In 2004, after a gap of 297 years during which the British Parliament governed Scotland, Scotland had once again its own parliament. It is now housed at the foot of the Royal Mile close to the Queen's official residence in Scotland, the Palace of Holyrood.
Strangely a Catalan architect, Enric Miralles, designed the building - he died before its completion. He aimed to produce a poetic union between the Scottish landscape, its people, its culture and the city of Edinburgh. This approach won the parliament building many awards and the description "a tour de force of arts and crafts and quality without parallel in the last 100 years of British architecture".
The result is a collection of low-lying buildings intended to blend in with the surrounding rugged scenery and existing buildings. They have many features connected to nature and land, such as the leaf shaped motifs of the roof in the Garden Lobby of the building. The most distinctive characterisation is the roof of the Tower Buildings - reminiscent of upturned boats on the shoreline. Inside the buildings the use of Scottish rock such as gneiss and granite in the flooring and walls and oak and sycamore in the furniture reinforces the connection to the land.
The debating chamber contains an elliptical horseshoe of seating for the Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), with the governing party or parties sitting in the middle of the semicircle and opposition parties on either side. The layout blurs political divisions and hopefully encourages consensus among MSPs. There are 131 desks and chairs on the floor of the chamber for the elected members and other members of the Government. The desks have a lectern, a microphone and in-built speakers as well as electronic voting equipment. Galleries above the main floor hold 255 members of the public, 18 guests and 34 members of the press.
The most notable feature of the chamber is the roof. Laminated oak beams joined with 112 stainless steel connectors suspended on steel rods support the roof. It enables the debating chamber to span over 30 metres (100 ft) without any supporting columns. In entering the chamber, MSPs pass under a stone lintel, the Arniston Stone, once part of the pre-1707 Parliament building. It symbolises the connection between the historical Parliament and the present-day Parliament. Natural light diffuses by glass fins, which run down from light spaces in the ceiling, enters the chamber.
There is a wide variety of artwork and sculptures in the Scottish Parliament ranging from commissioned pieces to official gifts from overseas parliamentary delegations.
The Main Hall of the Parliament contains a sculpture modelled on the Scottish crown, sceptre and the sword of the state. The parliamentary mace of silver and inlaid with gold panned from Scottish rivers is displayed in a glass case in the debating chamber. It has a formal, ceremonial role during meetings of the Parliament.
Despite its many awards many Scots consider the building a shambles – visit and decide!