Prospect North

Client / Collaborator
Creative Scotland, Scottish Government, Architecture+Design Scotland, British Council, Scotland+Venice Partnership
Sector
design, engagement, strategy and feasibility,
exhibit, filmmaking, interactive
Date
2015 – 2017

Exploring Scotland’s future as part of the Nordic and Arctic region

The Venice Biennale is the most prestigious and globally recognised cultural exhibition held every year throughout the floating city in Italy. We were honoured to represent Scotland in 2016 (with support from Dualchas Architects and Soluis) with our entry blending together physical and digital interpretation, experiences and content to explore the future of Scotland within the Nordic and Arctic regions. 

Responding to both the geo-political landscape of Scotland in 2016 and how we place an innovative, future-thinking exhibition within a historic chapel in Venice (the location of the Scottish pavilion), we focused on how we could represent people, places, ideas, strategies and projects within Scotland that were inspired by Nordic design principles or were related to the future of a climatically changing ‘north’.

Prospect North was launched on the 26th May 2016 as part of the Venice Biennale collateral programme. 

Building on our previous experience of mapping future ideas of Scotland, our design began to form around the creation of a sculptural map of the country that would be placed in the centre of the Scottish pavilion. Working alongside the client and other stakeholders we identified projects which we wanted to ‘place on the map’, documenting how the project combined collaborative working practices and the role of designers as part of the work. 

Working alongside Soluis – a design company focussed on digital immersion – we started to imagine how these stories would be physically and digitally augmented, presented and realised. Our design approach explored sustainability and how we could present not only the stories of Scotland to the world but also the products, music, artwork and materials of the country we call home, offering an exhibition layered with information, content and ideas. 

At the centre of the room was an abstract topographical timber map of Scotland. Entering from the top – meeting Shetland, Orkney and na h-Eileanan Siar first – the visitor was transported back to Scottish communities and places in the past, present and future through the use of augmented and virtual reality content. 

Placing a unicorn, elk or polar bear (representing the Scotland, the Nordic region and Arctic region, respectively) on your head transported you to a ruined blackhouse, a contemporary rural home on the Isle of Skye, or a volumetric house of the future. Meanwhile, picking up an augmented reality phone or tablet visualised data, information and stories across the map. 

A series of events were held with international visitors throughout the exhibition run before Prospect North returned home – visiting Glasgow, Dundee and Oban – and was the central feature of the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

On a bustling side street in Venice, a vision of Scotland transformed is drawing in crowds at this year’s international Architecture Biennale.

Occupying a converted chapel, the installation is the work of Prospect North, an alliance between Glasgow design practice Lateral North, Skye-based architects Dualchas, and Glasgow’s Soluis digital studio.

In a multimedia exhibit that showcases Scottish materials alongside augmented reality technology, the chapel has been filled with a huge wooden model of Scotland, Scandinavia and the Arctic. The exhibit presents a vision for the future in which the country is repositioned at the heart of a sustainable North Atlantic economy.