A brick-clad tower provides a landmark for this sculpture workshop and cultural hub by Sutherland Hussey Harris, which is slotted into an previous railway cutting in Edinburgh (+ slideshow).
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop is a facility supplying artists with reduced-price studios, exhibition space and workshops in the Scottish capital’s Newhaven spot.
Photograph courtesy of Sutherland Hussey Harris
The centre was previously housed in an old railway shed but, following a fundraising campaign that secured contributions from different public bodies, nearby studio Sutherland Hussey Harris was commissioned to develop a facility much better suited to the wants of the artists.
A 2nd round of funding was provided by a personal donation, enabling ESW to include a new constructing delivering spaces for investigation and cross-disciplinary actions, as nicely the promotion of arts inside the regional local community.
Photograph courtesy of Sutherland Hussey Harris
“The two phases signify an exploration into the opposite sides of the arts developing coin,” explained the crew. “1, the hermetic, practical, messy side of the generating of artwork and [the other] the open, accessible and extrovert of the gallery.”
A freestanding 28-metre-tall construction influenced by standard bell towers or campaniles is meant to draw attention to the otherwise hidden facility.
“The ESW has international significance, yet their web site gives small visibility,” architect Sean Douglas advised Dezeen. “This campanile is a variety of abstraction of a billboard, providing a bit of presence.”
Photograph courtesy of Sutherland Hussey Harris
The 1st constructing, recognized as the Bill Scott Sculpture Centre, incorporates thirty artists studios and different additional amenities. Completed in 2012, it straddles the embankment of a disused railway following to the current shed.
Connected story: Concrete painter’s studio by Felipe Assadi nestles into a rocky hillside on the Chilean seafront
Workshops for wood, metal, plaster and mixed media are arranged close to a covered courtyard. Rooms committed to educational and administrative functions are also integrated, alongside two self-serviced apartments for going to lecturers and artists in residence.
The building’s compact form and positioning inside of the railway cutting guarantees the messy workshops at grade degree are hidden from the adjacent street.
The workshops open onto the covered yard, which is lined with panels of steel grating that enable partial views of the surroundings.
The project’s second phase resulted in the Innovative Laboratories, which had been completed in 2014. This developing features a cloistered courtyard visible from the street, which is lined with bays exactly where artworks can be displayed.
A pathway traverses the space among the Workshop and the Innovative Laboratories, connecting the street with a cycle route that passes along the opposite side of the complicated.
This area also accommodates a cafe that opens onto a terrace and the central courtyard, where events and exhibitions can consider location.
Photograph courtesy of Sutherland Hussey Harris
Multipurpose rooms that can be utilised for creating or exhibiting function are located at the finish of the courtyard. The concrete bays also give semi-open doing work locations and could be transformed into enclosed studios at a later date.
Primary structures in concrete clad with brick cladding were used all through the two phases of the project to make sure the buildings are robust and straightforward to maintain, whilst also referencing the area’s industrial heritage.
Photograph courtesy of Sutherland Hussey Harris
The tower is illuminated from inside at night, with the light emanating from a huge aperture in the direction of the best. The campanile also provides an substitute exhibition space that artists are invited to use for distinctive installations.
The initial piece to be implemented earlier this yr was a sound installation called Concrete Antenna. It mixed recordings relating to the site’s various histories that had been played through speakers positioned within the tower.
Photograph courtesy of Sutherland Hussey Harris
Other studios featured on Dezeen contain a concrete sanctuary for a painter that is half-submerged in a cliffside backyard overlooking the Chilean coastline and an artist’s cabin in rural Scotland that is covered in embossed zinc panels.
Photography is by Keith Hunter unless otherwise stated.
Venture credits:
Consumer: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
Architects: Sutherland Hussey Harris
Undertaking group: Charlie Sutherland, Charlie Hussey, Colin Harris, David McKenna, Sean Douglas
Undertaking manager: Iain Logan, Thomson Bethune
Structural engineer: Colin Eastwood, David Narro Associates
Amount surveyor: Alan Pinchard, Thomson Bethune
M&E engineer: Neil Granger & David Appleford, AECOM
Landscape srchitects: Liane Bauer
CDMC: Ross Buchan, Thomson Bethune
Phase one main contractor: Graham Construction
Phase 2 primary contractor: Maxi Development
