Edinburgh’s Ross Pavilion in Danger

 


Image: ©wHY Architecture

 

Earlier this year, an article in the Architects’ Journal described what almost sounded like a death knell for wHY Architecture’s winning competition design for Edinburgh’s Ross Pavilion site. When the competition took place, some observers may have regarded wHY as a wild card, in the company of such high-profile firms as BIG and David Adjaye,* There can be no question that they understood the site and program better than their rivals, and it would have appeared that innovation had won the day. Their design could have served to rethink the way in which this site, with its replacement of an outdated bandstand by a contemporary structure, would serve as a destination for Scotland’s public—much as has been the case for Frank Gehry’s pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

 

The landscape architecture profession has evolved over the past years; but there are still pockets of traditionalists that insist on past models for future projects. This was apparently one of the issues wHY’s design ran up against. Combined with funding problems and the pandemic, this turned out to be a hurdle that the design was not about to overcome.
To hear more of the story, go to the Architects’ Journal article:

 

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/hibernation-why-reveals-rejigged-ross-pavilion-plans-two-years-after-contest-win-2

*For the original article about the competition::
https://competitions.org/2017/08/edinburghs-ross-pavilion-competition/

(This article is also available in the 2017 COMPETITIONS Annual)