Scottish MPs move in to new Kemnay granite building

Scottish parliamentary staff and SMPs have started moving into their new offices at Holyrood in Edinburgh ahead of the official opening of the new Kemnay granite buildings in October.

The national press have tended to concentrate on the overrun of the cost of the building - at £431million it is 10 times the original estimate - and its problems - like flooding in recent heavy rain. Not everyone has approved of architect Enric Miralles\' design, either.

But the 1,000 people who will eventually inhabit the development do it have fine buildings, say the package contractors that have worked on it - Watson Stonecraft, Vetter UK, Laing O\'Rourke (Scotland), Lesterose (Scotland) - and the company that supplied the Scottish Kemnay granite used to build it, Fyfe Glenrock.

For Fyfe Glenrock, Scotland\'s first Parliament for 300 years was worth approximately £3.5million worth of stone orders.

In April 2002, work packages for the supply of 6,000m2 of external cladding to the MSP Office Building and the Assembly Building were awarded to Fyfe Glenrock after the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body had selected Kemnay silver-grey granite from Kemnay Quarry, Aberdeenshire, for this major element of the project.

In addition, a contract for the supply of 3,000m2 of internal tiling to both buildings was awarded, again in Kemnay granite.

Kemnay Quarry, which had lain dormant for five years, was immediately re-opened and during the following two years 140,000 tonnes of granite has been extracted. Sound material has been carefully selected and a total 1,160 granite blocks weighing 6,000 tonnes have been converted into 9,000m2 of finished stonework.

Selection of the primary slab required that strict criteria, in terms of the specified colour variation and finished unit sizes, were adhered to.

The Kemnay paving within the Assembly Building has a honed finish and is laid in a modular pattern. The stair treads to the grand and public stairways have narrow black Caithness stone strip inserts to provide a contrasting sightline. Raised corduroy strips provide guidance at the leading edge of the landings for visually impaired persons.

In addition to the Kemnay, 450m2 of South African Belfast Black granite panels have been used to provide a contrast on the external walls of the MSP Office Building. The same material was also used to provide external louvered feature panels on the building.

In October 2002 the contract was awarded for the supply of hard landscaping materials required for the roadways, pavements and external public areas around the Parliament Buildings.

Scottish Whinstone, sourced from Caldercruix Quarry, Airdrie, has been used for the kerbing, channels and trims - 1,600 linear metres of it. There are also 4,600m2 of Portuguese silver and dark grey granite setts in the public areas and roadways in a selection of finishes.

Raised blister tactile paving has been produced in Kemnay granite and laid to delineate pedestrian crossing areas.