Structure is a rapturous blend of complexity in a dour quarter

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Archiseek / UK / Scotland / News / 2004 / June 30

It was a brave move to commission a Catalan architect to design the new Scottish parliament building. Enric Miralles had a burgeoning international reputation but few important buildings to his name. The extraordinary building that has risen at the end of Edinburgh's Royal Mile against the dramatic geological backdrop of Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags is his most important work and will stay that way, as the architect tragically died of a brain tumour aged 45 in 2000. The Catalan instinctively understood the opportunities and paradoxes in the attempt at national expression of a small nation struggling for recognition and a carefully controlled degree of independence from its larger neighbour.

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