Storm over prizewinning ferry shelter

A £98,000 island ferry shelter, on windswept Tiree in the Outer Hebrides, dubbed by locals as ‘two walls and a telephone box with no phone’, was last week mired in controversy as it was voted the best new building in Scotland by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).

But island opinion on the structure is split with critics claiming that the money could have been more usefully spent.

One of the shelter’s principal supporters, islander Gordon Scott, said: “Small, unpretentious buildings like this can have a power and appeal out of all proportion to their scale and ambition.”

The creative team behind the structure, An Turas, which means 'The Journey' in Gaelic, were presented with the prestigious title and a cheque for £25,000 at a ceremony at the Point Hotel, Edinburgh.

The shelter was also on the shortlist for the UK’s premier architectural award, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling prize, but narrowly missed out earlier this month.

However, the RIAS judges are in no doubts about its architectural worth. The judging panel described the shelter as “small, simple and sophisticated, reticent, refined and rigorous, a modern interpretation of the gazebo and a stunning architectural experience”.

One of the judges, Professor Andy MacMillan, was lavish in his praise, saying: "This impeccably detailed small building is the result of a creative collaboration of architects, artists and an engineer, located at the place of arrival and departure from the island it cannot be missed. A paradigm of Tiree, the journey between its walls simultaneously reveals the idealised view of sea and ethnic housing, while making visible the big sky above, and by its exclusion by the sheltering walls, the ever-present wind.

"Arrival in the glass box reveals a triptych of views. And finally, when it rains, the glass roof holds the blown water long enough to create a shifting pattern of light and a waterfall down the glass front."

He added: "A place of subtle insight, poetically conceived, stunning in its import, immaculately constructed. Not a shelter, but a place in which to experience Tiree, the big sky, the unending wind and water, the beauty of the island and its squalor.”

The building was funded by the Scottish Arts Council and was created by Edinburgh based architects Sutherland Hussey and Jake Harvey, working with Glen Onwin, Donald Urquhart and Sandra Kennedy.

John Pelan, RIAS Director of Communications, said: "The judges had a difficult job in selecting a final shortlist for the award. Scotland's architects are delivering world class, sustainable, innovative and radical new buildings to be enjoyed and used by everyone."

(gh)