Extension to Royal
Museum of Scotland, Chambers St, Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland
Museum of Scotland images © adrian welch 2006 with
lumix camera
Refurbishment, 2004
Controversy emerged (19.02.04) after a Blue banner proposal onto George
IV bridge:
Museum of Scotland: image supplied by Benson & Forsyth
Architects
"Changes made to the award- winning Museum of Scotland building have
been slammed by one of its original architects.
Museum of Scotland building - photo © adrian welch
The alterations have been branded "tacky, crude, cheap and inappropriate"
by Peter Wilson, the former project architect for the museum. He has hit
out at the use of DIY building materials such as MDF in changes to the
interior of £ 50m Museum of Scotland.
Museum of Scotland building - photo © adrian welch
Among other changes criticised by Mr Wilson was the removal of a large
stone desk from the museum’s vast reception area, Hawthornden Court,
which he said left it feeling like a railway station.
Alterations to spiral staircases, where MDF has been used to fill in gaps
between the stairs, were tacky, he said, and the removal of a key tapestry,
to accommodate a 40-foot-long mural by Ian Hamilton Findlay, left an adjoining
Museum of Scotland gallery area "purposeless".
He has been backed by another leading architect who branded some of the
changes "wretched." The changes to the museum have all been
made since Gordon Rintoul took over as director from Mark Jones in 2002.
Museum of Scotland: images supplied by Benson & Forsyth
Architects
Mr Wilson said the changes did not reflect the original design of the
building. "When this building was designed, we thought about it in
great detail, everything was very carefully considered, with a purpose
and a meaning," he said.
"If you change the design it transforms the meaning of the building,
and not really for the good. "If the building was an object in the
collection it would be treated with kid gloves, but because it is the
actual building it does not seem to matter." One of the Museum of
Scotland changes which most annoyed Mr Wilson were the alterations to
the spiral staircases in the museum. They were originally designed to
filter light down the staircases, but the spaces between every step have
now been covered with MDF.
"This is a tacky intervention," said Mr Wilson. "I think
it is crude and it is cheap. The whole point of the staircase was to draw
the light down, but now it is blocked out completely."
The changes to the Museum of Scotland were reportedly made because visually
impaired visitors had found it difficult to negotiate the stairs.
Museum of Scotland: images supplied by Benson & Forsyth
Architects
Charles Prosser, secretary of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland,
has previously slated the museum for initiating the changes, saying they
were "banal" and more expected in a supermarket or airport.
The RFACS wrote to Dr Rintoul last year to express their concern over
the then proposed work.
The programme of improvements, started in August last year, was based
upon both comments received from visitors and the experience of National
Museums of Scotland in operating the building. A spokeswoman from NMS
said the changes had succeeded in making the museum a friendlier place
for visitors.
"These improvements have provided a friendlier, more welcoming and
enjoyable experience for visitors," she said. "NMS believes
the changes are entirely appropriate.
"The gaps between the stair treads were filled in following a disability
audit which revealed that some visually-impaired visitors were having
difficulty distinguishing between the steps and the gaps between them."
Museum of Scotland bosses were slammed last year for "insensitive"
changes to the entrance hall at the museum, which was a runner-up in the
Stirling Prize architectural contest in 1999".
from Scotsman 19.02.04
Benson & Forsyth Architects
Museum of Scotland: image supplied by Benson & Forsyth
Architects
photograph 2007 © Jason Baxter
The original Museum building - formerly Royal Museum of Scotland, with
its beautiful, airy atrium:
Museum of Scotland image © adrian welch 2006 with
lumix camera
Museum of Scotland: Description
Benson + Forsyth Architects
Museum of Scotland Extension, Chambers
St. 1999
Fantastically rich assemblage of spaces/forms with references to Modernism
and the immediate context of the Old Town. This is Benson + Forsyth's
first major building and was followed up by their similar Museum building
in Dublin.
Benson
& Forsyth Architects won the New Museum of Scotland competition -
judged by likes of Hans Hollein and Eva Jiricna - to design an extension
in 1991.
Museum of Scotland building - photo © adrian welch
The Museum of Scotland has excited much controversy, from displeasing
Prince Charles at competition stage, to its exclusion from the 1999 RIBA
Special Category Award Shortlist and later parachuting in to the 1999
RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist, for which it received the Runner-up Award.
Museum of Scotland: image supplied by Benson & Forsyth
Architects
Numerous letters appeared in the architectural press about this situation
with Alan Dunlop of Glaswegian practice Gordon Murray + Alan Dunlop irritating
some with his claim that the building was not world-class, and project
architect Peter Wilson lambasting both Mr Dunlop and Sebastian Tombs -
secretary of the RIAS and in charge of the three-person judging panel
- for not giving the new Museum of Scotland more credit.
Museum of Scotland: image supplied by Benson & Forsyth
Architects
Architecturally much has been made of the Museum of Scotland's relationship
to Edinburgh Castle, especially the
Half Moon Battery, but most visitors will rarely see the two together,
though a great view of the Castle can be had on the roof, and vice versa.
Entry to the Museum of Scotland is signified by the sentinel-like rotunda
on the corner of Chambers Street. The building begins with a distinct
architectural promenade that starts with the potent imagery of a huge
table made from a single slice of tree trunk at the base of the corner
tower. From here one turns first left through a narrow gap (with the access
to The Tower - Museum of Scotland restaurant
lift on the right) and then left again into a long hall, at the end of
which is the ticket desk. The 'entry hall' to the Museum of Scotland is
dissected by a long wall forming an unnecessary but intriguing edge to
the ramp, at the top of which is some impressive stone carving.
However, once you enter the Museum of Scotland's main space clutching
your ticket you feel a bewildering loss of direction; some people just
wander off whilst others ask an attendant or headphone provider. This
space is the largest and most photographed in the building and is inspiring.
