Royal Scottish Academy Show, Architects, Artists, Images, Review RSA Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh, Scotland edinburgh architecture			Home Architecture News World Buildings
RSA Annual Exhibition 2006 : Architecture Information + Images
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 Architecture Books Scottish Architecture: best Scottish Buildings of the last three decades Architecture Walking Tours Royal Academy Exhibition 2007 Edinburgh : back to index Royal Scottish Academy : Article Comments / photos for the RSA Exhibition page welcome: info@edinburgharchitecture.co.uk Royal Academy Exhibition 2006 : page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt