural building with a focus on mental health and well-being. The ambitious £15 million project, organised on behalf of The Crichton Trust, will be one of the most significant cultural buildings in Scotland, transforming cultural provision in Dumfries and Galloway, while complementing the extraordinary range of facilities and organisations at The Crichton.
The Crichton Trust’s enterprising custodianship of The Crichton – an 85 acre estate on the outskirts of Dumfries - has brought together an extraordinarily rich mix of academic institutions and businesses. The Crichton is also the venue for a wide range of events, and its landscaped gardens and historic buildings are a valuable recreational resource.
The new building – provisionally titled The Crichton Centre for Memory and Wellbeing - will contain exhibition and archive facilities to house the Crichton Archive, and the Crichton Heritage Centre: enhancing people’s understanding of the Crichton’s 180 year heritage and innovation in the provision of mental health care and arts and health. The building will also bring together a new visual arts and exhibition space, an intergenerational academic study space and resource centre, and a land art archives and research centre.
