Looking and Viewing Edinburgh
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This essay follows Edinburgh’s views from the dense Old Town to the New Town. Beatriz Colomina’s essay on Windows1 from her book ‘Privacy and Publicity’ and Mark Dorrian’s essay on the Iconology of George IV in Edinburgh2 from ‘Writing on the Image’ will be used as the theoretical basis for the essay. The idea of framing Edinburgh is challenged by the different developments occurring in the city. This essay explores the topic of ‘frames’ in three sections: Chessel’s Court (1), Caltongate development (2), and the proposed scheme for the Royal High School (3). The first chapter examines the different views within Chessel’s Court and the street. The second chapter critically examines the disengagement of Caltongate with the historical face. The third chapter examines the controversial scheme proposed for the Royal High School. In the last chapter, a case study of the Slow House by Diller Scofidio + Renfro is studied to bridge the understanding of frames across different periods. Essentially, this essay aims to investigate the different visions of the city that are intertwined within different frames. The format of this essay is also referenced to Colomina’s Privacy and Publicity.
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See Beatriz Colomina, “Windows” in Privacy and Publicity (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 283 – 335. 2 See Mark Dorrian, “The King and the City: On the Iconology of George IV in Edinburgh” in Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation (London: I.B. Tauris, 2015), 32 – 36.
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Framing the City: Looking and Viewing Edinburgh explores the current views of Edinburgh from three distinct sites across the Old Town and the New Town. By analysing these views, different images and visions of the city are created. Using references from Beatriz Colomina’s Privacy and Publicity chapter on ‘Windows’ and Mark Dorrian’s Writing on the Image chapter on ‘George IV in Edinburgh’, we can further uncover how a city is framed, staged and viewed differently.
Colomina’s essay follows closely two modernist architects in the 20th Century – Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. Her writing explains the modernist image of the city. She compares Loos and Le Corbusier and how they view “rooms” in the modern context. In Loos’ Villa Müller, rooms are much more enclosed and views are focused on the inside whereas in Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, rooms are much more open and connected to the outside. Essentially, Colomina shows two types of images of the city through windows – one that reflects (Le Corbusier) and one that protects (Adolf Loos) the view.
Meanwhile, Dorrian draws the image of the city during the Enlightenment Period in the 19th Century and studied the process of how George IV looks at the city and how the city looks at him. He described how the city was stage-managed by Sir Walter Scott in order for the king to see what was intended for him. There was a constant interplay of vision between the king and the city to stimulate a spectacular image of the city being unfolded.
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As we approach contemporary architecture, it is critical to understand the way the city is viewed and the relationship between the vision and the body movement. This is particularly important because our attention shifts as our body moves within a space. Hence, this affects our observations towards a particular view, resulting in different visions of the city.
To rethink the idea of ‘Framing the City’, we will look at three distinct sites: Chessel’s Court, Caltongate and the Calton Hill. These sites cut across the dense Old Town to the New Town and their positions depict different types of views of the city. However, due to rising developments, some important views are affected. The implication here is that the views no longer frame the intersection of Edinburgh. This adversely affects the character of the city from the positions of the people looking at the new views. Therefore, this paper will analyse the different types of frames that are currently present at each site. Subsequently, it will stress on the impacts each frame has in relation to how the city is viewed. This will give us a better understanding of the relationships between each frame and allow us to think of an alternative that breaks away from the modernist thinking that is currently based on.
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Figure 1: 1957 elevations of Hurd Rolland’s Chessel’s Court redevelopment, Simpson & Brown Architects, 2013.
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One of the historical sites in the Old Town of Edinburgh is Chessel’s Court, situated along Canongate. This site and its immediate surrounding contain several buildings that are of national importance. The building heights play a significant role in maintaining a coherent streetscape with the urban fabric.
The scheme by Hurd Rolland for the redevelopment of Chessel’s Court involved a “major restoration of ‘backland’ blocks, with new build and reconstruction towards the street”.1 The blocks along the street of Canongate follow closely to Sir Basil’s Spence’s brief that place fewer residential on the ground floor.2 Instead, the ground floor is mostly designed for commercial purposes as well as openings as seen in the entrance of Chessel’s Court. The arcade provides access and views to the areas behind the building and from the building to the street.
The façade of the buildings lining the street of Canongate contains windows to allow for views towards the street as well as into the back of the buildings. The windows are openings in load bearing walls that frame views of the garden on the ground floor. These openings are designed to a body scale where occupants of the flats are able to relate more closely to their surrounding environment, both internally and externally.
