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The Scottish Parliament building in April 2006

The Scottish Parliament Building is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Edinburgh. The Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) held their first debate in the building on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 with the formal opening by Queen Elizabeth II took place on October 9, 2004. Enric Miralles, the Catalan architect who designed the building died during the course of its construction.[1]

From 1999 until its opening in 2004, the Scottish Parliament was temporarily housed in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland located on The Mound in Edinburgh. Office and administrative accommdation in support of the Parliament was provided in buildings leased from Edinburgh City Council. The new Scottish Parliament Building brought together these different elements into one purpose built parliamentary complex, housing 129 MSPs and over 1000 parliamentary staff and civil servants.[2]

From the outset, the building and its construction has proven to be highly controversial.[3] The choice of ___location, architect, design and construction company have all been criticised by politicians, the media and the Scottish public.[4] Having been scheduled for opening in 2001,[4] when it finally opened, the building was over three years late with an estimated final cost of £431m,[5] substantially higher than initial costings of between £10m and £40m.[4]

Location

Comprising an area of 4 acres, with a perimeter of 480m,[6] the site of the parliament building is located 1km east of Edinburgh city centre in the Old Town of Edinburgh.[7] The large site previously housed the headquarters of the Scottish and Newcastle brewery which were demolished to make way for the construction of the parliament building. The boundary of the site is marked by the Canongate stretch of the Royal Mile on its northern side, Horse Wynd on its eastern side, in front of the public entrance to the building and Reid's Close on its western side. Reid's Close connects the Canongate and Holyrood Road on the southwestern side of the complex. The south eastern side of the complex is bounded by the Our Dynamic Earth visitor attraction which opened in July 1999, and Queen's Drive which fringes the slopes of the Salisbury Crags.

In the immediate vicinity of the parliament building is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the official Scottish residence of the Queen and is bordered by the broad expanse of Holyrood Park. To the south of the parliamentary complex are the steep slopes of the Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. The Holyrood area, to the west of the site, has been extensively redeveloped since 1998, with retail, hotel and office developments including the new offices of The Scotsman group being constructed in recent years.

Project history

File:Finalmodel.jpg
The final design model of the Scottish Parliament Building, unveiled in September 1999.

Following the "Yes" vote on establishing a Scottish Parliament after a referendum in 1997, the Scottish Office, led by the then Secretary of State for Scotland Donald Dewar decided that a new purpose built facility would be constructed in Edinburgh, to house the Scottish Parliament.[8]

Initially, 3 sites in and around Edinburgh were considered as possible locations for the building, including St Andrews House then home of the Scottish Office - later the Scottish Executive; Victoria Quay at Leith docks and Haymarket in the west end of the city.[8] The Holyrood site was not an early contender as it was deemed that it would not be ready in the required timescale. However negotiations with Scottish and Newcastle, who owned the site, resulted in the company indicating that they would be able to vacate the site in early 1999. As a consequence the Secretary of State for Scotland agreed that the Holyrood site merited inclusion on the shortlist of sites.[8] The Scottish Office commissioned feasibility studies of the specified sites in late 1997 and in January 1998, the Holyrood site was selected from the shortlist.[9]

Following on from the site selection, the Scottish Office announced that an international competition would be held to find a designer for a new building to house the parliament. A design team was appointed under the chairmanship of Dewar and was tasked with choosing from a shortlist of proposed designs. Designs were submitted from world famous architects such as Rafael Vinoly, Michael Wilford and Richard Meier.[10] Twelve designs were selected in March 1998, which was whittled down to five by the following May, with the five final designs put on public display throughout Scotland in June 1998. Feedback from the public displays showed that the designs of the Catalan architect Enric Miralles were amongst the most popular.[8] The design team took account of public opinion on the designs[8] and invited all 5 shortlisted entrants to make presentations on their proposed designs before announcing a winner.

On 6 July 1998, it was declared that the design of Enric Miralles was chosen, with work being awarded to EMBT/RMJM (Scotland) Ltd, a Spanish-Scottish joint venture design company, specifically created for the project. Construction on the building commenced in June 1999, with the demolition of the Scottish and Newcastle brewery and the beginning of foundation work to support the structure. MSP's began to move into the building in the Summer of 2004, with the offical opening by the Queen taking place in October of the same year.

