Music Box. Edinburgh. RMJM. 2007

Recording studios, practice rooms, spaces for dance and the performing arts, dressing rooms and a 120 seat auditorium are included in the 2 thousand square metre centre. The complex also has a large foyer, 9 metres high, with a skylight running its full height. This is one of the most interesting architectural elements in the project, and its presence is strategic in functional terms too, for it contains the reception area and a lounge: a public space where students can get together as well as a place for hosting cultural events open to the public.
It is the building's outer cladding that defines its image and personality, lending unity to the composition.
The simple, linear design is emphasised by the building's metal skin, with its pure, strong, dark colours. Another key material in the design is glass, interrupting the continuity of the metal surface to make way for light and transparency in the entrance hall, the recording studio and the dance area.
The big windows let people outside see what it going on in the Music Box. The result is a "living" container capable of communicating with the outside through these openings, interacting with passers-by and the student community.
One of RMJM studio's main goals in the project was to make a lively addition to Stevenson College that would be open not only to students but to the whole community.
The Music Box will become a new icon for Edinburgh, not just a landmark in residents' visual imagination but also a reference for participating in events in the world of music and the performing arts.