Edinburgh Quay was set up with British Waterways

The �431m Holyrood parliament and A' Chrannag housing project in Rothesay are among five buildings shortlisted.

The others are the Community Centre for Health and the Sentinel Office Development in Glasgow and Phase One of the Edinburgh Quay project.

The 2005 RIAS Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture winner will receive �25,000 at a ceremony on 5 October.

The judging panel said it was extremely impressed by the quality of all the buildings it considered and, in particular, those that reached the final shortlist.

The building has the richness of a small city compressed into a difficult and demanding site Judges' comment on Holyrood In Pictures: Best building shortlist

The judges said the Sentinel Building, at the entrance to Glasgow's international financial business district, was proof "commercial architecture is not an oxymoron".

They added: "A powerful urban statement using a minimal palette of natural grey slate and glass - a real 'Glasgow' building with ingenious use of modern technology to produce a light, airy, colourful building that literally glows in the dark."

Edinburgh Quay, Phase One, was the first mixed-use canal side development in Scotland.

It was praised as a "wonderful piece of urban placemaking" with "great use of contemporary commercial architectural language to set a standard for the continuing redevelopment of a previously run-down area".

Community involvement

A' Chrannag was designed for Fyne Homes, which wanted sustainable and innovative dwellings, with the local Isle of Bute community involved in the planning process.

"A great achievement by the architect within a limited budget," the judges said.

"Intelligent and sensitive, it enriches the lives of the residents and the wider Rothesay community. Much credit has also to go the client for their enormous enthusiasm and belief in their architect."

RIAS AWARD SHORTLIST Sentinel Office Development, Glasgow. Gordon Murray and Alan Dunlop Architects Edinburgh Quay, Phase One, Edinburgh. Michael Laird Architects A' Chrannag, Rothesay. G Deveci, Architect Scottish Parliament building, Edinburgh. EMBT/RMJM Community Centre for Health, Partick. Gareth Hoskins Architects

The Scottish Parliament is described as a unique institution - open, anti-classical and non-hierarchical.

The judges said: "The building has the richness of a small city compressed into a difficult and demanding site. On one side it is warm and humane, on the other, imbued with an extraordinary richness of architectural references."

The Community Centre for Health in Partick was commissioned by the Greater Glasgow NHS Primary Care Trust in 2002.

It is praised as an "elegant addition to the townscape, which works both as an urban development and as a sensitive community facility, responding well to the needs of both its users and its staff".

The judging panel was made up of Douglas Read, president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), David Porter, head of Glasgow's Mackintosh School of Architecture, Kathryn Findlay, from the University of Dundee and Anthony Reddy, president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.