Gareth Hoskins has won the competition to design Scotland's first standalone pavilion at the Venice Biennale international architecture festival.
The Glasgow-based architect saw off around 50 practices to win the prize project – part gallery/part venue for debates – dubbed the Gathering Space – although the final decision has yet to be ratified by the Scottish government.
Mr Hoskins’ vision, “the stairs as space”, proposes a construct in Venice that offers both an indoor auditorium and an external gathering space in an installation that will be constructed entirely from either sustainably-sourced or reclaimed timber.
On the outside, a set of public stairs, with seating for up to 200 people, will be used both for organized events and informal gatherings. Meanwhile the stairs form a roof that rises above the indoor auditorium - a space that is expected to seat 80-100 people.
The project has been backed by both the Lighthouse architecture centre and the Scottish government and already has a pledge of £75,000 of Scottish government cash.
Mr Hoskins said public stairs as seating has had a long tradition of being a type of informal gathering place.
“These places are vital to the urban environment,” he said. “If all the world is a stage, then the urban stair and the people who use them can be thought of as the audience.”
