Scottish Parliament Building

In 1998 EMBT won the bid to design the new Edinburgh Parliament building. The proposal generated great enthusiasm due to its organic capacity to combine existing elements with new technologies through the contemporary and unique language of the Barcelona studio. The project’s development centered on reflecting the characteristics of the country and its inhabitants via a new way of building that was directly linked to the land itself. This close tie to the site and its setting would, when the adjacent distillery is demolished, enable the generation of multiple perspective lines on the city. Intentionally, a contrast is sought, a conceptual distance, between the new construction and Holyrood Palace, the twelfth-century royal residence that has been renovated many times. Unlike the palace, which dominates the landscape, the new Scottish Parliament drops literally into the hillside terrain, the lowest part of Arthur’s Seat, and appears to sprout from the living stone.