RSA Show 2006
Brief review of Royal Scottish Academy Architecture Exhibition 2006
I left feeling much more upbeat than the last few years: three decent-sized
rooms filled with a lot of really good work. This is a simple unpretentious
exhibition which has a happy balance between models and hung frames, though
there was one fairly discreet monitor lurking. The digital age has escaped
its honeymoon and is now digested by time-honoured traditions of good
exhibitions. One niggle was a lack of titles on a small proportion of
models and frames with not a programme in sight. The only real concern
was too great a preponderance of photos and too little 'craft': perhaps
we could generously take this as a good sign that architects are flat-out
and simply didn’t have enough time. There was a smattering of drawings
but most hand-drawing came in the form of wee sketches intermingled with
drawings and photos. The overall feel however was of a new strength in
Scottish architecture, pretty impressive.
Highlights for me were as follows:- Richard Murphy’s New Queen’s
Hall model, a bold intervention but respectful of the classical pedimented
façade; the simple and slightly messy model by wta of a delightful
domestic proposal with sensous connections and two balanced and connected
forms; intricate and softly articulated images of the Window on the Mac;
and finally a massive house by Houston Morris over five floors complete
with generous cantilevers on a slope.
Other submissions like Sutherland Hussey’s Burns Heritage Museum,
Alan Dunlop’s Hazelwood School drawing and various projects by Malcolm
Fraser, Graham Massie, etc. were all of excellent quality and helped create
a broad strength to the exhibition.
The model of Cadell2 + wta’s 'Bellfield Dyke'
was intriguing, until I realised the long forms weren’t Koolhaas
inspired floating bars but abstract representations of avenues; more seriously
though this project at Kirknewton looks interesting as a way of creating
a community [maybe new for this century, but redolent of older Scottish
settlements such as Duirinish] rooted in both the cultural and the geological
strata in which it resides.
[Adrian Welch]
Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition:
2005 Review
Cameron Mackintosh - House, West Coast Scotland
Kathryn Findlay - Ushida Findlay Architecture
This year sees some changes. Firstly it's only for Academicians. Secondly
the architecture is interspersed with the art. Good or bad?
Richard Murphy Architects - Filmhouse Edinburgh
Royal Academy Exhibition
2008
Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition: 2004 Review
Interesting to see Richard
Murphy ARSA has won the RSA Medal for Architecture: the blurb reads
'Medal for outstanding work, preferably a drawing, to encourage younger
architects'. An RSA Latimer Award went to younger architect Mr Chapman
for Oliver Chapman Architects'
'Hidden
Garden HQ', wonderful title, one imagines spymasters nestling within
illusive shrubberies.
Royal
Scottish Academy, Edinburgh: image by Adrian Welch
Joking apart, this year's field is strong and presentation generally of
high standard. For non-architect denizens of Auld Reekie the three Princes
Street Galleries drawings are surely a highlight and it is useful
to engage in this way despite the current state of flux, so thanks to
EDI for approving this outing. Getting light into the depth of the section
is the key but the promenade could live on, circumscribing the vital rooflight
to form an arcade a la Mayfair's 'promenading arcades' such as
the Burlington.
For the architects there are a veritable multiplicity of highlights -
the rhythmic facades glowing poignantly in RMJM's Beijing Convention Centre,
the sumptously coloured and cropped Landforms photo, Alan Dunlop's fantastic
drawing(s) cutting through Glasgow, with a bridge in there too.
Allan Murray Architects' Frankfurt images show a real move away from ordered
forms of their Edinburgh Park, Coalhill
- and even the recent Stavanger competition - schemes: 'flowing lines'
is the description and there is something rather eurozeitgeist
about these twisted forms. The Newcastle
College Performance Academy presentation refreshingly shows a building
being made, great!
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh: image by Adrian Welch
Terry Farrell's twenty-four Warholesque
colour plates of Ocean Point 1, Leith, doesn't make the scheme any easier
to digest.....viewers will be left wondering (where's the text?) if it
was a study of options or a proposal for variant lighting or kinetic sculpture.
Their central two blockbuster images (EICC & The Dean) are oversized
for the room, bludgeoning the subtler drawings and white-on-white models,
but usefully catch the eye on entering the RSA's Galleries.
Most useful for many will be the unbuilt schemes as these rarely make
it into the trade press: Edward Hollis' & Frazer Hay's colourful and
subversive Thameside Kiosk (& Ed's Cowgate Fire Competition entry),
Ric Russell's Finnieston
Bridge Competition model, RMJM's Queen Margaret
University College Relocation Proposal & Vietnam Parliament Competition
entry [Mick Duncan], and Bob Steedman's Landforms extension to name but
a few. A country that forgets its unbuilt schemes is a country lost to
the joy of differance and the richness of choice: this exhibition celebrates
as many schemes that are unbuilt
as those that have made it through to the other side. Vive la differance,
or, as the RSA motto states, 'dignity and force'.
Review by Adrian Welch ARIAS RIBA
RSA Exhibition: Letter
02.04.04
Dear Adrian,
How terribly droll for the Royal Scottish Academy to open up it's press
day on April Ist with some huge, well viewed images by Sir Terry Farrell.
The cappa mounted photographs take up a whole wall, just for fun and include
some sketches that the great man has obviously produced whilst running
for a bus.
Now that the day's over though, the RSA should also let us know what really
won the Gold Medal for Architecture. I mean we all like a laugh but you
can take a joke too far.
Yours sincerely
Alan Dunlop
Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition: 2003 - no Review
For the first time in its history the Royal Scottish Academy's 176th Annual
Exhibition will be held outwith Scotland's capital. This year's RSA Exhibition
was held in the McLellan Galleries, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, as the
RSA Gallery in Edinburgh is currently closed as work on the £26m
Playfair project proceeds (will not re-open until early summer 2003).
Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition: 2002 Review
The RSA Annual Show is also an opportunity for architects to display
recent or proposed projects. Richard Murphy’s adventurous intervention
in Stirling Tolbooth to create a new arts centre is illustrated here,
along with other important architectural projects such as Allan Murray
Architects’ sharp designs for a new Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.
07.05.02
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh: image by Adrian Welch
RSA Playfair Project
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Royal Academy Exhibition 2006
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