Pyramid at Loch Lomond among winners of architecture prize

Pyramid Viewpoint overlooking Loch Lomond was praised. Picture: Contributed

The 11 winners of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) award ranged from major business hubs to isolated look-out points and innovative houses.

Castle MacLellan Foods, in Kirkcudbright, scooped a prize for its innovative design of an industrial building, while the 135,000 sq ft office buildings at 1 West Regent Street, in Glasgow, showcased a way of preserving a listed building while transforming it into something modern.

Rural designs were well represented with praise for the Pyramid Viewpoint, a wooden stack first seen amongst the trees, offering only a glimpse of Loch Lomond through a long tunnel.

Visitors to the Forsinard Lookout Tower, in Sutherland, will be offered striking views of the blanket peat bogs and pools from a tower built like an oil rig on stilts above a solid base.

The Zinc-House, in Angus, used a collection of abandoned farm sheds on the site, while a striking glass box extension was used on the back of a property in Edinburgh known as ‘it’s bigger on the inside’.

Willie Watt, RIAS president, said: “It seems appropriate, in this RIAS Centenary year, that we have such a strong and diverse list of winners.

“Our awards celebrate the very best that is being built in Scotland. This is a tremendous list which goes in scale from a small house extension/reconfiguration to major education provision.

“Unusually, there are no Islands represented on this year’s list but geographically they extend from a factory in Dumfriesshire to a lookout tower in Sutherland.

“This is a list that fully demonstrates the privilege of living in our magnificent wee country and just how architects have embraced the responsibility that brings with it.”