Architect: Enric Miralles, Benedetta Tagliabue, Embt Arquitectes Associats

“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.”
Enric Miralles

The new Scottish Parliament building will house Scotland's first independent Parliament in nearly 300 years.
The competition, won by Enric Miralles in 1998, was to select an architect to work with in developing the project, not for a finished design.
The brief was still being developed recognizing that the client would change in 1999 when the new Parliament came into being.

The site is located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's Old Town, opposite the Royal Palace at Holyrood, next to Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags.

Image © The Scottish parliament

Drawing inspiration from the surrounding landscape, the flower paintings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the upturned boats on the seashore for the roofs, Miralles developed a design that he said was a building “sitting in the land” .

Seen in plan the Parliament is growing out of the site like a huge flower with the leaves forming the different structures.
Structures covered with grass will run right up to the edge of the Debating Chamber building emphasizing the impression of the Parliament “sitting in the land”.
Garden paths and a series of ponds link all the buildings to the landscape around the four acre site.

The complex will incorporate the Debating Chamber building, four Tower buildings containing committee rooms, briefing rooms and staff offices, the MSP building, the Cannongate buildings, a Media building and a large skylit Foyer.
The Queensberry House, a 17th century “A” listed building located on the site, is being refurbished as part of the project.

foto: arcspace

The MSP Building, housing 105 MSPs and their staff, is six storeys high at the north end, stepping down to four stories at the south end.
The windows are stainless steel, framed in oak, with latice oak sunscreens on some of the windows.