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Assemble & Office Corr Higgins secure Highland cultural hub win

January 15 2025

Assemble & Office Corr Higgins secure Highland cultural hub win

Assemble & Office Corr Higgins have seen off the challenge posed by four rival shortlisted teams to win a Highland design competition to redevelop a museum and cultural institution.

Timespan in Helmsdale selected the pair following an exhaustive search conducted with the assistance of RIAS Consultancy, a process which saw Dualchas Architects, Moxon Architects, Rural Design and Konishi Gaffney Architects all shortlisted.

Assemble and Office Core Higgins commented: “The project is a fantastic opportunity to create a locally embedded, globally connected venue in the Scottish Highlands, combining fascinating local history with an ambitious and vibrant art programme.”

Tamsie Thomson, chief executive of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, said: “The team’s socially engaged, community driven approach won the day, as well as their understanding of Timespan’s combination of local impacts and global outlook.

“At the start of this process we said that Timespan is an organisation that punches above its weight, and we’re delighted to be part of a project that harnesses architecture to allow Timespan to fully realise its potential.”

Assemble and Corr Higgins will now receive around £30k to prepare a feasibility study for the redevelopment of the 600sq/m riverfront site, formerly a herring curing yard, with support from Museums Galleries Scotland and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

22 Comments

Ffs
#1 Posted by Ffs on 15 Jan 2025 at 10:33 AM
So 4/5 on the list are very good Scottish practices and the London celeb practice wins it.

Brilliant. As if things weren’t hard enough here.
Neil C
#2 Posted by Neil C on 15 Jan 2025 at 11:27 AM
Not sure that's fair. It would be difficult for any Scottish practice to compete with that drawing. An obvious clear winner and a reminder of how difficult it is for any architect to draw like a five year old.
Gandalf the Pink
#3 Posted by Gandalf the Pink on 15 Jan 2025 at 13:57 PM
I thought the drawing was a little basic, until I saw that digger in the top left.

Charlie, aged 7, could win a Blue Peter Badge for this!
FHM
#4 Posted by FHM on 15 Jan 2025 at 15:03 PM
#1, you have included Moxon as a very good Scottish practice forgetting they have an office in London. Were you confused with your angry retort? Incidentally, I note that Assemble **and** Office Corr Higgins (Glasgow and Bristol based) have won. Perhaps you wish to clarify your mistakes?
Janice Forsyth
#5 Posted by Janice Forsyth on 15 Jan 2025 at 15:05 PM
@1 - They're not a celeb practice, they're a good practice, as are Corr Higgins - their Scottish collaborator.
ffs
#6 Posted by ffs on 15 Jan 2025 at 15:39 PM
I think you mistake my despair for anger.

I believe it is fair to consider Moxon well established in Scotland; they have been doing (very good) work here for a long time. OCH clearly playing second fiddle to Assemble, as is usually the case with these sort of team-ups. Both are interesting practices and I didn't say they weren't good - also re: 'celeb', didn't Assemble win the Turner prize? Hard to compete with that...Didn't really think it was worth getting into the nuance of that on the point I was trying to make, but there you go.

So, no, not a mistake, but thanks all the same.

On another note, I think the illustration is quite nice.
Eyeroll Eddie
#7 Posted by Eyeroll Eddie on 15 Jan 2025 at 19:39 PM
A two stage tender for a £30k feasibility study… And then no doubt another tender for the next stage… RIAS need to give their head a wobble
pog mo thoin
#8 Posted by pog mo thoin on 15 Jan 2025 at 21:13 PM
It is difficult not to find this whole competitive exercise rather amusing. Serious practices, naive architectural illustrations, competitive processes is it not BS outpacing serious architectural intentions ?
Juli
#9 Posted by Juli on 16 Jan 2025 at 09:45 AM
@#4 - you have included Moxon as a very good Scottish practice period. Might do nice work but BA not so....
Morty
#10 Posted by Morty on 16 Jan 2025 at 09:47 AM
Difficukt to work out what, if any, design improvements they are making from that 5 minute sketch which looks like it was done on the plane up to inverness by the architects 3 year old kid.

I guarantee that the other practices have a much better understanding of the local context that buzzword practice of the month that is Assemble.
This has everything to do with
#11 Posted by This has everything to do with on 16 Jan 2025 at 09:53 AM
A sign of the times. I do have to bite my tongue here. I’m with Ffs on this. Of course, the illustration is nothing but a red herring and it would appear to have served its illusory function.

You don’t have to be a genius to look through Timespan’s website to see who their funders are and what all their policies are to conclude that this is nothing but a political and ideological appointment by the Scottish Government, hiding in plain sight.

Also, there’s an interesting word choice – Scottish ‘collaborator’ - a Freudian slip? N’est-ce pas?

Leaving aside the arguments or accusations of cultural appropriation and gentrification, this is where a woke agenda leads us. A multi-million leviathan imported into a small village like some surrealist shibboleth that will collapse under the weight of its own self-importance.

I’d like to know what architects in Sutherland think of this.

