Holyrood in running for best . . and worst awards

Published on Thursday 18 August 2005 12:29

THE £431 million Scottish Parliament at Holyrood is in the running to be named the best new building - but also the worst.

Two separate programmes to be screened on Channel 4 this autumn, fronted by the same presenter, could hand the parliament the UK's most prestigious architecture prize, but also reveal it to be the building people would most like to see demolished.

Enric Miralles' Holyrood design is one of six projects shortlisted for the Stirling prize, awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects and due to be presented by designer, presenter and author Kevin McCloud at the Museum of Scotland on October 15 and televised live.

But the parliament is also among the top 12 nominations for the public's most hated building in Channel 4's Demolition series, also presented by Kevin McCloud, pictured right, and expected to be shown in November.

Critics today said the ironic co-incidence highlighted the gulf between the architects' view of the building and the public perception.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said: "The parliament's appearance on the shortlist for both of these quite contradictory programmes tells us in a nutshell more about the Scottish Parliament than screeds and screeds of words.

"Is it to be judged as a work of art or as a functional and effective building?

"On the first, the jury is split 50-50. Some people think it's a wonderful piece of art and architecture and other people don't like it or like the inside, but not the outside.

"On whether it does the job functionally, I think it is ludicrous to suggest it meets the expectations and promises that were made for it.

"It is proving very expensive to maintain and clean and repair and the number of design flaws which are being discovered on a regular basis would make most people question whether it should win a design award."

She said the public in general appeared to have a down-to-earth view of the building.

"They recognise it has cost at least twice what it should have cost, but that we are stuck with it and we have to make the best of it. But it sometimes rubs salt in the wound of such sensible people to have experts who are anxious to defend their profession tell us that it's the best artifice since Noah's Ark."

Liberal Democrat MSP Donald Gorrie said people who had seen the inside of the parliament were more likely to like it.

"If you did a poll of the people who have been round the place, more would probably approve than disapprove."

But he said it was "an architect's building, not a user's building". And he added: "Bits of it are quite interesting, but it still seems an appalling waste of money."

The parliament has already won several awards. But it has been rated an outsider to win the Stirling prize, with the bookies preferring the McLaren Technology Centre in Surrey or the Jubilee Library in Brighton. And it has scored surprisingly high in the nominations for the Demolition programme, along with the Birmingham Rotunda, the Imax cinema in Bournemouth and a multi-storey car park in Gateshead.

Peter Wilson, director of the Manifesto foundation for architecture at Napier University, said: "The nature of architectural awards is they are given by other architects to their peers, and the politics of the profession is inevitably involved.

"The Demolition programme is very much a public vote.

"The paradox is, for a parliament which represents a new form of democracy in Scotland, politicians are happy to listen to architects voting for each other, rather than the public perception of the building."