Museum gets new nomination
THE new Shetland Museum and Archives is up against cultural buildings from as far away as Japan and Australia in a global architecture competition.
The World Architecture Festival, being held for the first time this year, will give awards for prestigious buildings completed in the last 18 months.
A shortlist of 224 projects in 43 countries worldwide has already been drawn up and includes diverse structures such as a public toilet in Texas, a fire station in Mexico City, a doctor’s surgery designed with help from the elders of a Nova Scotia tribe, a women’s health centre in Burkina Faso and the water centre for the Olympic games in Beijing.
The shortlist includes four Scottish buildings, the other three being the Culloden visitor centre in Inverness, Hazelwood School for the multiple sensory impaired in Glasgow and the John Wheatly College, also in Glasgow. The new Wembley Stadium and the O2 Arena are other UK projects on the shortlist.
The awards comprise 17 categories including civic, culture, health, housing, learning, nature, office, shopping, sport and transport. Buildings will be judged on their aesthetic appeal as well as the way they take the economic, social and environmental needs of the clients and communities into consideration.
All shortlisted architects will present their work to juries and audiences during the World Architecture Festival, to be held in Barcelona between the 22nd and 24th October. On the final day the winners of each category will compete to win the ultimate accolade, World Building of the Year 2008.
The international judging panels will be headed by Lord Norman Foster and will include architects, allied professionals, clients and critics.
General manager of Shetland Amenity Trust Jimmy Moncrieff said of the nomination: “We are obviously very pleased. This puts the project on a world stage, it’s tremendous.”
The nomination was done by architects Building Design Partnership (BDP), one of the biggest firms of UK architects, through their Glasgow office.
