Architecture Notes
Event ID 806916
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Architecture Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/806916
ARCHITECT: Benson + Forsyth 1998
Partners: Gordon Benson, Alan Forsyth.
Architectural team: Kevin Adams, John Cannon, Ian Carson, Eleanor de Zoysa, Catriona Hill, Annabelle Henderson, Jim Hutcheson, Debby Kuypers, Reza Schuster, Peter Wilson.
Announcement of government funding commitment of #30 million by the Secretary of State for Scotland, 1989. First turf cut 30 April 1993. Fitting out to be funded by donation, leading to establishment of Museum of Scotland Project, from 7 July 1994. Large donation from the Heinz family, and contributions from US St Andrews societies. RIAS competition attracted c.347 anonymous entries. Announcement of winning scheme August 1991. Runner-up Ulrike Wilke with James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates; other short-listed schemes by Peter Haddon and Partners, McMorran and Gatehouse, Burrell Foley Fischer, and Michael Squire Associates. Contract awarded March 1995. Work begun on site 10 January 1996. Opened by Her Majesty the Queen, St Andrew's Day 1998. Total cost: #44,850,000.
Newsletter of the Museum of Scotland Campaign 1994-8; Museums Journal 1996; A J 1991
Designed to house National Museums of Scotland's entire Scottish collection. Intended to allude to Scottish traditional forms, from brochs to nineteenth century urban developments. Chambers Street and George IV Bridge facades clad in honey-coloured clashach stone. #4m stonework contract carried out by Stirling Stone Group. Entrance housed in circular tower, at the junction of five streets, echoing the form of the Halfmoon Battery, Edinburgh Castle; contains stairs, service spaces, members' room, boardroom, reception suit, and private roof terrace. Galleries arranged to lead visitors up through building, from basement to roof, passing through consecutive historical eras from prehistory to the present. Early People Exhibition (in basement) designed by James Simpson and Lee Boyd Partnership, featuring the work of Eduardo Paolozzi and Andy Goldsworthy. Twentieth-century gallery focuses on history of household objects. Exhibits include 11-metre high Newcomen engine and the Solemn League and Covenant. Building incorporates 7,000 sq metres of display space, restaurant, and temporary exhibition gallery surrounding a triangular, top-lit court, open to the museum's full height. Boat-shaped roof, providing views of Edinburgh Castle, the Old Town, and Arthur's Seat. Extensive use of a white sand/cement render. Structural engineer: Anthony Hunt Associates. M&E engineer: Waterman Gore. Lighting: Kevin Shaw Lighting, Butler and Young. Landscape architects: Turnbull Jefferey Partnership.
M Jones 1995; A J 1991,1998; RIAS 2000; R Murphy 1999; D Singmaster 1998
