Now the public of Scotland will know more about what is contemporary architecture. It is Malcolm Fraser, who trusted to design the Scottish Ballet, a state of the art dance centre. Like the rest of Fraser’s designs, he tries to creating a very flexible space, while keep the balance between public and private zones. The Scottish Ballet will provide: administration and wardrobe areas organized around this huge space at first floor, workshop areas centered on a triple height scenic at ground floor level, and three huge rehearsal studios at the top of the building. It will replace the unused Tramway arts centre located adjacent to the project.

The new building is connected with Tramway’s heart, ‘T3’, on Albert Drive. Both are juxtaposition to the green room that is the heart of the company. The stair leads up to the rehearsal studios at the second floor, while there are balconies across it. The other stairs and lifts near the court connected to the workshops and the studios. Two of the rehearsal spaces front to the Pollokshaws Road. While it was the east side of the building which have clerestories ~which display props from previous company productions~, the west side facing skylights also acts as part of natural cross ventilation. The main rehearsal studio no. 1 is located at the centre of the Scottish Ballet. The grid structure divides nine skylights that will bring a diffuse and light into the space. It’s both give literally and metaphorically meanings to enhance the inside activities.

Above this the wardrobe department has a large glazed wall, overlooking and animating the street and allowing glimpsed views of the elaborate costumes being made inside. The Studios above gain articulation by carefully positioned windows offering views up and down Pollokshaws Road and high clerestory windows; but it is not just the low level windows that animate; large mirrors along the edge of the ceiling to these studios, will allow pedestrians to look up and see reflected images of the dancers.

The building considers the urban. From the Hidden Garden’s side the serrated roofs above the Studio 1 cohesive to the industrial roof profile of the Tramway building. An interesting scheme for timber tree-houses up in the Highlands and a series of artists retreats currently under development.

Each elevation is noticed at the outside from a textured, pigmented concrete cladding panel at ground level, as the answer to the daily urban activities. The second level will be clad with profiled sheet aluminium which will have varying profiles and color, from dark grey to silver and gold, give subtle layering of the proportion and scale to the building. Also people allowed for some glimpse view what happened inside as the wardrobe department has a large glazed wall.

The £11 million Scottish Ballet rises on the 4,000 m² land and will be start in 2008. It has been making do in a former Territorial Army base across the city, enable to carry on using the Tramway for occasional performances, while continuing to use the Glasgow Theatre Royal for larger shows as the part of touring program.

The Scottish Ballet is the expression of the ‘artistry’ and ‘industry’ of the company. Fraser subtle the balance between the need for dance studios and creates a new landmark for the art building. He experienced it from his previous designs, Dance City in Newcastle and Dance Base in Edinburgh, the 2002 Stirling Prize shortlist. “When you are dancing, whirling about, you really need to understand the simple geometry of the space you are in, I know that dancers like our buildings because we are not trying to impose something on their art form, we are trying to help enable it,” says Fraser.

Maybe Fraser’s ability to design is because the blood and love. First he is an Edinburgh man. Then his father was a structural engineer for Basil Spence and others before retiring. His wife, Helen Lucas, is also an architect. Fraser is known as neo modernist for his concentration to contemporary Scottish architecture. “I was a late starter, but maybe there’s a virtue in taking your time about these things. It took time to discover my confidence. But now I see that the wonderful thing about being an architect is knowing that wherever you are, there are people in your buildings, enjoying them. That’s the joy.”

The Storytelling Centre where the Scottish Ballet will rise keeps a lot of story. It’s located between an ancient gateway to the Old Town and to the 16th-century John Knox House, where the project linked. “It went into planning back in 1996, when Edinburgh was still supposed to be ruinously backward, I phoned up six weeks later and with trembling voice asked what was happening and the conservation officer said everyone liked it and it was up for approval,” Fraser says. “We enjoy the complexities of these sites, that’s not to say that we don’t enjoy a flat site, but we are fascinated by plots with history and bits of old buildings, all these things that you can connect yourself to,” he added.

The project will place at the center of a dynamic international performing and visual arts centre, by creating a production and presentation facility of a scale and artistic mix in the UK. Tramway is owned and managed by Glasgow City Council. It has gained an international reputation life for Glasgow’s influential European Year of Culture in 1990, brought the city back to live. The Scottish Ballet will enhance the Tramway without sacrificing the existing arts spaces. This plan will transform derelicted Tramway’s space and create the largest centre for dance in Scotland. This project will also benefit the local community with access and outreach programmes forming an integral part of Scottish Ballet’s move to Tramway.

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