The Scottish Parliament
The building intents to conceive a poetic union between the Scottish landscape, its people, its culture and the city of Edinburgh. Miralles said: "The Parliament should be able to reflect the land it represents. The building should arise from the sloping base of Arthur's seat and arrive into the city almost surging out of the rock." Even though the building has generated controversy around the Scottish, it has won in 2005 the Stirling Prize, and it's a peace of great modern architecture.The construction (a mixture of pre-cast and in-situ cast concrete units) started in 1999, Enric Miralles died in 2000, and his second wife the architect Benedetta Tagliabue finished the building. It was finished 3 years later then scheduled and the costs were higher than initial estimates (but it changed a lot during construction and took longer to finish it).
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..given the nature of this project, where the brief and design changed dramatically in the course of (and in parallel to) construction on site, i personally think that in recognition of the events which occurred, the title of architect for this project should recognise the contribution by the scottish architects (rmjm scotland) who were key in continuing the development of the design and implimentation in detail of the concept of miralles. the success of the building as it was finally completed, in the face of epic obstacles and undermining of the design team (not least, by the client!), was testament to the special relationships formed and the investment of spirit, heart and determination to achieve a project worthy of miralles name, in tribute to his life, as his last project, (miralles dying tragically young, while the project's completion was not yet in sight on the horizon, and in significant risk of abandonment) (as a great number of the members of parliament constituting the client were calling for, in the context of their indignation at the difference of estimated final cost compared to the original cost projection, among other things)
i just felt the title of architect should rightly include rmjm, given that without the level of commitment which they demonstrated in this project, the end result could very easily have been something falling short of what it is, a landmark building of great cultural significance.
perhaps i might tend toward bias, not least for being scottish and having iberian heritage in my own family's lineage, but i feel that to title this project as it currently is, with rmjm as a mere footnote misrepresents the contribution they made in a project which is an example to any citizen of the world, of architecture at it's best, a collaboration transcending all the reasons 'why not', enriching everyone who visits it now, including the various lords, lawyers, politicians etc who argued for the project's abandoment, mid flow.
pak
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