The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Externally, the principal effect has been the completion of the programme of restoration of the stonework and windows. Internally the significance of the various elements of the building, as set down in the Conservation Plan, has allowed for their careful conservation and protection. A primary goal of the project was to put the whole of the second and first floors back into public use, displaying the Galleries’ permanent collections and housing temporary exhibitions.

The conservation programme for the stained and leaded glass is of particular interest, and was based upon the aim to retain original material where ever possible whilst ensuring structural stability. This did mean some re-glazing with new lead calmes. Panels were to be assessed individually and where the lead work was sound it was retained. Fine detail or interlocking shapes were left in their original leads to avoid the possibility of unnecessary damage.

The adaptations made to the Portrait Gallery have transformed physical access both into and around the building, and critically, two new openings on either side of the existing entrance vestibule at ground floor level have been formed to increase visibility and encourage visitor flow to the contemporary galleries, seminar room, café and shop.

A new, ramped, legible mezzanine floors along the rear of the building has been inserted.  These mezzanines provide the answers to several problems: additional usable space for cellular and open plan offices, storage and an alternative escape route.

The gallery spaces provide a variety of characters in which to display the collection. Just inside the entrance, the newly formed temporary gallery presents a diverse programme of work and the first floor galleries celebrate the industrial aesthetic of the original structure. The enfilade upper floor galleries present work in a more traditional setting, albeit with clever solutions to enable natural top light to be used, developed in conjunction with lighting designer Foto-ma.

Throughout the building, temporary partitions, lowered ceilings and window blockings have, where practically possible been carefully removed to allow the robust spaces to work as originally intended.

The architectural language of the interventions takes its lead from the originally intended materiality of the exposed steel structure within the Rowand Anderson gallery spaces with the original steel beams now exposed where feasible.  The new elements “touch the building lightly” allowing the existing spaces, structure and forms to become preeminent.