15, 15B and 15C Dalkeith Road, Scottish Widows

Category

Library Item

Item no

42028

Title

15, 15B and 15C Dalkeith Road, Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society Head Office, built 1976. Architect, Sir Basil Spence, Glover and Ferguson

Artist / maker

MacLean, Kevin

Date

2016

Type

Digital image

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Office building in modern Expressionist style comprising series of interlocking hexagonal prisms varying in height from 1 to 4 storeys. Reinforced concrete construction.

A major achievement of international status for Sir Basil Spence, Glover and Ferguson, its importance acknowledged in the professional press and recognised in 1977 when the building received the RIBA Award for Scotland. This building is an expressionistic response to Salisbury Crags married to a Functionalist programme. Geological analogies in the allusions to geometric structure of crystals inform plan, structural grid and massing. careful use of high quality materials, concealed car park, and extensive planting and landscaping, for which the practice brought in Dame Sylvia Crowe, the leading landscape architect of the period.

The building stands partly in a pool, on the west and south sides, designed to reflect the elevations. This device was used in some of Spence's keynote buildings, most notably at the University of Sussex and the British Embassy in Rome. The reception area and stairs are also enlivened by a play on the reflective qualities of water and mirrored surfaces.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Windows

Business > Service industry > Offices

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Plants > Trees > Trees

Transport > Infrastructure > Roads

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