RIAS Consultancy – the competitions and procurement arm of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland – has revealed the five shortlisted teams for a competition to design The Crichton Project – a £15 million new cultural building in Dumfries and Galloway.

The competition, which has been organised on behalf of The Crichton Trust, seeks to find the design team for what will be one of the most significant cultural buildings in Scotland.

The Crichton Project: Design competition shortlist revealed

RIAS Consultancy – the competitions and procurement arm of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland – has today revealed the five shortlisted teams for a competition to design The Crichton Project – a £15 million new cultural building in Dumfries and Galloway. The competition, which has been organised on behalf of The Crichton Trust, seeks to find the design team for what will be one of the most significant cultural buildings in Scotland.

The Crichton Trust and RIAS Consultancy sought explicitly to encourage collaboration and to enable a diverse range of practices – including smaller firms - to apply. 69 teams responded to the call for entries issued in July – the largest response ever to a RIAS Consultancy design competition, and the shortlist revealed today contains an impressive group of architecture practices – large and small, both from Scotland and from further afield – with creative and intriguing collaborations.

The five shortlisted teams are as follows:

• Caruso St John Architects with Loader Monteith Architects Team

Also includes: London Structures Lab (structural engineer), Max Fordham (M&E), Gardiner and Theobald (quantity surveyor), Nigel Dunnett Studio (landscape architect).

• Hoskins Architects


Team also includes: Arup (civil, structural, fire and accessibility engineer), Max Fordham (M&E), Thomas and Adamson (quantity surveyor and project director, Rankin Fraser (landscape designer), Simon Leach Design (exhibition and heritage interpretation designer), Andrew O'Hagan (novelist and essayist), Lucy Byatt (curator and critic).

• MUMA

Team also includes: Tom Stuart-Smith (landscape design), Ritchie + Daffin (environmental and services engineer), Eckersley O'Callaghan (structural engineer), Gardiner and Theobald (quantity surveyor and project manager).

• O'Donnell Brown Architects with White Arkitekter and ZM Architecture

Team also includes: Ekkist (wellbeing consultant), McLeod + Aitken (quantity surveyor), Civic Engineers (civil and structural engineer), Harley Haddow (M&E), Landuse Consultants (landscape architects), Carbon Futures (environmental consultant).

• Sutherland Hussey Harris with Graeme Massie Architects and ScottWhitbyStudio

Team also includes: Moreham and Brotchie (quantity surveyor), Grizedale Arts (artist curator), Whitby Wood (structural engineer), Karen Guthrie (community gardens/landscape specialist), Max Fordham (M&E and sustainability)

Following the blind shortlisting process, each team will now be awarded an honorarium of £20,000 to develop their proposals ahead of an online public exhibition in early December, and the winning team will be revealed in early 2023.

The new building – provisionally titled The Crichton Centre for Memory and Wellbeing - will contain exhibition and archive facilities to house the Crichton Archive, and the Crichton Heritage Centre: enhancing people's understanding of the Crichton's 180 year heritage and innovation in the provision of mental health care and arts and health. The building will also bring together a new visual arts and exhibition space, an intergenerational academic study space and resource centre, and a land art archives and research centre.

The Crichton Project design competition is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. Further information about The Crichton Project is available at www.thecrichtonproject.com.

Gwilym Gibbons, chief executive of The Crichton Trust said: "We have been delighted by the range and strength of submissions for this once in a lifetime project and it has been a huge pleasure to read and feel the passion and excitement for The Crichton Centre for Memory and Wellbeing shared within the submissions. Congratulations to all those shortlisted, we very much look forward to hearing and seeing your ideas develop as we move forward to the final stage of the selection process."

Tamsie Thomson, chief executive of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, said: "When we launched the design competition for The Crichton Centre, we described it as a step-change for RIAS Consultancy, working with The Crichton Trust to dismantle many of the obstacles to larger tenders for small businesses, and looking to attract talent from every shade of the architectural spectrum. So far it's all gone to plan: we are thrilled to have received a record number of submissions from an extraordinarily diverse range of architecture practices and wider teams, embracing Scottish architectural talent while also attracting participants from much further afield. The shortlist speaks for itself, and I am certain that we are well on track to selecting an outstanding team for an outstanding project."