Scottish Parliament Building

The Scottish Parliament Building stands in central Edinburgh beside the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It occupies a sloping site at the foot of Arthur’s Seat, the extinct volcano that dominates the city’s skyline. The complex brings together the debating chamber, committee rooms and offices for 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament and more than 1,000 staff. Before its completion the Parliament met in the General Assembly Hall on The Mound and in leased offices across the city. The architect Enric Miralles died in 2000, three years before the Queen opened the building in October 2004. The project became one of the most controversial in modern British architecture. Planned to cost between £10 million and £40 million, it finally reached £414 million and opened three years late. A public inquiry chaired by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie criticised every stage of the process, from rising costs to the way design changes were handled. Yet the building won the 2005 Stirling Prize and praise from critics such as Charles Jencks, who called it a ‘tour de force’ of quality craftsmanship. Its original lintel, rescued from the pre-1707 Parliament House, now crowns the debating chamber. Inside, the Garden Lobby greets visitors with leaf-shaped roof motifs and tall windows that frame Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags. Walls and floors use Scottish gneiss and granite, while oak and sycamore furnishings echo the surrounding landscape. The debating chamber and committee rooms open onto broad views of Holyrood Park, linking politics with nature. Outside, the low, organic forms of the buildings blend with the rugged terrain, creating an amphitheatre-like setting for public gatherings. The design deliberately avoids grand hierarchies, inviting visitors to move freely among its interconnected spaces.