Crucible Part 2 Project 2005 Douglas McCorkell Mackintosh School of Architecture | UK The building acts as a memorial to the Wars of Independence by taking visitors on a historic journey. The museum is an extension of Stirling Castle sited on the East bank adjacent to the esplanade. The architecture strives to illuminate particular emotions in the sequence of the tumulteous story. The three major battlefield sites of the wars are visible from the museum, three chambers frame views tying the history back into the landscape. Historical artefacts from the wars are displayed on route. The realistic brief derived from a competition for the battlefield site of Bannockburn marking its 700th anniversary. This project is a combination of challenging historical context within the domain of the imposing Stirling Castle and the creation of a museum representing past human conflict and memory.The solution skilfully intervenes on the slope of the approach to the castle and extends the heavy defensive mass of the peripheral walls. With judicious cutting away of the solid mass, large scaled framed views from inside the new museum reveal the killing fields below while an intricate internal journey reveals the chronological sequence and is deftly woven into the castle promenade. The project sensitively explores the meaning of materials.