Kelpies Competition

This project was one of five short-listed schemes in a two-stage, international competition to design the £1.0-million Kelpies Visitor Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. The competition included the internal layout of one of the two giant, 30-metre-high sculptures of horses’ heads by Scottish figurative sculptor Andy Scott, and the design of a separate complementary visitor hub with retail and interpretation facilities, café, offices and washrooms. The Kelpies forms part of a wider park and canal project known as the “The Helix.”

Our project entitled Delayed Reaction Chamber describes a choreography of public architectural spaces that pace and slow down movement to make more suspenseful the revelation of the powerful scale and texture of the Kelpie and canal experience. The Hub, with its long, covered porch and continuous seating, is a linear perch to view the colossus-like Kelpies. Inside the Kelpie, a celestial experience is revealed slowly. At the ground floor, a giant oculus beckons as visitors are surrounded by the fritted, glass-lined chamber exhibiting famous, giant, local horses and their lore. Rising to the first floor, the insignificant size of the visitor is pit against the vast, sublime and seemingly ominous space of the horse’s head – like Jonah in the whale. Here, the platform is lined with a 27 metre-long cantilevered, warping and sweeping chaise lounge that twists around the space, offering a “stargazing” experience from many viewing positions.
The Hub presents an open-concept porch to the public space, and a dark and solid splaying form to the M9 Roadway – with giant light-slits as a directional vector to the Kelpies. The singular gestural roof is the centerpiece of the retail growth concept and provides a sheltered area for events, retail shoppers and café crowds. The Hub has the opportunity to develop like a market, with flexible space for future retail stands, temporary booths and larger, permanent concessions for food service, gift shopping, and boat and bike rentals.





- A Conversation of Views
- Admiral Road Garden
- Airdrie Road Garden
- Airdrie Road Residence
- Albany Avenue Residence
- Alcina Garden
- Alexandra Park
- Alwington Landscape / Garden Pavilion
- Aporia Records
- Ardwick Townhouses
- Asphalt Poetry
- – Poem
- Baby Point Gardens
- Beach Garden
- Beach Village BIA Master Plan
- Beaty Residence
- Bennington Hts Garden
- Bennington Hts Ravine Garden 1
- Berkeley Street Residence
- Bin-Scarth Garden
- Blink and you miss it.
- – Poem
- Block 22 Landscape
- Bloor St. Apartment
- Blue Note
- Booth Avenue Residence
- Boustrophedon Garden
- Braemore Gardens Residence
- Brahms Townhouses
- Browning Avenue Residence
- Brunswick Avenue Residence
- Camp Arowhon Offices
- Canadian Firefighters Memorial
- Catch / Renew / Release
- Channelled Buried Moved Lost
- Chocolate Loft
- City Instrument
- Clarendon Garden
- Conversation Piece
- Cortleigh Boulevard Garden
- Creemore Farm
- Danforth Mosaic BIA Master Plan
- Danforth Parkettes
- Dickson Park Garden
- Dilworth Residence
- Don Landing Revitalization
- Dublin Grounds of Remembrance
- Duncanwoods Townhouses
- Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden
- Dupont-by-the-Castle BIA
- East Point Bird Sanctuary
- Eglinton Ave. Forecourt
- Eglinton Park Master Plan
- Elizabeth Fry Society
- Ellsworth Residence
- Face to Face | Tête à Tête
- First Avenue Garden
- First Avenue Residence
- Flyover Canada
- Foote’s Pond Wood
- Forest Hill Village Streetscape
- Gaze, Glimpse, Glance
- Global Affairs Monument
- Goldring Landscape, University of Toronto
- Gormley Garden
- Governor's Bridge Lookout
- Greener P
- Greer Road Garden
- Greer Road Residence
- Guelph Bridge
- Head in the Clouds
- Helena Ave Residence 4
- Jean Tweed Addition + Laneway House
- Junction Craft Brewery
- Kelpies Competition
- Kew Gardens Streetscape
- King's Landing Apartment
- Kipling & Islington Developments
- Lakeport Beach Neighbourhood
- Le jardin du repos
- Lenticular Curtain
- Leslie Slip Lookout Park
- Liberty Village Parkettes
- Liza’s Garden
- Lynwood Garden
- Macroscape
- Makwa Waakaa'igan
- Markham Garden One
- Markham Street Residence Two
- Massey College Landscape Restoration
- May Street Ravine
- Midtown Yonge Streetscape
- Montreal Holocaust Memorial Competition
- Mount Dennis Parkettes
- Mulock Park
- Nathan Phillips Square
- – Streetscape
- – Peace Garden
- – Podium Roof Garden
- Octane Medical Campus
- Orchard View Garden
- Osgoode Atkinson Green Competition
- Owl Cottage
- Paperstone Scissors
- Pendrith Residence
- Peripheral Sitings
- Pottery Road Crossing
- rare
- Ravine Forecourt
- Ribbon of the Lower Don
- Riverside BIA Master Plan
- Roxborough Garden One
- Roxborough Garden Two
- Schulich School of Business
- Sheridan College
- – Trafalgar Campus Master Plan
- Spadina Quay Wetland
- St. Anne's Road Garden
- St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
- Stratford Market Square Competition
- Stratford Patterson Theatre Competition
- Superkids Dental
- Superlegible
- Sweet Farm
- Sweet Farm Pond House
- Swift Medical Offices
- The Meadows Reconsidered
- The Red Sash
- The Sara Jackman Playground
- Thick & Thin
- Thistletown II Townhouses
- Tipping Point
- TMU Centre for Urban Innovation
- TMU Science Building
- Tranby Garden
- Tree House Residence
- UBC Okanagan – The Commons
- UHN Tunnels
- University of Toronto Mississauga Welcome Centre
- UW Mathematics Landscape
- Venice Biennale 2012
- Vermont Square Park
- Vernon Avenue Garden
- Walker Townhouse Courtyard
- Walk the Walk
- Walmer Road Residence
- Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
- Wellesley Cottages Garden
- Wells Street Residence
- Wendat Square
- Westminster Residence
- Weston Village BIA Masterplan
- With Words as Their Actions
- Woodlawn Avenue Residence
- Woven Stories
- Wynford Drive Residences
- York Park
- Yorkwoods Townhouses
- Young Centre for the Perfoming Arts