Scottish parliament building
- Location:
- Edinburgh
- Added:
- 11 February 2007
Devolution in 1999 brought to Edinburgh, for the first time since the Treaty of Union in 1707, a parliament able to make decisions concerning matters such as education, health and prisons within Scotland.
At first, the parliament met at the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall on The Mound and had offices in the former Lothian regional council headquarters. The need for a permanent home gave, however, the possibility of constructing a new building that could represent Scotland’s new-found self-sufficiency.
The chosen location was on the site of a former brewery at the foot of the Royal Mile, opposite the Palace of Holyroodhouse and overlooked by Salisbury Crags. A 1998 competition to design the parliament building was won by the Catalan architect Enric Miralles, working in partnership with the local firm RMJM.
When building began in May 1999, it was predicted to cost £40m and be complete by 2001. But by the time the Holyrood building was officially opened by the Queen in October 2004, having cost £414m, the project was widely perceived to have been a fiasco. The considerable delays and spiralling costs were subject to an inquiry, the results of which were published in a report by Lord Fraser shortly before the building’s opening.1
With references to Rennie Mackintosh’s flower paintings and the curves of upturned boats, the design was completed by Benedetta Tagliabue after Miralles’s death in 2000. The structure is clad with Caithness stone, stainless steel, oak and sycamore, and its surroundings are landscaped with native plants and gabion walls (made of stone rubble from the demolished brewery).
Critics were mostly very positive about the building. The Independent’s Jay Merrick described it as “a grandly figurative gesture, yet without a hint of pomp and circumstance”.2 Jonathan Glancey of the Guardian was impressed by its “rich, complex and crafted design, as much landscape as architecture”. He wrote that the parliament would “connect the city centre emotionally and physically to the hills beyond, expressing Edinburgh’s embodiment of Scotland’s political and cultural will”.3
Writing in favour of such “iconic” buildings, Charles Jencks praised Miralles’s design in a letter to Dejan Sudjic published in Prospect.
The Scottish parliamet has its references to ‘silver fish’ swimming in a shoal, to ‘leaves and curved bodies’ and a host of geological images that give Scotland identity, above all its ‘rock outcrops and finger lakes’.4
In 2005, the building won the Riba Stirling prize. It also won a Civic Trust award and came in the top ten of a poll of Britain’s favourite buildings conducted for ConstructionSkills.5 Even Prince Charles visited, reportedly describing the architecture as “intriguing”.6
The same year, however, the parliament was voted by viewers of Channel 4’s Demolition programme as one of the buildings they would most like to see knocked down. George Ferguson, the then president of Riba, who was involved in the programme, said that the choice of the building was less likely to be owing to its design, than a combination of disgruntlement with its high price tag and dissatisfaction with the results of devolution.7
Margo MacDonald, an independent MSP, has remained an outspoken critic of the ambitious and expensive design since its planning. After the announcement of Demolition’s “dirty dozen”, she sympathised with the programme’s voters, telling the Evening News: “It is proving very expensive to maintain and clean and repair and the number of design flaws which are being discovered on a regular basis would make most people question whether it should win a design award.”8
For the period the building has been open, its upkeep has, indeed, proved expensive. According to figures published in September 2006, the cost of repair and maintenance soared from £352,370 a year in the parliament’s temporary offices, to £749,011 at its official home.
This was not made any better by a 12ft oak beam swinging loose from the ceiling that March, which led to the parliament being temporarily relocated for six months and a bill of £500,000. The continuing expense of preventing and removing pigeons nesting in the roof has, as well, caused a good deal of contention in the local press.
Furthermore, in June 2006, ministers were forced to admit breaking European rules, having selected Miralles’s design without the architect having an adequate level of professional insurance cover.
A member of the panel that chose the design has, though, defended their decision. The Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark responded to its inclusion on Demolition, saying: “I think it’s a terrific building. Sometimes you grow to like these things. Maybe people who want to see the Scottish parliament demolished will find it grows on them.”7
But with the building’s continuously high cost of maintenance, this growing period — for Scottish taxpayers at least — may last a long while yet. (Last edited: 20 May 2008)
- Further images:
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- Notes and references:
- ^ Rt Hon Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, The Holyrood Inquiry (Edinburgh: Scottish parliament, 15 September 2004).
- ^ Jay Merrick, “A craggy, wild collage of forms to create an earthy idea of nationhood” Independent, 8 September 2004.
- ^ Jonathan Glancey, “Homage to Catalonia” Guardian, 11 August 2003.
- ^ Deyan Sudjic and Charles Jencks, “Can we still believe in iconic buildings” Prospect, June 2005.
- ^ “Eden Project is crowned as the ‘UK’s most loved modern building’ by British public” (London: ConstructionSkills press realease, 13 December 2005). (pdf)
- ^ Louise Gray, “Prince Charles views Holyrood” Scotsman, 31 May 2006.
- a b David Smith, “Holyrood? Pull the vile thing down” Observer, 7 August 2005.
- ^ Ian Swanson, “Holyrood in running for best … and worst awards” Edinburgh Evening News, 18 August 2005.
- Other sources:
- “What architectural awards has the Scottish Parliament building won?” Scottish parliament. [accessed 6 May 2008]
- Ian Swanson, “£8000 a year to give parliament’s pigeons the bird” Edinburgh Evening News, 3 January 2008.
- “£414m bill for Holyrood building” BBC, 21 February 2007.
- Ian Swanson, “Parliament’s maintenance bill doubles after Holyrood move” Edinburgh Evening News, 16 September 2006.
- Louise Gray, “It’s fixed — now who pays bill?” Scotsman, 6 September 2006.
- “Rules broken over choice of Miralles as Holyrood architect” Scotsman, 26 June 2006.
- Ian Swanson, “It’s unsafe but parliament still has architecture fans beaming” Edinburgh Evening News, 3 April 2006.
- “Building for the future” BBC, 7 April 1999.
- Further reading:
- Peter MacMohan, “Holyrood seeks ‘closure’ over its £414 million fiasco” Scotsman, 22 February 2007.
- Michael Fry, “Scotland alone” Prospect, December 2006.
- Clive Aslet, “Divided we stand” Telegraph, 4 December 2006.
- Matt Weaver, “The truth about those iconic buildings: the roofs leak, they’re dingy and too hot” Guardian, 14 October 2006.
- Angus Macleod and Lewis Smith, “Parliament’s rooftop pests prove adept at dodging the deterrents” The Times, 29 September 2006.
- Deyan Sudjic, “Ugly or not, our buildings shouldn’t face trial by TV” Observer, 14 August 2005.
- Fiona Govan, “The buildings we hate most in Britain revealed” Telegraph, 8 August 2005.
- Jonathan Glancey, “Reassuringly expensive” Guardian, 31 May 2004.
- Tom Brown, “Now Scotland has its very own Dome” New Statesman, 2 July 2001.
- External links:
