Parlamento de Edimburgo
Enric Miralles
SCOTLAND IS A LAND ... IT IS NOT A SERIES OF CITIES.
The Parliament should be able to reflect the land, which it represents.
THE OPEN SITE...
This is a crucial image in understanding the possibilities of the site.
The land itself will be a material, a physical building material. We would like the qualities that the peat gives to the water and turf were the basis for the new Parliament.
This is a way of making a conceptual distance from Holyrood Palace. Whereas the Palace is a building set on the landscape, related to the gardening tradition, the Scottish Parliament would be slotted into the land.
The perception of the place and the scale of the site will change drastically when the end of Canon Gate is opened.
The small scale of the houses along the Canon Gate will appear again and distant views will open to the Robert Burns Monument and the rock of Arthur's seat.
The new Scottish Parliament should not impair these vistas which will become visible when the existing Brewery is demolished.
Small scale and long distance views, like the attentive eye of the John Knox building on the Royal Mile, offer a new field of vision.
THE PARLIAMENT SITS IN THE LAND,
because it belong to the Scottish land.
This is our goal.
From the outset we have worked with the intuition that individual identification with land carries collective consciousness and sentiments.
We don't want to forget that the Scottish Parliament will be in Edinburgh, but will belong to Scotland, to the Scottish land. 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.
THE SEATS OF THE PARLIAMENT ARE
A FRAGMENT OF A LARGE AMPHITHEATRE
WHERE CITIZENS CAN SIT ON THE LANDSCAPE.
It is a diagram that could be built in many ways
The social form could have many 'forms'
The natural amphitheatre will be the first form in the land. We hope that what emerges from this form is a series of identifications between the building and the land, between land and citizens, between citizens and the building. Not just and 'image' but a physical representation of a participatory attitude to sit together -gathering.
How is it going to be fundamentally distinct from other European Parliaments?
Instead of an overwhelming monument, which only relates to dimensions and rhetorical forms, we like to think about it in terms of a psychological approach.
What is the mental image of the new Parliament?
How will all of us, citizens, relate in our mind to the new Parliament?
The Parliament should belong to a broader concept. The specific place should not be crucial. The Parliament building should come out of a clear and strong statement
in a way independent of site circumstances
Any strong statement should carry political implications
The Parliament is a form in people's mind. It is a mental place. That place should be expressed in the site. We have the feeling that the building should be land
built out of land
To carve in the land the form of gathering people together.
Neither a building in a park nor a garden.
Citizens, sitting, resting, thinking but in a similar place and position as members of Parliament.
From our recollections of Scotland we find these images that stick in our minds.
The boats offered by the land.
We like these boats not only in their construction, but also in their dedicate presence in a place.
Something about their form floating in the landscape should be a part of our project.
Joan Callis
Escocia
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT, Edinburgh, UK
First Prize in competition, May 1998
Finished October 2004
Architects: Enric Miralles, Benedetta Tagliabue
EMBT Arquitectes Associats, S.L.
in a joint venture with
RMJM Scotland LTD, M.A.H Duncan, T.B. Stewart
EMBT Staff for the Competition:
Joan Callis, project leader.
Constanza Chara, Omer Arbel, Fabian Asunción, Steven Bacaus, Michael Eichhorn, Christopher Hitz, Francesco Mozzati.
Leonardo Giovanozzi, Fergus Mc Ardle, Fernanda Hannah, Annie Marcela Henao, Ricardo Jimenez
EMBT Staff for the Project:
Joan Callis, project leader.
Karl Unglaub, site architect
Constanza Chara Umberto Viotto, Michael Eichhorn, Fabian Asunción, Fergus Mc Ardle, Sania Belli , Gustavo Silva Nicoletti, Vicenzo Franza , Antonio Benaduce, Andrew Vrana, Bernardo Ríos, Torsten Skoetz, Tomoko Sakamoko, Javier García Germán,.