Its aperspective form reminds one of the foyer at Jyväskylä University
Library, but the other way round, and with the stairs descending. This
space is successful but one feels it is let down a little by the rather
ordinary roof with too heavy a structure. From here it is hard to describe
the building methodically, so I will start at the top and work down.
As the curvaceous glass lifts take you up as far as the Fourth Floor (Level
5) you experience the contrast with the existing Museum of Scotland by
Fowke; this is exciting but one feels the potency of this contrast has
been lessened by the complexity. From here a quirky promenade takes you
south into what I feel is the Museum of Scotland's second space (not experienced
here due to a clutter of exhibits) then doubles back in an ungainly way
and out into the open.
View from Museum of Scotland building - photo ©
adrian welch
The sudden contrast from warmth to often windy Scottish weather seems
lost in the tight uncelebrated space. You climb a spiral stair - problematic
when busy - to an inspiring roof terrace. The curved carapace/underbody
of this space evokes Le Corbusier (Ronchamp, Chandigarh, etc.) and also
Chamberlin, Powell & Bon and is very successful in creating a new landmark
for Edinburgh.
Museum of Scotland stairs down from roof garden - photo
© adrian welch
There is access to the Museum of Scotland's roof (Level 7) by the internal
lift further into the building, if you can find it. The views are spectacular,
though the 'moorland' garden edge prevents vertiginous downward views.
Return to the Fourth Floor is down a narrow stair (or the lift) placed
centrally in the Terrace - unusual and mystifying - which emerges bluntly
into the exhibits. Later one sees the form of this stair from the ‘Southern
Atrium’: I feel the potential of this relationship was not exploited
(imagine the terrifying feeling of glass treads over a chasm below).
The Museum of Scotland's southern Atrium is fascinating partly due to
its huge and exciting exhibits, and less of an architectural setpiece,
despite its domintaion by a white Corbusian half-drum form.
The Early People Exhibition in the Basement of the Museum of Scotland
is by architects Lee Boyd and dates from 1998. The exhibits are from 8000BC
to 1100AD and include 80 ancient stones, many works by Paolozzi and Goldsworthy.
Unfortunately children and the disabled must search for an attendant to
operate the access hoist. However the exhibition integrates well into
the overall language of the Museum.
Excellent views can be had from The Tower restaurant at the top of the
building with an excellent but pricey range of food.
In summary this building has stirred up the Scottish architectural scene
and created much-needed creativity within Edinburgh's often overbearingly
conservative society. The building acts as a beacon - even to the many
who disparage it for being over-worked - for contemporary architecture,
for bravely seeking to add to Edinburgh's legacy rather than slowly kill
it by preservation.
Museum of Scotland - approx. build cost: £40-60m
Museum of Scotland - Judge : Hans
Hollein
Museum of Scotland - Judge : Eva
Jiricna
Museum
of Scotland : Runner-up for the Stirling Prize 1999
won by Future Systems Architects for the Lord's Media Centre
News excerpts re the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh:
Big Blue
A row has broken out over plans to erect a giant banner on the side of
Benson & Forsyth Architects' Museum of Scotland, one of Edinburgh’s
best-known buildings. The National Museums of Scotland want to install
the six-metre-long blue advertising banner on the Museum of Scotland rotunda.
Aug 03
RFACS in new Museum of Scotland row
The Royal Fine Art Commission Scotland (RFACS) claims the re-design of
the entrance hall in the award-winning Museum of Scotland building in
Chambers Street resembles a "supermarket or airport". The RFACs,
which has demanded a meeting with museum bosses, has labelled the re-model
of the Museum of Scotland entrance hall "insensitive".
Aug 03
Museum of Scotland: Presbyterian Court?
Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh
However, the focal point of the Museum of Scotland interior, Hawthornden
Court - labelled "Presbyterian" even in the museum’s official
history - has a cloistered atmosphere and is rarely full of visitors.
Audience research has also shown that the entrance tower to Benson & Forsyth
Architects' museum and the ramp up into Hawthornden Court have limited
appeal for the museum’s public. To remedy these problems, National
Museums of Scotland plans to relocate an information desk from the court
to the entrance tower, where a second set of doors will also be established.
A screen on the adjacent ramp will be removed to make way for Hamilton
Finlay’s artwork.
People find the Museum of Scotland entrance area in particular a bit confusing,
and that was one of the key things we wanted to address.
Some workers involved in the creation of Museum of Scotland believe the
character of the displays was influenced too much by the building design
team. In contrast to the older Royal Museum, next door on Chambers Street,
Hawthornden Court lacks the bustle created by the mixture of seating,
fish ponds and a café….the "transitional space"
created by the entrance tower and the ramp - specified within the original
building design brief - would be changed, and the visitor information
service desk moved closer to the front door.“
http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm
View from Museum of Scotland Rooftop Terrace to Edinburgh Castle:
Museum of Scotland photo © adrian welch
Next Door:
Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
Royal Museum Masterplan, Edinburgh
Royal Museum of Scotland: image from gareth hoskins
architects
The original Museum of Scotland from 1861:
Museum of Scotland image © adrian welch
Edinburgh : back to index
Museum of Scotland Restaurant:
The Tower Edinburgh
Museum
of Scotland Interior Architects - lee boyd
Museum
of Scotland Redevelopment Architects - Gareth Hoskins Architects
Museum of Scotland photograph © adrian welch
Also by Benson + Forsyth, Architects: Scottish
Parliament Competition Entry
Museum
of Scotland - 1999 RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist
Museum of Scotland featured in AJ 7 May 98 + AJ 25 Feb 99 with Benson
& Forsyth Architects profile
Museum of Scotland
: all photographs on file