Building features

File:HolyroodStart.jpg
An aerial view of the Scottish Parliament Building complex. The red tiles of Queensberry House are visible between the MSP Office block at the back of the complex and the Tower and Canongate Buldings at the front which house the debating chamber and committee rooms.

The Parliament Building is actually a campus of several buildings, reflecting different architectural styles, with a total floor area of 31,000 m² (312,000 square feet),[11] providing accommodation for MSPs, their researchers and parliamentary staff. The building is comprised of a variety of features, with the roof of Tower Builings said to be reminiscent of upturned boats on the shoreline. It is said that in the first design meeting, Miralles, armed with some twigs and leaves, thrust them onto a table and declared "This is the Scottish Parliament"[12] reinforcing the unique and abstact nature of the parliamentary campus. Miralles also stated that:

The Parliament should be able to reflect the land it represents. The building should arise from the sloping base of Arthur's seat and arrive into the city almost surging out of the rock.

— 

    1. px, in Enric Miralles 1999, [13], ##px

As a consequence the building has many features connected to nature and land, such as the leaf shaped motifs of the roof in the Garden Lobby of the building, and the large windows of the debating chamber, committee rooms and the Tower Buildings which face the broad expanse of Holyrood Park, Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags. Inside the buildings, the connection to the land is symbolised by the use of Scottish rock such as gneiss and granite in the flooring and walls, and the use of oak and sycamore in the construction of the furniture.

Debating Chamber

 
View of debating chamber from the gallery.

The Debating Chamber contains a shallow horseshoe of seating for the MSPs, with the governing party sitting in the middle of the semicircle and opposition parties on either side, similar to other European legislatures. Such an elliptical layout, blurring political divisions, principally reflects the desire to encourage consensus amongst elected members.[14] This is contrasted with the "adverserial" layout, reminiscent of other Westminster style national legislatures including the British House of Commons, where government and opposition sit across from one another. There are 131 desks and chairs on the floor of the chamber for all the elected members of the Scottish Parliament and members of the Scottish Executive. The desks are constructed out of oak and sycamore and are fitted with a lectern, microphone and in-built speakers as well as the electronic voting equipment used by MSPs. Galleries above the main floor can also accommodate a total of 255 members of the public, 18 guests, and 34 members of the press. The roof structure, is supported by a structure of laminated oak beams joined at a total of 112 stainless steel connectors (each slightly different), which in turn are suspended on steel rods from the walls. Such a structure enables the debating chamber to span over 30m, without any supporting columns. In entering the chamber, MSPs pass under a stone lintel - the Arniston Stone - that was once part of the pre-1707 parliament building, Parliament Hall. The use of the Arniston Stone in the structure of the debating chamber symbolises the connection between the historical Parliament of Scotland and the present day Scottish Parliament.[15] Cut into the western wall of the debating chamber are laminated glass panels, of different shapes, intended to give a human dimension to the chamber.[14] At night, light is shone through the glass panels and is projected onto the MSPs desks to create the impression that the chamber is never unoccupied.[14]

MSP building

 
The distinctive windows of the MSP building inspired by Henry Raeburn's famous painting - the Skating Minister.

The MSP building is connected to the Tower Buildings by way of the "Garden Lobby" and stands at the western end of the parliamentary complex, adjoining Reid's Close.[16] The block contains offices for each MSP and two members of staff, fitted out with custom designed furniture.[16] The building is between four and six storeys in height, and is clad in granite mosaic.[16] MSPs occupy 108 of the total 114 rooms in the building.[16] The most distinctive feature of the MSP block is its unusual windows which project out from the building onto the west elevation of the parliamentary complex, said to be inspired by Henry Raeburn's painting "The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch".[17] In each office, these bay windows have a window seat and shelving, which have been called "contemplation spaces" or "think pods".[16] Constructed from stainless steel and framed in oak, with oak lattices covering the front of the windows, the windows are designed to provide MSPs with privacy and shade from the sun.[16] Criticism has been levelled, at the design of the windows, by the MSPs themselves who cite that the design blocks out natural light from their offices.[17] To remove the uniformity from the western side of the building, the windows jut out from the western façade of the building at different widths and angles.[16] At its north end, the building is six storeys high (ground floor plus five) stepping down to four storeys (ground floor plus three) at the south end.[16] Each office is divided into two parts - one for the MSP, with a floor space of 15 square metres[16] and another part for their staff, which has a floor space of 12 square metres.[16]

