Plans For £58M Science Building In Newcastle Revealed

Plans for Newcastle University’s £58 million Urban Sciences Building have been unveiled today, ahead of a public consulatition this evening.

The plans include a public performance space, a decision theatre for the visualisation and interpretation of urban data and a rooftop wild-flower meadow.

The aim is to create a living laboratory where everything from the infrastructure and environment to even the building itself are used to develop and design sustainable solutions for the future.

As part of the University, the building will also be used for teaching; offering state-of-the-art lecture theatres.

Newcastle University will submit a planning application in the next few weeks and people have the opportunity to go and see the plans during a public meeting being held at The Core tonight.

Newcastle University's Professor John Fitzgerald is a member of the Science Central team. He told us;

"This is a significant step in the design and development of the Urban Sciences Building and gives us an opportunity to make the plans more widely available to staff, students, our key partners in business and industry and the public.

“The vision for the Science Central site is urban sustainability underpinned by digital technology and the School of Computing Science will be central to that plan.”

Whe it's finished, the University's Urban Sciences Building will be home to around 1,500 staff and students.

Some of its state-of-the-art features will include;

• a unique Cyber-Physical Laboratory, dedicated to understanding the complex interaction between technology and society and reduce our vulnerability to cyber-attack and software failure. - an Urban Observatory and Decision Theatre, allowing real time data from the city to be analysed and explored to improve understanding of the interaction between our city’s energy, water, transport, waste and digital control systems.

Work is due to begin on the Urban Sciences Building later this year with a planned completion date of September 2017.

The public event is being held tonight (Wednesday 14th January) from 5 to 7.30pm at The Centre for Professional and Executive Development, The Core, Bath Lane, Science Central, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TF.