Parliament of Scotland (Landscape)
Edinburgh, Scotland
The new Scottish Parliament marks the nation’s nascent political independence through its dynamic
architecture and open planning. Rising from a lush park site opposite dramatic Arthur’s Seat bluff in central Edinburgh,
the completed design won the prestigious Stirling Prize, the United Kingdom’s highest architectural honor. Lighting
solutions were integrated and absorbed into the architecture, as a reinforcement of its expressive language.
Above and beyond the separate lighting solutions developed for each building, a coherent lighting masterplan unites the
exterior appearance of the structures. The Parliament is a cluster of discreet pavilions rather than one large-scale
monolith. The nighttime lighting approach reinforces this feeling of a parliamentary ‘village’ by accentuating the light
that individual buildings emit from within. Windows and skylights are articulated with nocturnal lighting effects and
silhouettes in mind. The lighting of the whole is calibrated to maintain a consistent color temperature and overall
balance of brightness and contrast, linking the structures together as a group.
Extending the sense of an intimate scale, small luminaires are used instead of typical pole-mounted lights or bollards
in the broader landscape, and are integrated with architectural detailing.
The Scottish Parliament building was awarded the Stirling Prize Award 2005 - the highest architectural award in the UK.