And then there’s always the irony. Helmsdale - a planned village in the Highlands to resettle people affected by the clearances. Just think about it.
JB
#12 Posted by JB on 16 Jan 2025 at 11:30 AM
Or, no11, perhaps they were the best of the entrants following the assessment process?
Nah, couldn't be that simple. ;-)
This has everything to do with
#13 Posted by This has everything to do with on 16 Jan 2025 at 13:30 PM
I am sorry to go on, but I feel this needs highlighting. Simple? No. That would be a contradiction of Timespan's 16 pages of their Equity Diversity and Inclusuion Policy in which the word, 'best' NEVER appears.
I find it astonishing that someone could actually write that document. Anyone who wants to know what kind of 'thang' we are talking about here, I would humbly suggest to have a read for yourself. It is all in the public domain. Or, why not just cut to the chase and read the trip advisor comments? The complaints are all about the ideological toilet arrangements, surprise, surprise.
Also, come to think of it, maybe it was Assemble's commitment to sustainability and to all cycle up to Helmsdale that swung it in their favour...
No, this beauty 'contest' is a smokescreen, like they usually are. Just follow the money (100G's a year from CS alone) and put two and two together. Creative Scotland are the first funder mentioned. That is - the Scottish taxpayer. Remember Creative Scotland, the organisation that funded the real sex show? in April 16 2024 Again its all in the public realm and is truly comedic. This is where we are.
You know for all the Timespan Boards' PHDs and academic brilliancies etc. why couldn't THEY keep it simple and get someone relatively local to do the job?
Lovely
#14 Posted by Lovely on 17 Jan 2025 at 07:36 AM
Loving the in depth analysis here:

A very not-simple process for a small strange project it seems.

It looks like yet more vainglorious colonialist nonsense being put out by the ‘white saviour’ class flying up from wherever to tell us all what to do via their apparatchiks in Edinburgh.

Why solve the major crises in housing, energy, social justice, environment, community and quality of life in Scotland when you can spend the rest of your lives discussing other people’s toilet arrangements instead?
FHM
#15 Posted by FHM on 17 Jan 2025 at 09:47 AM
#6, no it was definitely anger. Moxon may be well established in Scotland but they are equally well established in London which has enabled projects across Europe, and the rest of the world, to flourish. One only has to look at their website to see that they even list London ahead of Crathie in their contacts page. A wider question for you to peruse is whether Assemble would have won if they had not collaborated with OCH. Note, I never said anything regarding "celeb".

#13, what exactly are "ideological toilet arrangements"?! I read a single review (3/5) that mentioned this nonsense:

"Such small spaces in which a young female could be alone with an adult male/s are a clear safeguarding issue. In addition ,they serve to embarrass and compromise most men. My husband and adult son would be mortified to find themselves sharing such an intimate space with a female of any age. Moreover, what female would want to avail herself of the virtue signalling supply of sanitary products in the presence of a man?"

Was that written by Graham Linehan or Robert Galbraith by any chance?! It's a wonder they manage to use an accessible toilet, let alone see sanitary products in the supermarket. Won't somebody **please** think of the husbands and adult sons.
Nate Bargatze
#16 Posted by Nate Bargatze on 17 Jan 2025 at 11:26 AM
And in this brave new world of ours, there shall be 27 genders...
- And what will they be known as sir?
Nobody will know.
- And what will a woman be sir?
Nobody will know.
Maggie
#17 Posted by Maggie on 20 Jan 2025 at 21:06 PM
Or for another viewpoint it might be that the jury looked at the succession of one-off residential, elegantly detailed, timber clad (or refurbished) barns in the portfolios and instead opted to go with the practice that has actually delivered a series of museums, galleries and cultural projects. Just a thought.

I'm sure all of the architects would have been more than capable of delivering well executed toilets to the clients brief ;-)
Morty
#18 Posted by Morty on 21 Jan 2025 at 10:26 AM
@#17 - you mean, practices that deliver consistently high quality, actual buildings (between the other 4 there are bridges, houses, restaurants, church and barn renovations, community buildings, visitor centers, museums, cafes) as opposed to a portfolio consisting of mostly temporary "structures".....
Mark
#19 Posted by Mark on 21 Jan 2025 at 20:33 PM
Regardless of the politics – whether 19th century Clearances, or 21st century gender identity wars – Timespan, and the RIAS, should be ashamed to be associated with that drawing. Being socially engaged and community driven is no reason to churn out childish doodles. Plus it looks like the excavator is stripping peat from the hillside, which is very, very bad for carbon sequestration.
Maggie
#20 Posted by Maggie on 22 Jan 2025 at 20:15 PM
@#18 - I suppose my point is that all procurement processes give a different result depending on the questions that are asked.

I think that all of the practices on the list do a great job, but they all bring different attributes and experiences to the table. If the scoring of the submissions was skewed towards demonstrating experience in delivering cultural projects (which is not unreasonable when the project is a museum) then I could see how Assemble would win. If the scoring was skewed toward delivering projects in Scotland/Highlands/remote locations then it would obviously have a different result.
I wouldn't hold it against the architect's, everyone is putting their best foot forward in a challenging market.
I'm by no means saying they are definitely the right choice for this project in this context, merely that that they might be the best answer to the question which was asked. Fingers crossed it works out well.
I think far too often client's (especially in the public sector) don't realise how they have effectively determined the outcome of a process from the outset, or maybe some of them know exactly what they are doing...

NB Assemble's Atelier Luma is a brilliantly executed building and to my mind a far better building than Gehry's building next door (as is their Goldsmith's Gallery). I wouldn't write them off as only doing temporary structures...
Lovely
#21 Posted by Lovely on 24 Jan 2025 at 08:16 AM
I would definitely hold it against the architects.

Flying in from wherever doing cheap or unpaid work to win small high profile commissions in foreign lands so they can show how wonderful they are.

Not very professional or business minded and we need to stop the move towards good design being a hobby only for well heeled ‘do gooders’.

No wonder the profession is in such a parlous state.

PS- You’d be amazed how difficult it is to create that level of childishness in a drawing.
Eyeroll eddie
#22 Posted by Eyeroll eddie on 25 Jan 2025 at 16:38 PM
If the museum have a particular type of practice in mind then maybe the RIAS would be better supporting them through an invited tender of selected practices rather than a 2 stage open tender process, wasting a huge amount of resource, far more than the amount of fee the architects will get for the feasibility as part of a full design team.

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