Talented Scottish Architects Being Left Out on Home Projects

Talented Scottish Architects Being Left Out on Home Projects
Scotland's architects are missing out on prestigious and lucrative work in their home territory because of a lack of recognition, it was claimed last night.

Richard Murphy, who is appearing at the Venice Biennale international architecture festival, lists a string of major public projects that have gone to architects outside Scotland.

The architect has been picked to join eight colleagues in the festival’s British pavilion - and his is the only firm from outside London.

"We are working for the British government but not for the Scottish government," he said. "We are doing the British embassy in Sri Lanka, but we have never been invited down to Leith."

The argument over whether Scots architects need a higher profile in their own country to match a rising reputation further afield has been brewing since Mike Watson, the then culture minister, was caught struggling in 2002 to name a single Scottish architect.

There was an angry reaction last year when Charles Gordon, leader of Glasgow City Council, suggested he wanted a big international name for the planned �40 million Museum of Transport.

In recent years Mr Murphy, whose best-known Edinburgh building is the Fruitmarket Gallery, has seen his firm go from working mostly within or around existing buildings to new-build projects, particularly housing.