The Assembly Hall, Edinburgh: Interim Accommodation for the Scottish Parliament
In 1998 Simpson & Brown were commissioned by the Scottish Office to convert the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall on The Mound to provide interim accommodation for the new Scottish Parliament. The Assembly Hall was extensively remodelled to create the new Debating Chamber. The original Hall was designed by David Bryce for the Free Church in 1858, and has been the venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland since 1929. The building is immensely complex, spread over numerous inter-linking half-levels on steeply sloping ground.
The new Debating Chamber was provided with sophisticated service installations, communication links, electronic voting and IT systems, and broadcasting facilities. The existing rectilinear tiering was rebuilt to a horseshoe pattern, on to which were set the demountable purpose-made desks for the 129 MSPs. New cantilevered steel-link bridges were constructed between the perimeter galleries to give access to the public, for whom a new entrance pavilion was built within Mylnes Court.
Following the completion of the Parliament building in Holyrood, the Debating Chamber is in the process of being reverted to its former use.
