Edinburgh Horcrux #2 - Scottish Parliament Architecture

I felt rather ambivalent about the tour of Scottish Parliament. I know little about politics, and even less about Scottish politics, so I was mostly worried that the things we saw wouldn't "mean" anything to me.
However, I could not have been more wrong. The more we toured, the more I wished for the tour to continue. I was blown away by the ingenuity in the architecture! Our tour guide told us that the architect, Enric Miralles, was asked to make the building represent "the sea around Scotland, the land of Scotland, and the people of Scotland." I'm amazed by how every part of the building seems to involve one of these three ideas.

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scottish_Parliament_site_plan.svg

In the aerial view, you can see how the whole thing is rather shaped like a tree, recalling the land of Scotland. Inside in the Lobby there are aerial windows that let look either like boats or leaves or perhaps other things depending on the viewer, really mixing in all three sources of inspiration. The lobby overlooks the garden, again drawing back to the land of Scotland.
In fact, there are many windows throughout the building, which we were told was to allude to the transparency of the parliament. They were there for the people, not to hide things from the people. Many of the outer windows have a rather peculiar shape to them. Enric died before he could release the true meaning, but the consensus is that they're designed to look like a curtain pulled to the side, again alluding to the transparency and openness of the MSPs. Speaking of the MSPs, the offices have "think pod" window seats, so the MSPs can look outside and really concentrate on the hard issues at hand.

A think pod. Image from: http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/spb/images/sph-9.jpg

Outer windows.

 The wood in the building comes from sustainable sources, mostly from around the world. But in the heart of the Debating Chamber, they used Scottish wood, which stands as reminder that at the heart of their debates is Scotland. Also, there are no assigned seats in the debating chamber. This is so that it's clear there is no division between the different parties, and no MSP is better than any other MSP. All seats face inward, to serve as a place for debate for the betterment of Scotland.

Debating chamber. Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Scottish_Parliament01_2005-11-13.jpg

The things I have listed are the things I remember from the tour off the top of my head. Further research, or actually viewing the building in person, reveals so much more beauty and power in the building. From the artwork displayed to the architectural design to the very materials the building is made out of, the entire Scottish Parliament Building is truly fantastic.
I think it's important that a people have a government they are proud of, and a government should be proud to serve its people. This building reminds both parties of that and thus serves as a beautiful model in current culture, though it represents people and stories from the entire history of Scotland.