Other buildings

Four tower buildings fan out along the front, or eastern edge of the parliamentary complex and are notable for the curvature of their roofs. The Tower Building is home to the public entrance to the Scottish Parliament and to the Main Hall and is located on the eastern side of the parliamentary complex, beneath the debating chamber. A stone vaulted ceiling is the principal feature of the Main Hall, which has cross like representations carved into it reminiscent of the Scottish saltire - the national flag of Scotland. The main hall contains permanent exhibtions on the role of the Scottish Parliament, as well as public seating, visitor information desk, shop, lockers and creche. Like much of the parliamentary complex, the materials used to construct the Main Hall and its vaulted ceiling include Kemnay Granite from Aberdeenshire in north east Scotland and Caithness stone which is used in much of the flooring in the buildings. Connected to the Tower Buildings in the eastern portion of the complex is the Canongate Buildings, which house the IT and procurement departments of the parliament building as well as media offices and the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe). The centrepiece of the Canongate Building is a two-storey cantilever structure, with the building connected at one end by reinforced concrete and 18m of the building suspended above ground and protruding outwards unsupported by any columns.[18]

Originally dating from 1667, Queensberry House is an example of a seventeenth century Georgian Edinburgh townhouse, and contrasts with the modern architecture of the rest of the parliamentary complex.[19] For much of its modern history, Queensberry House was variously used as a hospital, army barracks refuge and geriatric hospital.[19] In 1996, the geriatric hospital closed and the building was incorporated into the Scottish and Newcastle brewery, who owned the surrounding site. The building has been extensively refurbished, and returned to its original height of 3 storeys to provide facilities for the Presiding Officer, Deputy Presiding Officers, the Chief Executive, and various parliamentary support staff. Internally and externally the building has been strengthened, with reinforced steel and concrete throughout. The original timber flooring has been replaced throughout with a mixture of carpet, vinyl, oak and Caithness stone.[19] Queensberry House also contains the Donald Dewar Room, dedicated to the first First Minister of Scotland who died in October 2000. The room hosts the personal collection of books and other memorablia donated to the Parliament, by the family of Donald Dewar after his death.[20]

The Garden Lobby is the centre of the complex and connects the debating chamber, committee rooms and administrative offices of the Tower Buildings, with Queensberry House and the MSP building.

Artwork and features

 
The Canongate Wall facade of the parliamentary complex has quotations inscribed onto pieces of rock.

On many of the buildings there are a series of 'trigger panels', constructed out of timber or granite. These have been variously said to represent anvils, hairdryers, guns, question marks or even the hammer and sickle, but shortly after the building's official opening Enric Miralles' widow, Benedetta Tagliabue, revealed that the design is simply that of a window curtain pulled back.[21]

Beneath the façade Canongate Building is the Canongate Wall, constructed from a variety of indigenous Scottish rocks such as Lewisian gneiss, Torridian sandstone and Easdale slate. The stones are set into large concrete casts, with each stone inscribed with a quotation. There are a total of 24 quotations[22] on the Canongate Wall. Etched along the lower stretch of the wall is a pictoral representation of the Old Town of Edinburgh based around a sketch by Enric Miralles showing the view of the Old Town as seen from his bedroom window in the Balmoral Hotel.[22]

The Main Hall of the parliament contains a number of distinctive features and sculptures, including the gold plated "Honours of Scotland" sculpture in the public area of the parliament. Presented by the Queen, upon the opening of the parliament building, the sculpture is based on the actual Honours of Scotland - the crown, sceptre and the sword of the state and combines these three separate elements into one composition.[23] During meetings of the original Parliament of Scotland, the actual Honours were always present but since 1819 have been permanently housed in Edinburgh Castle.[23]

Reaction and Controversy

Public reaction to the design of the building has been mixed. In the first 6 months of the building being open to the public, 250,000 people visited the building, which Presiding Officer George Reid has said showed the public were "voting with their feet" [1]. Critics of the building, such as Margo MacDonald, have pointed at that the high number of visitors do not prove that all of them like the building. Architectural critics have generally given the building highly favourable reviews.