Annie Marcela Henao, Christian Molina Angel Gaspar Caspado, Nadja Pröwer, Sania Belli, Pedro Ogesto Vallina, Leonardo Giovannozzi, Sara Hay, Marco Santini, Francesco Matucci, Cristiane Felber, Marco de la Porta, Sonia Henriques, Luciano Di Romanico, Jan Locke, Christine Stauss, Sandra Stecklina, Simone Brussaferi, Claudia Lucchini, Stefan Geenen, Ignacio Quintana, Kristina Kinder, Franziska Bartsh, Adam Strong, Patricia Giacobbe, Rafael du Montard, Florencia Vechter.
EMBT staff for the Executive Project:
Joan Callis, project leader.
Karl Unglaub, site architect
Constanza Chara, Umberto Viotto, Eugenio Cirulli, Fergus Mc Ardle, Leonardo Giovannozzi, Francesco Matucci, Emanuele Bottigella, Torsten Skoetz, Albert Nasser, Jorge Rollán Raffin, Griet Lambrechts, Sandy Brunner, Péter Sándor Nagy.
publications, articles
BUILDING, N.39 September 2001. "Scottish Parliament".
Pg.38-45. (The Builder
Group, London, 2001).
PROSPECT, N.80." july-august 2001."Article about the Scottish
Parliament'
film made by Murray Grigor". Pg. 9. ( Carnyx Group Ltd.Glasgow
2001).
PROSPECT, N.78." March-April 2001."Scottish Parliament".
Pg. 14-19. Text by
Penny Lewis. ( Carnyx Group Ltd.Glasgow 2001).
PASAJES Arquitectura y Crítica, N.20, October 2000. "Enric
Miralles:
Miralles:Being.Text by Manuel Gausa. Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh,
Faculty of Architecture in Venice, Gas Natural Building in
Barcelona,.University Campus at Vigo", pp 28-42. (Editorial América
Ibérica,
Madrid).
PROSPECT The Voice of Scottish Architecture and Design, Issue. 73, May-
June 2000. " Scottish Parliament" Text by Hugh Pearman. (
Carnyx Group,
Glasgow 2000).
PROSPECT, The Voice of Scottish Architecture and Design, N.73
"Scottish
Parliament" text by Hugh Pearman. pp.18-20., ( Edited by Carnyx
Group Ltd
and RIAS, Glasgow, May-June 2000).
BAUWELT, N.17, 5th May 2000."Edinburgh Neubau des schottischen
Parlaments",
pp 2, ( Bertelsmann Fachzeitschriften GmbH, Berlin, Germany, 2000).
BARCELONA,metrnpolis mediterrrnia.N. 50 January-March 2000 p.p.
46-47."Barcelona exporta arquitectura". Music School, Hamburg.
Utrecht City Hall, Holland. Scottish Parliament, United Kindom. Text by Anatxu
Zabalbeascoa. p.p. 79 "opinió de 22 artistes i professionals: La
cultura
al llindar del nou mil.lenni".(Ajuntament de Barcelona).
NEW ARCHITECTURE, N.4, "British Architecture into the Millenium,
The
Scottish Parliament", p.p.113-117, (Andreas Papadakis Publisher,
London,
January 2000).
AV. MONOGRAFÍAS. Espana. N. 75-76, Yearbook 1999 January - April, 1999.
"Catalán in Caledonia", New Scottish Parliament", pp
178-181. (Arquitectura
Viva, Madrid, Espana, 1999).
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY. N.111, Enric Miralles interviewed by Margaret
Morrison
at his home in Barcelona. p.p.17-21. (Spectrum Magazine, 14th November
1999,
UK).
GA DOCUMENT, INTERNATIONAL 99, vol 60 November 1999..(A.D.A. EDITA Tokio
Co., Ltd. Japan). "Focus on architect" Enric Miralles
Benedetta Tagliabue.
Projects:
Pg. 100-107, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh.
HINGE, vol. 52, 1999. Scottish Parliament development, Edinburgh, UK,pp
22
(Editorial and Art Production, Hinge Marketing Ltd, Hong Kong).
SCOOP, september 1998. "Building the parliament for
Scotland"", cover page,
pp 9-10 (The Scotish Office, Scotland, september 1998).
