Scottish Parliament
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Aerial view of the Scottish Parliament
Neil Bridge (website) Download Original
Complex incorporating a debating chamber building, four tower buildings containing committee rooms, staff offices, the MSP building and the Canongate buildings
Drawing inspiration from the surrounding landscape, the flower paintings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the upturned boats on the seashore, Enric Miralles developed a design that he described as a building 'growing out of the land'.
Structures covered with grass run right up to the edge of the Debating Chamber building with garden paths and a series of ponds that link the buildings to the landscape around the four acre site.
The design for the Parliament was required to reflect the 'principle of open government', alongside a high level of security measures designed to counter terrorist threats and prevent criminal intrusions, as well as controlling access to non-public areas of the building.
The building is constructed from a mixture of steel, oak, and granite.
Data
- Begun: Jul 1999
- Completed: 2004
- Floor area: 29,321m2
- Sector: Civic
- Total cost: £250M
- Tender date: 1998
- Address: The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: EMBT, RMJM
- Project architects: Benedetta Tagliabue, Enric Miralles
- Client: The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body
- Structural engineer: Arup
- Quantity surveyor: Davis Langdon
- Landscape architect: EMBT
- Landscape architect: RMJM
- Building services engineer: RMJM Scotland
- Acoustics: Sandy Brown Associates
- Main contractor: Lend Lease