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The openings on the walls frame views of the garden space for the occupants. Similarly, the arcade frames the view of the garden from the street. The intrinsic relationship between the view and the viewer gives a personal vision towards the space, and ultimately the city. As noted by Mark Dorrian regarding George IV’s visit in Edinburgh:
The city was staged and curated carefully for the king during his visit. At the same time, the movement of the king was also designed and curated for the city to view him. This gives a representation of the city to the king as well as the king to the city.
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Figure 3: Arcade entrance towards Chessel’s Court from the street, Author, 2018.
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Figure 4: Arcade entrance from Chessel’s Court towards the street, Author, 2018.
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The same concept can be seen in the vision and views in Chessel’s Court. In the dense Old Town, the sudden openings on the ground floor shifts the attention towards the frame of the open garden space. It creates a new vision from the dense environment. The vision of this part of the city is now expressed differently. Within this vision itself, there are different types of views. What is seen from the street is a covered passageway towards an opening within building blocks. On the other hand, what is seen from the windows above, is a framed view of the garden space, limited to the size of the window.
The different types of vision of the same space is almost staged by the circumstances of the way it is being represented. It provides different forms of relationship between the viewer and the view. While the view from the window comes from a body scale, the view from the street may be seen as a bigger scale – a street scale.
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Figure 5: The Caltongate Masterplan, Caltongate, 2006.
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Figure 6: Tenements that were demolished for Caltongate, Sally Richardson, 2007.
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The Caltongate masterplan involves the East Market Street, New Street, Calton Road as well as Canongate.4 As Caltongate is located within the Old Town, it was designed with several considerations - the Old Town structure, streetscape, architecture and heritage. Hence, the new and modern Caltongate aims to encourage “good contemporary design that is sympathetic to the Old Town context”.5
However, the masterplan involved the demolition of two historical buildings – the Canongate Venture and the Sailor’s Ark. In addition, a tenement building from the early 20th century was also required to be demolished for a hotel on the Royal Mile.6 This resulted in controversial issues as the historical buildings are being replaced by something modern and contemporary, thus concealing the history of the Old Town.
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Figure 7: Present Caltongate development in progress, Author, 2018.
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The development of Caltongate creates a brand, new vision of the Old Town in Edinburgh. The new buildings are no longer built from loadbearing stone structures. Yet, they continue to have a stone façade, creating a form of mask or veil of the historic Old Town. It shows the attempt in retaining the history of the site but in reality, it is simply framing the city through a positive vision of the urban future.
It is also described as “bold and contemporary”7 and Caltongate aims to become the new focal point between the Old Town and the New Town in Edinburgh. Just like how the city is staged for the king, Caltongate is carefully explained and visualised by developers for the public. This gives the public a vision of Caltongate, masked by the facades of the historic stone wall that attempts to give consistency to the medieval Old Town.
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Figure 8: Render of public square in Caltongate, McAleer & Rushe, 2014.
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Figure 9: Render of public square in Caltongate, McAleer & Rushe, 2014.
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Figure 10: Render of Royal High School development into luxury hotel, Hoskin Architects, 2014.
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Figure 11: Render of Royal High School development into luxury hotel, Hoskin Architects, 2014.
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The images of the proposal for the former Royal High School is framed from an aerial view where it looks down towards the building and the surrounding landscape. From this perspective, the scheme creates a smooth transition towards the site and topography. However, the addition of wings on both sides of the building becomes a prominent intervention. It would block the view of Calton Hill and introduce a new skyline. This significantly impacts the existing landscape and form of Calton Hill.
The images of the scheme are definitely questionable. Being the key view of Edinburgh, Calton Hill is prominent for its classical structures and monuments. The Royal High School was built with careful considerations – to be “clear of screenings and softening vegetation”8 – in order to give a prominent frame of Calton Hill. Thus, the proposed scheme has failed to comply with these guidelines to maintain the framed view of Calton Hill.
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Figure 12: Render of Royal High School development into luxury hotel from Canongate Kirk, Hoskin Architects, 2014.
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Figure 13: Render of Royal High School development into luxury hotel from Salisbury Crags, Hoskin Architects, 2014.
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Figure 14: Render of Royal High School development into luxury hotel from Arthur’s Seat, Hoskin Architects, 2014.
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Calton Hill forms part of the New Town Gardens. The images from the different positions in Edinburgh – Canongate Kirk, Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat – show the position of the scheme along the topography of the site. It sits on the existing topography and is evidently obscuring the landscape features of Calton Hill.
This results in adverse effects to the composition of Calton Hill. This is further impacted by the use of different architectural style from the structures and monuments on Calton Hill. The site reflects Edinburgh as a historical city and a World Heritage Site. With the proposed scheme, it gives a different vision to Edinburgh – one that suggests the move towards modernism and contemporary architecture.
