Museum of Scotland wins best building award

The National Museum of Scotland, an Asia-Europe Museum Network member, has been undergoing a major redevelopment since 2006.

The adjacent Victorian building has been transformed into a vibrant museum for the 21st century, opening up public spaces, providing new facilities and displaying our natural world, world cultures, art and design and science and technology collections in innovative new ways.

The BBC reports, the team behind the £47.4m refurbishment of the National Museum of Scotland has won the country's top architecture prize. Gareth Hoskins Architects received the £25,000 Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) best building award. Judges were impressed by the opening up of the basement, with street-level galleries added and visitors encouraged to move up through the building.

Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, said: "Gaining this award underlines the huge success of the redevelopment on every level.

"There has been a phenomenal public response to the transformation of the building, the new displays and the work we have done in making the museum more open and accessible. "It is wonderful to receive this formal recognition for the work undertaken by Gareth Hoskins and all of the rest of the team." Presenting the prize, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "Scotland has an international reputation for creativity and innovation, enhanced by the outstanding quality of Scottish architecture. The judges praised the winning project for "ingenuity" in drawing visitors up and through its "superbly restored spaces".