Former hospital in Dumfries to become £15m cultural site

An ambitious new cultural site has been planned for a disused former hospital building set amid 85 acres of grounds on the outskirts of Dumfries in Scotland. 

The £15m project, funded and overseen by the Crichton Trust, will begin with a design competition to find architects to construct the new building, provisionally called the Crichton Centre for Memory and Wellbeing.

It will house the Crichton Archive and the Crichton Heritage Centre, as well as a new visual arts and exhibition space, an academic study space and resource centre and a land art archives and research centre.

The project aims to transform cultural provision in Dumfries and Galloway and complement the facilities and organisations at the Crichton, which is home to a range of academic institutions and business.

The competition to find architects is designed to encourage collaboration between different practices, including smaller firms. It is partly funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.

The closing date for initial submissions is August 19, after which a blind shortlisting process will award five teams £20,000 each to develop their proposals. The winning team is due to be announced in November.

“We are very excited about creating the Crichton Centre for Memory and Wellbeing, in what will become a new landmark building in the heart of the Crichton,” said the trust’s Chief Executive Gwilym Gibbons.

“This is one of several development projects included within our ambitious 100-year plan for The Crichton and is an important milestone in our journey to connect people, place and the past to shape the future.”