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Figure 15: Diller and Scofidio, Slow House, 1989-91.
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Diller and Scofidio’s Slow House is a post-modernist approach in imaging the city. It is structured to frame nature through technology and movements. A mix of virtual and technological windows was used to frame the landscape. As described by Rem Koolhaas, the house was “a kind of mise-en-scene”.9
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The Slow House is a mechanism that allows people to look, see and frame the space that they are inhabiting. It allowed architecture to change the way we view and experience the space, thus creating a new type of vision that heightens the relationship between the body and the space.
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As we look at the frames from different perspectives of the city across periods, we start to view the city more critically and understand the intersection of the Old Town to the New Town. It gives us a better understanding of how the city can be viewed. Perhaps it is not just about framing different views from different points but also about the different movements that occur throughout the city. The movements of people play a significant role in framing the vision and this impacts the things we view from different places. We now question how crucial the frames are in curating the urban fabric for the people. It may be the fundamental framework of the whole concept of vision but as we explore further, we could perhaps consider the patterns of the movements and circulation of the city that work alongside these frames.
From the Enlightenment period to Modernism and to Post-modernism, images of the city were portrayed in different ways. The Slow House is an example to be looked at that could help us rethink the idea of vision. Perhaps it could offer a new lens through which architecture is represented to redefine how visions and images of a city can be framed.
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1. Simpson & Brown Architects. Sir Basil Spence’s Canongate Housing: Edinburgh. Conservation Statement, 31. 2. Ibid. 3. Dorrian, Mark. Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation, 34. 4. City of Edinburgh Council, “Caltongate Masterplan.” 5. Ibid., 11. 6. Tooley, Christa B. ‘Save Our Old Town’: Engaging developer-led masterplanning through community renewal in Edinburgh, 96. 7. Ibid., 94. 8. City of Edinburgh Council, “Objection Letter,” 22. 9. Diller, Elizabeth, and Ricardo, Scofidio. “The Slow House.” Progressive Architecture, 89. 10. Diller, Elizabeth, and Ricardo, Scofidio. “Homebodies on Vacation.” Centre: A Journal for Architecture in America, 40.
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Bremner, Alex. "RE-ACTIVATING THE DOCILE BODY: A Critical (Re)View of Diller and Scofidio’s Slow House." Architectural Theory Review 5, no. 1 (2000): 104-22. doi:10.1080/13264820009478391. City of Edinburgh Council. Caltongate Masterplan, 2006. City of Edinburgh Council. Royal High School Objection Letter, 2017. Colomina, Beatriz. Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996. Dorrian, Mark. Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation. London: I.B. Tauris, 2015. DS+R. "Slow House." Accessed July 27, 2018. https://dsrny.com/project/slow-house. Diller, Elizabeth, and Ricardo Scofidio. “Homebodies on Vacation.” Centre: A Journal for Architecture in America 9: 40. Diller, Elizabeth, and Ricardo, Scofidio. “The Slow House.” Progressive Architecture 72.1 (1991): 89. Eisenstein, Sergei M. "Montage and Architecture." Assemblage, no. 10 (1989): 110. doi:10.2307/3171145. Hann, Rachel. Blurred Architecture: Duration and performance in the work of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Performance Research (2012), 17:5, 9-18, doi: 10.1080/13528165.2012.728434 Historic Environment Scotland. Pints, Politics and Piety: The Architecture and Industries of Canongate, 2016. Hoskin Architects. “Old Royal High School.” Accessed August 1, 2018. https://www.hoskinsarchitects.com/en/projects/commercial/oldroyal-high-school
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Kaminer, Tahl. “Framing Colomina” Footprint, no. 4 (2009), 129-38. Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990. McAleer & Rushe. “NW Phase 2 Offices.” Accessed August 1, 2018. http://www.mcaleer-rushe.co.uk/projects/new-waverley-ph2offices-edinburgh/ Simpson & Brown Architects. Sir Basil Spence’s Canongate Housing: Edinburgh. Conservation Statement, 2013. Simpson & Brown Architects. Royal High School: Regent Road, Edinburgh. Conservation Plan, 2015. Tooley, Christa B. ‘Save Our Old Town’: Engaging developer-led masterplanning through community renewal in Edinburgh. PhD diss., The University of Edinburgh, 2012. Walker, Stephen. "Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation." The Journal of Architecture 21, no. 1 (2016): 153-57. doi:10.1080/13602365.2016.1146001. Wong, Joseph F. “The script of viscosity: The phenomenal experience in Steven Holl's museum architecture.” The Journal of Architecture (2012), 17:2, 273-292, doi: 10.1080/13602365.2012.678646
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