The Scottish
Parliament Reception Desk
The Parliament Building has a strong sense of landscape, reminiscent of
Scotland's rock forms and land mass. Democracies need people’s involvement. They are like a fluid, air or water, feeding and flowing through the building. The Reception Desk, is like a plant, rooted to the architecture but drawn along with the flow of people, both formed by and forming their movement into the building. It is intended as a point of human reference to the building and the institution.
At its end the metre slows with the last two sections bracketing the space and leading you to a free standing vane that echoes the desks movement and holds the Parliaments printed material.
Much of the dynamic of the piece is drawn from the buildings geometry, but the fluid energy, the ripple, is about making common ground with visitors, drawing them into the democratic process. Each counter is well defined as an individual space, but each part of an organic whole, with more than a hint of paisley.
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© David Colwell 2004