Dunfermline Museum
Competition Winner: Richard Murphy
18 Jul 2007
DUNFERMLINE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY WINNER - INVITED ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION
One of Scotland’s most respected and well-known architectural firms
is to be recommended to the Council as the preferred company to lead the
design of a new Museum and Gallery for Dunfermline.
The design concept by Richard Murphy Architects was the most convincing
of a very high-quality field of entries to Fife Council’s recent
architectural competition.
Over 1300 people made a special visit to Dunfermline’s Carnegie Library
during June to view the exhibition of six “grand designs”. There’s
been a great deal of interest shown in the project by local people, visitors
to the city, and the architectural world.
The exhibition attracted nearly 400 written comments and emails, as well
as provoking lots of discussion. Councillor Tony Martin was impressed
with the level of interest shown. He commented, “I enjoyed seeing
the exhibition myself, and I’m delighted with the numbers of people
that have paid a visit. It’s obvious from the comments books that
people have really given this a great deal of thought. As you’d expect,
everybody has their own favourite - for different reasons!”
The six architects rose to the challenge of designing a new building which
would complement and enhance the historic heritage quarter of Dunfermline.
At the beginning of the competition, all the architects visited Dunfermline
for a tour of the historic sites and a viewing of the Museum Service’s
collections. The themes of royalty and Dunfermline’s illustrious
industrial heritage were recreated by some of the designers in the fabric
of their proposed buildings.
While Richard Murphy's striking design is a worthy winner of the competition,
it should be remembered that a very large part of the work of designing
and developing a new Museum and Gallery for Dunfermline is only just beginning.
Richard’s scheme displayed great cleverness and sophistication with
superb potential for the gallery spaces and controlled long views out
into the cityscape. His concept proposes a hinged or inset façade
for the entrance on Abbot Street, which would certainly be a talking point
in itself. It offers a distinctive and attractive entrance. The proposed
elevation to the west had an architectural language and scale that related
to the Carnegie Library, and respected the Abbot House and Abbey.
Fife Council was assisted in running the competition by the Royal Incorporation
of Architects in Scotland. Their help was invaluable and much appreciated.
The results of the competition and proposals to pull together a funding
package to take the project to the next stage of development will be submitted
for consideration to Council committees after the summer recess.
Dunfermline
Museum Competition - winner: Richard Murphy
Scottish Architects
Fife Buildings
Dunfermline Museum - info from Richard Murphy Architects 2007
Dunfermline Museum and Art Gallery
Project description
The brief has asked for a museum space telling the story of Dunfermline,
gallery spaces for changing exhibitions, education room, restaurant and
shop. Our design is organised around a top lit street. Galleries are placed
at the lower level, the main museum space at first floor with restaurant,
education suite and terrace at the top. The street runs alongside the
Carnegie Library to which it and the museum space will be linked at a
number of points. The “thick walled” architecture of the design
contains a staircase, plant and display cabinets and framed views of surrounding
notable Dunfermline buildings.
An unusal aspect of the design is the entrance; A section of the Grade
B listed former bank building will be demolished and rebuilt as a giant
pivoting door returning the listed building to its former state when the
building is closed.
“The project was won in a limited competition organised by the RIAS
in July 2007”
Construction cost: £8 million
Client: Fife Council
Shortlisted Architects:
Gareth Hoskins
make
Malcolm Fraser
Page\Park
Richard Murphy
Reiach
and Hall
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- adrian welch / isabelle lomholt