The Irish Times

Weird, witty and wonderful in equal measures, the Scottish Parliament is surely among the most extraordinary works of contemporary architecture to be unveiled in recent times. It has even been hailed by some as a masterpiece that will be appreciated as such in the future, if not now. More an architectural eruption than a building in the normal sense, it has the manic, unconventional quality of many of Antoni Gaudi's great works - which is perhaps not surprising because the parliament's conceptual designer, the late Enric Miralles, was also a wayward genius from Barcelona. There is barely a straight line anywhere, inside or out. Everything apart from the doors and stairs is curved, twisted or warped. And parts of the complex, notably the garden foyer with its leaf-shaped rooflights running this way and that, seem to swirl in space - suspended there just to entertain us.