The Glass Box Structure

The glass box structure at the end is nestled in an old stone dyke, and provides a view of the landscape and Gott bay, creating for the viewer, beyond the black timber box enclosure a framed experience of the Tiree landscape. From within the glass box, a scatter of stones forms the point of culmination, and gives the impression that the building has energetically burst through the wall.

The viewer, by crossing the stone dyke becomes removed from the Pierhead activity, and becomes a voyeur of Tiree, being able to look out but not be seen.  Within the box, the floor, slightly elevated above the land, provides a three-dimensional landscape experience; a view of the ferry terminal and of the old lichen covered Lewissian stone dyke that snakes down to the shoreline.

This glass enclosure also provides a shell-like protection from the elements, and separates the non-visual senses from the environment.

The angled roof structure of the glass box is designed to hold water. The intended outcome being to create a view of the sky through the (at times wind blown) mobile volume of shimmering, translucent water. Wind blown sand accumulating in this volume of water is constantly moving and reforming – thus echoing the ebb, flow and constantly changing form of the sea margins. Drain spouts control the mass of water that collects from natural precipitation, and provide (at times) during periods of heavy rain, the sensation of looking at the landscape through a cascade of water – rather like an old fishmonger’s window.

The floor in this space is laid with upright stacked Ballahulish slate. The colour and form of this material echoes the galvanised frame of the steel box and creates a textural dialogue and visual parallelism between wave movement beyond in Gott bay, and the distant features of the landscape and cloud strata.