The building has won a number of awards, including an award at the VIII Biennial of Spanish Architecture, RIAS Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture, and, most notably, the Stirling Prize, Britain's highest architecture award. The inclusion of the Scottish Parliament Building onto the shortlist for the Stirling Prize in 2004, led the judges describing the building as "a statement of sparkling excellence"[24]

 
The construction of Enric Miralles' elaborate new Scottish Parliament Building adjacent to Holyrood Park. The red tiled building is Queensberry House. Above and behind the new parliament is the neoclassical Royal High School, which was prepared for a devolved Scottish Assembly in the 1970s, but because of a failed referendum it was never used.
 
View of the Parliament building from Calton Hill, with Arthur's seat in the background
 
View from Reid's Close of MSPs offices (left), plus the Salisbury Crags and the Our Dynamic Earth building (centre)

The construction of the Parliament Building proved controversial in a number of respects: the decision to construct a new building, the choice of site, the selection of a non-Scottish architect, the selection of Bovis as construction manager after having earlier been excluded from the shortlist, and serious cost and time overruns.

The then Secretary of State for Scotland Donald Dewar was adamant that a new building should be provided for the new Parliament. Work commenced in late 1997 with the demolition of a brewery on the chosen site. The alternative site of the Royal High School was rejected on grounds of size and ___location.

The project was also complicated by the deaths in 2000 of Miralles and Dewar, and existence of a multi-headed client (consisting of the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body, the Presiding Officer, and an architectural advisor), who took over the project from the Scottish Executive (formerly the Scottish Office) while it was already under construction.

By March 2004 the architects had issued around 18,000 orders for changes in the design, and the cost had reached the sum of 430 million pounds (compared to an original budget of 55 million in July 1998 when the architects were appointed). This equates to 85 pounds for each of the five million people in Scotland [2]. Final costs are expected to come in around £470 million once teething problems have been ironed out in the building's first year.

Fraser Inquiry

In May 2003 First Minister Jack McConnell announced a major public inquiry into the handling of the building project, headed by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie. The inquiry was held at the Land Court in Edinburgh and took evidence from architects, civil servants, politicians and the building companies.

In presenting his report in September 2004, Lord Fraser stated that he was astonished that year after year the ministers who were in charge were kept so much in the dark over the increases in cost estimates. He also stated that the building could never have been built for 50 million pounds, and that he was amazed that the belief that it could be was perpetuated for so long. He believed that from at least April 2000, when MSPs commissioned the Spencely Report to decide whether the building should continue, it should have been realised that the building was bound to cost in excess of 200 million pounds. Furthermore, approximately 150 million pounds of the final cost was wasted as a result of design delays, over-optimistic programming and uncertain authority.

Among the criticisms were:

  • Despite having only an outline design, the designers RMJM/EMBT (Scotland) Ltd stated without foundation that the building could be completed within a 50 million pound budget. Despite that, they were apparently believed by officials. The two architectural practices in the RMJM and EMBT joint venture operated dysfunctionally, and failed to communicate effectively with each other and the project manager. The death of Miralles also gave rise to a substantial period of disharmony.
  • The Brief emphasised the importance of design and quality over quality and programme, and was not updated despite considerable evolution of the design.
  • Ministers were not informed of grave concerns within the Scottish Office over the cost of the project, and officials failed to take the advice of the cost consultants.
  • The Scottish Office decided to let the construction work as a "construction management contract", rather than under the Private Finance Initiative in order to speed construction, but without properly evaluating the financial risks of doing so, and - in a decision that Fraser stated "beggars belief" - without asking Ministers to approve it. This was one of the two most flawed decisions.
  • The second most flawed decision was the insistence on a rigid programme. Officials decided that rapid delivery of the new building was to be the priority, but that quality should be maintained. It was therefore inevitable that the cost would suffer. The client was obsessed with early completion and failed to understand the impact on cost and completion date if high-quality work and a complex building were required. In attempting to achieve early completion, the management contractor produced optimistic programmes, to which the architects were unwise to commit. The main causes of the slippage were delays in designing a challenging project that was to be delivered against a tight timetable using an unusual procurement route.

