Scott Brownrigg has appointed Director, Iain MacDonald to lead its new Advanced Technologies sector. Based in London, the sector will focus on the transformative impact of technology on cities and architecture through the understanding that the determining factor for real estate success is no longer solely location but increasingly a pattern of architectures, overlaying brands, production, power generation, data networks and transportation.

Iain, who was previously at Aukett and YRM, has 30 years of experience working at varying scales of development for international clients such as AIG, Bouygues Immobilier, British Land, Level, GSK, Steiner AG, Electricite de France, Immofinanz, Mercedes-Benz, Procter & Gamble, Roche, Universal and Worldcom.

Iain has worked on several high profile masterplanning schemes including Delhi Aerotropolis, Syngenta Global HQ Basel, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, EPR Nuclear Power Stations and the Royal Victoria Docks in London. He also has extensive architectural experience, having worked on notable schemes such as Oracle’s European Headquarters in Paris, Proctor & Gamble’s research complexes in Frankfurt and Geneva and Mercedes-Benz World in Brooklands, Weybridge. Other projects include Next-Gen Banksfor NCB, Level (3)’s Communications Pan-European Internet Network, as well as significant industrial structures such as the OSC, STC and Turbine Hall for Sizewell C nuclear complex.

A graduate of the Mackintosh School, University of Glasgow and Domus Academy Milan, Iain is registered to practice in Austria, Switzerland and the UK. Having been a Visiting Scholar at the Bartlett, he has lectured internationally at Harvard, MIT, WAPIC, U-City Korea, MIPIM, RIBA, UCL, ETH Zurich and his work has been published in Europe and Asia.

Advanced Technologies Sector

The design and construction of big data, discovery labs, emergent technologies and energy generation represents the next great infrastructure to be built for a global economy. This architecture, sometimes referred to as mission critical, is the sector which deals with technology intensive facilities which organisations across the globe are increasingly dependent on.

In responding to this global development and in aiming to be a strategic player in the ideation, design and realisation of this essential real estate, the practice has added Advanced Technologies to its sector portfolio. This highly specialised sector will deploy hybrid professionals to provide clients with the design expertise necessary to create the essential infrastructure from a strategic level (contextualization), through meta level (masterplanning, sustainable development and stakeholder approval), to micro level (buildings and performance envelopes).

No longer discreetly located stealth architecture, these ubiquitous projects of ‘accelerating informational complexity’ reflect the convergence of data and energy within architectural typologies embodying what can be termed Digital Real Estate. The sector’s design focus is on the value proposition of “digital real estate” where urban environments, leading edge consumerism and advanced technology co-exist in close proximity. Increasingly projects for smart cities, technology corporations, universities, commercial quarters, even residential neighbourhoods will reflect this convergence. What was invisible – automation, data, energy - now has visibility and brand value and calls for a new vision able to couple technical expertise with cutting edge design and planning skills.

This new sector will incorporate advanced manufacturing, automotive, research and science facilities, data centres and emerging technologies and energy and infrastructure, including energy generation plants and nuclear power stations.

The team have recently won Moorside Nuclear Project in Cumbria, UK for NuGen.