Small Animal Hospital

The hospital forms part of the University of Glasgow’s faculty of veterinary medicine. It is focused around a central treatment hub with facilities that include day-care, intensive care, operation suites, diagnostics and oncology. Teaching and office spaces occupy the upper level, with views over the estate.

Set into the landscape, a large grassed roof supported by a steel frame ramps over the plan. It rises from the ground at the west end of the site to create a two-storey, east-facing facade. The roof is crowned with a faceted cupola and its perimeter is part-enclosed by a gabion wrap. Behind this, elevations are formed with strips of grey fibre-cement cladding.

One corner is marked by V-shaped steel columns that support the roof above an empty segment of the building’s footprint, creating a canopy for open-air dog runs.

The hospital’s entrance, in the north facade, squats under the lower part of the slope and features intersecting planes of glass, rock and render and a cube-shaped portal door.