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.”

View from the upper level of the kelpie interior

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.

Section of the kelpie
Peeking out at the landscape
View of the kelpies from the hub forecourt
The Hub from the road
Exploded isometric plans and cross-section of the hub

  1. A Conversation of Views
  2. Admiral Road Garden
  3. Airdrie Road Garden
  4. Airdrie Road Residence
  5. Albany Avenue Residence
  6. Alcina Garden
  7. Alexandra Park
  8. Aporia Records
  9. Asphalt Poetry
  10. – Poem
  11. Baby Point Gardens
  12. Beach Garden
  13. Beach Village BIA Master Plan
  14. Beaty Residence
  15. Bennington Heights Garden
  16. Berkeley Street Residence
  17. Bin-Scarth Garden
  18. Blink and you miss it.
  19. – Poem
  20. Block 22 Landscape
  21. Bloor St. Apartment
  22. Blue Note
  23. Booth Avenue Residence
  24. Boustrophedon Garden
  25. Braemore Gardens Residence
  26. Browning Avenue Residence
  27. Brunswick Avenue Residence
  28. Camp Arowhon Offices
  29. Canadian Firefighters Memorial
  30. Channelled Buried Moved Lost
  31. Chocolate Loft
  32. City Instrument
  33. Clarendon Garden
  34. Conversation Piece
  35. Cortleigh Boulevard Garden
  36. Creemore Farm
  37. Danforth Mosaic BIA Master Plan
  38. Dickson Park Garden
  39. Dilworth Residence
  40. Don Landing Revitalization
  41. Dublin Grounds of Remembrance
  42. Duncanwoods Townhouses
  43. Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden
  44. Dupont-by-the-Castle BIA
  45. East Point Bird Sanctuary
  46. Eglinton Ave Forecourt
  47. Eglinton Park Master Plan
  48. Elizabeth Fry Society
  49. Ellsworth Residence
  50. Face to Face | Tête à Tête
  51. First Avenue Garden
  52. First Avenue Residence
  53. Flyover Canada
  54. Foote’s Pond Wood
  55. Forest Hill Village Streetscape
  56. Gaze, Glimpse, Glance
  57. Global Affairs Monument
  58. Goldring Landscape, University of Toronto
  59. Gormley Garden
  60. Governor's Bridge Lookout
  61. Greener P
  62. Greer Road Garden
  63. Greer Road Residence
  64. Guelph Bridge
  65. Head in the Clouds
  66. Helena Ave Residence 4
  67. Jackman Institute for Childhood Studies
  68. Junction Craft Brewery
  69. Kelpies Competition
  70. Kew Gardens Streetscape
  71. King's Landing Apartment
  72. Kipling & Islington Developments
  73. Lakeport Beach Neighbourhood
  74. Le jardin du repos
  75. Lenticular Curtain
  76. Leslie Slip Lookout Park
  77. Liberty Village Parkettes
  78. Liza’s Garden
  79. Lynwood Garden
  80. Macroscape
  81. Makwa Waakaa'igan
  82. Markham Garden One
  83. Markham Street Residence Two
  84. Massey College Landscape Restoration
  85. Midtown Yonge Streetscape
  86. Mount Dennis Parkettes
  87. Mulock Park
  88. Nathan Phillips Square
  89. – Streetscape
  90. – Peace Garden
  91. – Podium Roof Garden
  92. Noel Garden
  93. Octane Medical Campus
  94. Orchard View Garden
  95. Osgoode Atkinson Green Competition
  96. Owl Cottage
  97. Paperstone Scissors
  98. Pendrith Residence
  99. Peripheral Sitings
  100. Pottery Road Crossing
  101. rare
  102. Ravine Forecourt
  103. Ribbon of the Lower Don
  104. Riverside BIA Master Plan
  105. Roxborough Garden One
  106. Roxborough Garden Two
  107. Schulich School of Business
  108. Sheridan College
  109. – Trafalgar Campus Master Plan
  110. Spadina Quay Wetland
  111. St. Anne's Road Garden
  112. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
  113. Stratford Market Square Competition
  114. Stratford Patterson Theatre Competition
  115. Superkids Dental
  116. Superlegible
  117. Sweet Farm
  118. Sweet Farm Pond House
  119. Swift Medical Offices
  120. The Meadows Reconsidered
  121. The Red Sash
  122. Thick & Thin
  123. Thistletown II Townhouses
  124. Tipping Point
  125. TMU Centre for Urban Innovation
  126. TMU Science Building
  127. Tranby Garden
  128. Tree House Residence
  129. UBC Okanagan – The Commons
  130. UHN Tunnels
  131. University of Toronto Mississauga Welcome Centre
  132. Venice Biennale 2012
  133. Vermont Square Park
  134. Vernon Avenue Garden
  135. Walk the Walk
  136. Walmer Road Residence
  137. Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
  138. Wellesley Cottages Garden
  139. Wells Street Residence
  140. Westminster Residence
  141. Weston Village BIA Masterplan
  142. With Words as Their Actions
  143. Woodlawn Avenue Residence
  144. Woven Stories
  145. Wynford Drive Residences
  146. York Park
  147. Yorkwoods Townhouses