The Nucleus Building

The Nucleus Building is a new shared learning, teaching and social hub at the heart of The King’s Buildings campus. It opened fully in January 2023.

The Nucleus Building has transformed the student and staff experience - providing brand new, learning, teaching and social spaces for campus users. 

Facilities

The Nucleus Building has seven centrally bookable large and medium general teaching spaces, as well as a new specialist teaching laboratory for the School of Chemistry on the top floor. The lecture theatres and teaching spaces are provided in a variety of sizes and furniture solutions in an attempt to be as flexible as possible and all teaching spaces are fully equipped with AV presentation facilities. 

The teaching spaces include:

• Alder Lecture Theatre - a 300-person lecture theatre on basement level with bleacher seating that can be positioned flat against the wall or tiered.
• Elm Lecture Theatre - a 112-person collaborative lecture theatre.
• Hawthorn - a 132-person studio classroom with six-person group teaching desks.
• Larch Lecture Theatre - a 300-person turn-and-learn lecture theatre. Alternate rows of seats can be turned 180° to allow discussion or small working groups.
• Oak Lecture Theatre - a 400-person fixed seating lecture theatre primarily for high-volume classes. 
• Rowan – a 60-person studio classroom
• Yew Lecture Theatre – a 150-person bleacher-style lecture theatre with flat or tiered seating which can be moved to the back of the room.
• a 100-person specialist teaching laboratory for the School of Chemistry.

More than 400 student study spaces in a mix of formal and informal environments. 

A new ACE café and the Students' Association Shop and Wrap Bar are located at the entrance level with a new home for the Careers Service at King's Buildings on the first floor. The building also directly connects to the Murray Library and the Students’ Association’s King's Buildings House. 

The Careers Service at the Nucleus Building

The Careers Service has paved the way becoming the first team to fully occupy the new Nucleus building. As we are located at the very heart of The King's Buildings campus affords a huge opportunity to engage with students, capitalising on the accessibility, collaboration spaces and high visibility to deliver a service that is friendly, professional and responsive. Students can access the following in-person support:

• Regular drop-in, no booking required (Info Page (ed.ac.uk))
• Appointments with our careers consultants (MyCareerHub (ed.ac.uk))
• Quick chat with one of our student advisers on the help desk – 10am till 4pm daily.

Further information about our regular services including online appointments, events and links to premium careers resources

What lies ahead?

Using the space in creative ways, bringing in employers and alumni to facilitate small discussions and events, more informal ‘careers café’ conversations and potential for student led activity. The Careers Service is keen to involve students in this next phase – please share any ideas or suggestions with careers@ed.ac.uk

A tour of the Nucleus

Three of our students give a quick tour of the main facilities.

Sustainability

The building design incorporates several sustainability initiatives and achieves the highest environmental certification rating of EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) – an A rating. As part of the construction process of the building substructure, 200 tonnes of demolition material from the building that previously stood on the site was recycled and reused. The former School of Informatics bike shelter has also been refurbished and used at the Nucleus. Initiatives like these have reduced the overall carbon footprint of the construction process and reduced disruption from vehicle movements to colleagues on the campus.

Floor Plans

We have produced a simplified floor plan to help show the layout of the building:

Nucleus floor plans (627.67 KB PDF)

Image Gallery

A selection of internal images of the Nucleus building.

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Opening Hours

Semester opening times

Vacation opening times

How to find your PIN

More information

This page will be updated with the latest information on the Nucleus as it becomes available. If you have a question about the Nucleus please do get in touch at Nucleus.Bookings@ed.ac.uk.

If your enquiry is about using the Nucleus for an event please go to the Nucleus events page.