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ing for the site location, saying that its location was where you ‘left Edinburgh and entered Scotland’ [37] . It also locks intimately with the surrounding old town and its citizens [38] and offers a patriotic view of the land the MSP’s serve although a negative point about this site is that it puts a modern building alongside medieval ones. [39]

 

After the site was chosen an international design competition was held to find an architect. Dewar promised that the building would present nothing less than “an image of Scotland’s new position within the United Kingdom as we move into the 21st century” [40] . Submissions were received from architects such as Richard Meier and Michael Milford who proposed monumental symbols of national identity. [41]

 

It is told that Enric Miralles thrust some twigs and leaves onto the table and proclaimed “That is the Scottish Parliament” [42] . Miralles did not provide a design proposal but a design concept, a dialogue, [43] which expressed a wish not to make the parliament a status of power, but to tie it in with the landscape, and hence with the Scottish people. Miralles was unanimously chosen [44] . Critics stated that the Scottish parliament should have been designed by a Scottish architect, and saw the appointment of Enric Miralles as a great disappointment [45] .

 

Monumental Neo-Classical structures were generally believed to be the best suited to a parliament, but the original Neo-Classical model, the democratic political buildings in the 19th century, were confused [46] . The new emerging democratic architecture had few precedents to draw from, in the USA they chose the Classical model to demonstrate democracy for free males (slaves and women were excluded) [47] this resulted in an architecture similar to those from Ancient Rome and Greece; these were ruled by emperors whom by today’s standard are dictators with a wide rule. Why would democracy choose this type of architecture? Well firstly, there was little else to choose from, as democracy was a new concept, and secondly, they wanted to show their superiority to other states and countries and impress those citizens whose money they extracted [48] . After all, a strong, organised architecture which learns from the past presents a confidence that those people inside who are running the country will have similar qualities.

 

But what is democracy? Surely it is a political form that gives access to all citizens (or those represented by the citizens) equally. It is where the people rule. Therefore, is this lean towards Neo-Classicism really representative of a democratic society? It is an architecture that wishes to dwarf people who enter it, made of some of the coldest looking materials accessible to man. It is a symbol of power that is so much grander than any single citizen could wish to come anywhere close to so that the individual does not feel equal. The style is insensitive to a nation seeking a collective identity in a humane building form.

 

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