Reaction to the report

Following the report Jack McConnell stated that the Fraser recommendations would be fully implemented, and that fundamental reform of the Civil Service was already underway, with trained professionals being recruited to handle such projects in future. John Elvidge, the top civil servant in Scotland, admitted that best practice had not been followed and apologised for the way the project had been handled. He did not rule out the possibility of taking disciplinary action against civil service staff.

Fraser recommendations

In his report, Lord Fraser set out a number of recommendations stemming from his inquiry. The recommendations cover the:

  1. Selection of designers, consultants or contractors
  2. Use of international architects
  3. Use of "construction management" contracts
  4. Importance of following European Union procurement rules
  5. Use of independent professional advisers
  6. Project governance
  7. Amendments to Scottish legislation
  8. Security measures
  9. Amendment of the procedures of the Scottish Parliament
  10. Importance of contracts, bonds and guarantees.

Further Problems

On March 2 2006, a beam in the roof of the Scottish Parliament collapsed during a debate, causing the evacuation of the debating chamber and the suspension of business.[25]

Parliament moved to other premises while the whole roof structure was inspected. and remedial works were carrried out. The structural engineers, Arup, stated that the problem with the collapsed beam was entirely due to the failure of one bolt and the absence of another. There was no design fault.

For two weeks following the collapse, full sessions of parliament moved to The Hub, a converted church near Edinburgh Castle. Subsequently, business shifted to two Holyrood committee rooms that were converted into a makeshift chamber for two weeks before the Easter recess. Business returned to the debating chamber on May 12.

The final snag list for Scottish Parliament building, made before responsibility for repairs passed from the building contractors to the parliament, identified 890 outstanding snags.

 
Debating chamber, showing the viewing gallery and roof construction.

Notes

  1. ^ "Scots Parliament architect dies". BBC. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  2. ^ "Staff Organisation". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  3. ^ "Speech by HM The Queen on the opening of the New Scottish Parliament building: - "Certainly this new parliament building has had a difficult and controversial birth."". Royal.gov.uk. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  4. ^ a b c "House of Commons Research Paper - Building the Scottish Parliament, The Holyrood Project" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  5. ^ "Corporate Body issues February Report to Finance Committee". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  6. ^ "About Holyrood - Project History; Site Selected". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  7. ^ "Map of ___location of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh". Multimap. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Timeline:Choosing a Site". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  9. ^ "Timeline:Holyrood". BBC. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  10. ^ "Designer Competition". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  11. ^ "Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh". Arup. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  12. ^ "Scottish Parliament, Holyrood". Enric Miralles, Network. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  13. ^ "Enric Miralles: The Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber". arcsoft.com. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
  14. ^ a b c "The Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber" (PDF). Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  15. ^ "Scottish Parliament, Debating Chamber". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Scottish Parliament, MSP Building". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  17. ^ a b "MSPs complain of daylight robbery". BBC. Retrieved 2006-12-06.
  18. ^ "The Scottish Parliament - Canongate Buildings". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
  19. ^ a b c "Queensberry House". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  20. ^ "Donald Dewar Room". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  21. ^ "Benedetta lifts curtain mystery". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  22. ^ a b "Scottish Parliament, Canongate Wall". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  23. ^ a b "Your questions answered - art". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  24. ^ "Scottish Parliament shortlisted for Stirling Prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  25. ^ "Holyrood Business halted by beam". BBC. Retrieved 2006-10-27.

References

  • Bain, S (2004): "Holyrood - The Inside Story", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-748620-65-6
  • Balfour, A & McCrone, G (2005): "Creating a Scottish Parliament", StudioLR, ISBN 0-955001-60-9
  • Black, D (2001): "All the First Minister's Men - The truth behind Holyrood", Birlinn, ISBN 1-841581-67-4
  • Dardanelli, P (2005): "Between Two Unions: Europeanisation and Scottish Devolution", Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-719070-80-5
  • Taylor, Brian (1999): "The Scottish Parliament", Polygon, Edinburgh, ISBN 1-902930-12-6
  • Taylor, Brian (2002): "The Scottish Parliament: The Road to Devolution", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-748617-59-0
  • Taylor, Brian (2002): "Scotland's Parliament, Triumph and Disaster", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-748617-78-7

See also

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish Parliament.
Parliament
The Fraser Report:
The architecture:

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