THE Scottish Office announced yesterday that five architectural teams have been shortlisted as possible designers for the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh. Two of the design teams include Scottish practices, and Scottish-born and trained architects play a prominent role in many of the submissions.

Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar claimed that the quality and track record of the design teams meant that Scotland would have a Parliament to be proud of and Edinburgh would gain a building of international distinction.

The teams are Rafael Vinoly, based in New York; Michael Wilford, whose main office is in London; Richard Meier and Keppie Design (the latter being a Glasgow firm); Enric Miralles Y Moya from Barcelona; and Glass Murray & Denton Corker Marshall International (Glass Murray is a Glasgow firm).

Mr Dewar said they were now entering perhaps the most exciting stage of the competition so far. Over the next three weeks the shortlisted teams will produce a range of drawings to demonstrate the development of their ideas.

These will go on public display around the second week in June in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, and the Borders. The public will be encouraged to give their views on them and a final choice of designer will be made at the beginning of July. Work will start on the site in the middle of next year.

The Scottish Secretary chairs a five-strong selection panel which includes as the people's representative TV journalist Kirsty Wark, Professor Andy McMillan from the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, and the Scottish Office's chief architect, Dr John Gibbons.

Mr Dewar said they had faced ''a genuinely daunting task'' to reduce the list from 12 to five. The panel had been immensely impressed by all the presentations that had been given during interviews held earlier this week.

Mr Dewar said he wanted to express the panel's thanks to those who had come forward for interview but were not selected for the final shortlist.

Dr Gibbons recalled that there had originally been 70 contenders who wanted to design the Parliament. When that had been reduced to 12 teams, they had been looking at those in the top range of architectural practices in the world. All those interviewed had recognised this was an incredibly important commission but it had to be remembered that it was not a large one in international cost terms.

He said the panel had looked at a wide range of issues in making their choice, including the track record of the teams in building away from home and the design range of the principal partners in each practice. All had promised to establish offices in Edinburgh if necessary while the project was being completed.

Alexander Linklater takes a look at the shortlist . . .

Glass Murray & Denton Corker Marshall International

On the face of it, Glass Murray (Scottish Life Offices in Glasgow) is dwarfed by its Australian partner, Denton Corker Marshall (embassies in Tokyo and Berlin).

But a long-standing friendship between directors of the two firms - Gordon Murray and James Gibson - means the design would most likely be the result of equal collaboration.

Richard Meier and Keppie Design

Small countries commission Meier to give them a noticeable splash of white US modernism. Big projects include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona and the Getty Centre in Los Angeles. Keppie Design (Sheriff Court in Glasgow) would lend a Scottish flavour.

Enric Miralles Y Moya

This would be the slick European alternative to the slick American work of Meier. The kind of ambitious architecture which looks good in glossy magazines. Based in Barcelona, Miralles' designs include the Olympic Archery Pavilions in Barcelona and the new town hall for Utrecht in Holland.

Michael Wilford

The only major British firm to be included on the shortlist. Known as the Stirling/Wilford partnership until the death of Sir James Stirling in 1992, the firm was responsible for the Leicester University engineering building and Cambridge University history faculty. More recently it has designed the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart.

Rafael Vinoly

Based in New York with offices in Japan, Argentina and Korea, the firm is capable of huge, breathtaking work (Tokyo International Forum) as well as the restoration of historic buildings.