ABSTRACT
This chapter, which focuses on the period from 1835 to 1837, retraces the development of the architectural scheme and its relationship to David Boswell Reid’s environmental inquiries in the early stages of the project. The architectural design for the new Palace of Westminster was procured through a public competition. This procurement process, which lasted from 1835 to 1837, was led by parliamentarians. Reid had no prior experience of working on the design of public buildings: his reputation was based entirely on his academic research and on the success of his design for a purpose-built teaching laboratory and lecture hall in Edinburgh. Reid had studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and for 15 years pursued a career as an educator and researcher within the field of chemistry. Using his own initiative and at his own expense, Reid constructed a physical mock-up of his proposal to prove its feasibility through physical demonstrations.
