Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
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The sunken courtyard is inspired by the Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto
Keith Hunter Download Original
Phase 1 of the project (Bill Scott Sculpture Centre) contains metal, stone, wood and mixed-media workshops with 30 ‘garret’ studios sitting on top. Phase 2 (Creative Laboratories) comprises 12 external sculpture bays divided by concrete piers.
The primary structure is in-situ concrete, the bays of the concrete frame forming a cloister around the perimeter of the external space. The bays provide a basic infrastructure that can be used as temporary working spaces, areas for storage or exhibition, or to build more permanent internal studios at a later date. The concrete frame allows the opportunity to cast in fixing points for other structures.
The continuous, gently folded roof is clad with bricks; its surface folds around the outside of the inner frame forming the external skin to the new building. The concrete colonnade is managed on the south side with a cantilevered soffit to let the cloister remain uncluttered as a workspace.
An open-ended rectangular cloister has a trapezoidal-planned café block and a triangular-planned tower placed strategically at that open east end, with their angled sides gathering the approach to the courtyard. The tower, which is brick with a concrete skin lining the interior, is completely hollow, and acts as a beacon for, and gateway to, this low-lying public space.
Data
- Begun: Jan 2010
- Completed: Nov 2014
- Floor area: 1,160m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £3.1M
- Procurement: Traditional SBCC (Phase 1 altered to allow for Gross Max Price)
- Address: 21 Hawthornvale, Edinburgh, EH6 4JT, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Sutherland Hussey Harris
- Client: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
- Consultant and Structural Engineer: David Narro Associates
- Project manager: Thomson Bethune
- Quantity surveyor: Thomson Bethune
- M&E Engineers: AECOM
- Landscape architect: Liane Bauer
- CDM Co-ordinator: Thomson Bethune
- Main contractor: Graham Construction
- Main contractor: Maxi Construction
- CAD software used: Bentley Microstation
- CAD software used: Graphisoft ArchiCAD