Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Keppie Design & OLIN win Aberdeen City Garden Competition

Granite Web | Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Aberdeen City Garden Trust is delighted to announce that the team led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro has won the design competition to transform the centre of  Aberdeen.

Internationally-renowned Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who collaborated with local  Scottish architects, Keppie Design and landscape architects OLIN, was chosen as the winner after the competition was extended to include a run-off between the DS+R-led team and the Foster + Partners-led team. The successful proposal, popularly known as the Granite Web, celebrates the three-dimensional aspects of Aberdeen, reinterpreting the topography of the
Denburn Valley and the dramatic cascade of the existing Union Terrace Gardens while creating graceful new spaces and structures that contribute to a memorable and thrilling contemporary design.


Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Keppie Design & OLIN win Aberdeen City Garden Competition
It provides additional usable garden space, a landmark cultural and arts centre, and promotes the City’s historic streets, revealing the arches, vaults and bridge on Union Street and retaining the balustrades and statues which are part of  Aberdeen’s legacy. The Jury’s decision represents a breakthrough for DS+R giving them their first major European design competition win. DS+R Partner, Charles Renfro said

‘The steep competition drove us that much harder to do more research, to understand the site more thoroughly, to dig deeper into our creative reserve and our technical expertise to find a daring, thoughtful and beautiful solution.’

The City Garden Project team has been working along with Aberdeen City Council and consultants PWC to develop a solid business case for funding the project as part of the wider city centre regeneration scheme.  The winning design concept will now be subject to a referendum. If the referendum reveals that the public are in support of the project, detailed designs will be produced for a planning application.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Keppie Design & OLIN win Aberdeen City Garden Competition

IMAGE Courtesy of Malcolm Reading

About Damian Holmes 3245 Articles
Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture (WLA). He is a registered landscape architect (AILA) working in international design practice in Australia. Damian founded WLA in 2007 to provide a website for landscape architects written by landscape architects. Connect on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianholmes/

2 Comments

  1. I think the design looks absolutely stunning , and , at last ( a mere
    200 years after everyone else)  a fountain in drab aberdeen city centre!  Dont expect the locals will like it much tho , far to forward thinking for backward minded  aberdeen.

  2. shame you’ve colluded in the destruction of the historic centre of my home town, over-riding the wishes expressed in a previous public consultation, AND after your design didn’t win the public’s vote when the competing designs were showcased

Comments are closed.