MVRDV and Austin-Smith:Lord are delighted to be announced as one of five teams shortlisted for the redesign of Perth City Hall in collaboration with Perth-based Fergus Purdie Architects, to create initial design concepts that breathe new life into this historic B-Listed building.
Perth and Kinross Council are looking to bring the building back into public use and create an international cultural destination for permanent and temporary exhibits. The revitalised building will deliver accessible community and creative learning spaces for locals, and serve as a new cultural destination for visitors to the city. The project forms part of Perth’s bid to become UK City of Culture 2021.
“We continue our collaborative partnering with Austin-Smith:Lord on this exciting opportunity to create a renewed Perth City Hall that will transform it into a cultural hotspot for Perth. If we selected, we will work on both conserving the historicity of the site as well as making it a creative diverse cultural and creative destination for everyone living there and visitors alike”, says Winy Maas, MVRDV co-founder.
Graham Ross, Partner and Glasgow studio principal at Austin-Smith:Lord said “our team are thrilled to be shortlisted for this exciting project. Extending our longstanding collaboration with internationally renowned architects MVRDV of Rotterdam, with whom we are preparing the (Y)our City Centre masterplans for Glasgow City Council, will bring an added dimension to the project. Redefining Perth City Hall as an innovative and contemporary cultural space presents a significant opportunity for the City to create a world-renowned destination that will benefit the local community and raise Perth’s international profile. Drawing upon our vast experience of delivering high quality contemporary arts and culture projects within sensitive historic environments we are anticipating an exciting challenge to fuse Perth’s past, understand its present and outline what is possible for City Hall in the future. If selected we would combine our in-house expertise in architecture, conservation, streetscape design and urban planning to work collaboratively with people in Perth to create a distinctive vision for their City Hall.”
Many of these projects are multi award-winning, and most involve refurbishment and/or extension to important and cherished historic buildings in our society. Austin-Smith:Lord's accredited conservation architects are currently working on innovative repair solutions for the 18th century Chinese Pagoda at Kew Gardens in London, having recently completed a conservation project at the Tower of London. Whilst their Culture team have recently been commissioned to undertake a second major project for Birmingham Royal Ballet, and have also been appointed as architects for Shakespeare North in Prescot working in partnership with Nick Helm Architects.
Further details of Austin-Smith:Lord’s extensive Arts + Culture experience is available here.
