Building Design

Designs for a museum to celebrate Scotland's foremost poet Robert Burns have failed to match the “international significance” of the project, the country's architecture watchdog claims. A report by Architecture & Design Scotland said Simpson & Brown Architects' proposed £17 million Burns International Museum at the poet's birthplace of Alloway suffers from being designed “from the inside out, with the architectural design heavily influenced by the exhibitor's requirements”. It also said it had not been significantly improved since an earlier design review. Earlier this year then-culture minister Patricia Ferguson promised the museum, for the National Trust for Scotland, would “do justice” to the memory of Burns after an award of over £11 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Scottish Executive.