Tripod WINTER 2016
Tripod WINTER 2016 CONTENTS
Iesu Church, San Sebastian RIBA House of the Year 2016 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Knockando Woolmill Cambusnethan Priory Broadgate Tower, City of London The Sail Loft, Portsoy Front cover: The Murphy House, Edinburgh All images Š Colin McLean Photography
Iesu Church, San Sebastian
Spanish architect Rafael Moneo was selected to design this church for the new district of Riberas de Loiola. The church, completed in 2011, sits on the edge of a new Memory Park, created to keep alive the memories of victims of violence, terrorism and war. Controversially, the church also houses a supermarket in its basement.
I was introduced to the work of architect Rafael Moneo by his presentation at the RIAS Convention in May 2016. His best known piece in San Sebastian is the Kursaal Cultural Centre - initially regarded as the local rival to nearby Bilbao’s Guggenhem Museum - but it was this exquisite little white church that captured my eye.
RIBA House of the Year 2016: the Murphy House
Channel 4’s Grand Designs series featured the longlist of houses vying for the accolade of House of the Year 2016. Edinburgh architect Richard Murphy’s house which he designed for himself in the centre of Georgian Edinburgh was nine years in gestation. In declaring it the 2016 winner, the RIBA judges described it as “a delightful essay in architecture. It speaks to its context with direct references to the Georgian terraces, and with a clever change of scale that is at once deferential and powerfully striking in the street.“ Here is a selection of the photographs I produced for the architect.
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997, this is one of a number of museums operated by the Guggenheim Foundation. Gehry was challenged by his client to be daring and innovative, and we can see that he rose to that. Despite its complex and apparently anarchic exterior, the interior plan is logical and easy to understand - you won’t get lost in the Guggenheim. Some of the gallery spaces reflect the flowing shapes of the exterior and some are traditionally rectilinear. The central foyer is the star of the interior - an astonishing space of light and swirling, soaring shapes in glass and steel. The Museum is recognised as a significant catalyst in the regeneration of Bilbao.
Knockando Woolmill
The last estate woolmill in Scotland, Knockando was rescued by an enthusiast some three decades ago and has been carefully restored by LDN Architects for the Knockando Trust, with a new weaving shed added to house a production facility as an income source. These images were commissioned by the Architectural Heritage Fund.
Cambusnethan Prior y
Standing near Wishaw in Lanarkshire, overlooking the Clyde, Cambusnethan Priory, the third house on this site, was designed in 1819 by James Gillespie Graham, one of Scotland’s leading Gothic Revival architects, producing here for the Sinclair-Lockhart family what is arguably his finest villa. It was converted to a hotel in 1976, became vacant in 1984 and was ravaged by a fire one year later. As the photograph top-left shows, part of the south facade has now collapsed. Though A-Listed, it is on the Buildings At Risk Register, where its condition is described as “critical”. A distressing number of Gillespie Graham’s villas have been lost. Despite a succession of successful and unsuccessful planning applications at Cambusnethan, some involving enabling development in the grounds, the future of this fine house remains far from certain. You can see it on the east side of the Clyde as you drive north towards Glasgow on the A72.
Broadgate Tower, City of London
Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and completed, along with its neighbour, 210 Bishopsgate (also by SOM), in 2009, Broadgate Tower is a skyscraper providing additional high quality office space in the City of London. It sits on a structural raft over the rail lines into Liverpool Street Station, and construction was complicated and delayed by archaeological finds on site. The covered void between the two buildings (photograph lower right) provides a pedestrian walkway.
The Sail Loft, Portsoy
Under conversion to a bunkhouse by LDN Architects, the Sail Loft will open in Spring 2017, providing accommodation for walkers and cyclists.
Covesea Lighthouse
Purchased by a local trust when it became redundant, the lighthouse is now opened by volunteers as a visitor attraction, and offers stunning views of the Morayshire coast.
Architectural photography and photography for the heritage sector. 73 Whitehaugh Park, Peebles EH45 9DB, Scotland M 07980 750301 colin@colinmcleanphotography.com www.colinmcleanphotography.com
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