Venue: The Dunard Centre
Town: Edinburgh, GB

The Dunard Centre (supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland) is a planned concert hall in the New Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It will be the first new purpose-built concert hall in Edinburgh in a century. The venue is David Chipperfield Architects' first concert hall and will be the UK's first Nagata Acoustics hall, comprising a 1000-seat auditorium as well as bars, a cafe, meeting rooms and public spaces. Delivered by the International Music and Performing Arts Charitable Trust (IMPACT) Scotland, public plans for the venue include hosting a variety of musical events including classical, choral, jazz, pop, rock, folk and electronic, as well as comedy, talks, dance and other event types, alongside education and community engagement programmes. The venue will be the home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and serve as a principal venue for the Edinburgh International Festival. In December 2016, an international design competition was announced by the international music and performing arts charitable trust (IMPACT) Scotland to be located to the rear of Dundas House, a Royal Bank of Scotland building, at 36 St Andrew Square. The area is within the New Town UNESCO world heritage site, which has seen considerable development in recent years, with new developments at 3-8, 35 and 42 St Andrews Square, as well the recent Multrees Walk and ongoing St James Centre redevelopment. Many Scottish architects, as well as much of the Scottish press and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), expressed dismay at IMPACT's decision to run the competition from London, which was seen as sidelining Scottish practices. A shortlist of six architects was released in late January 2017, consisting of Adjaye Associates (with Sandy Brown, Buro Happold and DHA Designs); Allies & Morrison (with Charcoalblue, Speirs & Major, Harrison Stevens and Buro Happold); Barozzi Veiga (with Alan Baxter, Max Fordham, Kahle Acoustics, 3DReid and Ian White Associates); David Chipperfield (w