2008 AWARDS
Awards - Leisure + Retail
Gareth Hoskins Architects
Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre, Inverness
The Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre is the result of an International Design Competition which was held by the National Trust for Scotland in 2004.
Set back from the battlefield and disguising the visitor approach, car parking and servicing, the new centre is defined by a series of long walls which pass through the building and out into the landscape. Highland Council set strict parameters for heights, views and materials, but this did not diminish the architect's abilities in creating a truly memorable experience.
It is difficult to think of a more sensitive and poignant site in Scotland to place a major tourist attraction, but the judges congratulate Gareth Hoskins Architects in their 10th year in managing to produce a project which respects and creates a seminal building of its type from its cavernous exhibition spaces to its setting in the landscape.
