ALLAN MURRAY DESIGN 53 TEAM ESTEEM 58 SIR DAVID ADJAYE 64 ARCHIZINES 72 SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

I D E A S M A N

THE OPENING OF THE ST JAMES QUARTER IS A BIG MOMENT FOR EDINBURGH BUT ALSO NEATLY SUMS UP THE SUCCESS OF ONE PRACTICE, ALLAN MURRAY ARCHITECTS, IN RESHAPING THE CITY. NOW, WITH ITS CREATIVE FORCE AND FIGUREHEAD DEPARTING FOR ALLAN MURRAY DESIGN WE ASK HOW A MORE EXPLORATIVE IDEAS BASED PRACTICE CAN FRAME FUTURE URBAN PLACEMAKING.

“I’m not retiring!” declares a visibly frustrated Allan Murray as he seeks to scotch recent reports of his departure from the architecture scene. Indeed, far from putting his feet up and hitting the golf course Murray is more enthusiastic than ever about the power of ideas to drive change and has established a brand new practice, Allan Murray Design, to achieve just that.

Over recent decades no architect has come close to reshaping central Edinburgh to the degree that Murray has, overseeing large scale urban renewal projects from the newly opened St James Centre to New Waverley. His lesser works, such as the Royal Mile hotel, have achieved what others deemed impossible by assembling large tracts of land in the city’s World Heritage heart and driving his schemes through a notoriously fickle planning process.

With all eyes on St James however Murray has taken this moment to draw a line under his long association with the practice he founded in 1992, by launching a new design-led firm called Allan Murray Design. Since transferring possession to an employee ownership trust at the start of the year Allan Murray Architects has been run by managing director Connor Pitman with Murray no longer playing any role in the company that still bears his name. He said: “A clean break was the right thing to do. It’s much more exciting than having to worry whether I create another £20m project.

“It’s a good natural ending with St James. This is the most exciting and fun project I’ve ever done but I’m interested in lots of different scales. I was working on a tiny little project in Somerset the other week. You might think ‘what are you doing here Allan? But it was in a sensitive historic site where you have to exercise your brain. That’s why I’m there, to be thoughtful. I’m not saying I didn’t do that at St James, I did. But it’s on a different scale.”

St James is the largest of a series of transformative projects reshaping the face of the Scottish capital, a mission in which Murray has invested 16 years of his life, but how has one man come to make the city his canvas? “It’s not a rich uncle, it’s the power of an idea”, Murray says. Guiding Urban Realm to the former Eastern Scottish bus depot in New Street, he continued: “We were asked by clients to look at the bus station. It was a horrible building. That was a problem but it was not the problem. The problem was we don’t connect to the city and integrate

within Edinburgh. I went to the interview and said ‘I think we need a bigger site here. Usually, clients will say we don’t have it but to their credit they said, what do you mean by that? We said well, here are the sites owned by the council. We need to talk to them about bringing those sites into a larger master plan. Instead of just the bus station site, we brought the depot and The Arches together.”

The ability to think big and offer clients, not what they necessarily asked for, but what they could have is a recurring theme in Murray’s work and an approach he encourages others to follow. “An architect simply providing a service is doing no service to the profession. We need to bring innovation and ideas. Be lateral and say, ‘we can think like this’. Not everything’s going to happen but if you don’t do that it’s guaranteed nothing is going to happen. Architects need to go back to what we used to do. We were leaders of the process and thinkers. Rewrite the problem and make something better out of it.

“You’ve got to come up with an idea, otherwise you’re just saying hire us, we’ve done stuff before. We’ve done this before and we’ll be fine. It is not good enough.”

This approach focuses not on individual buildings but on spaces and the connections they open up, carving out a literal New Street and providing a new public square to give the dense city centre some breathing space. “There are a couple of object buildings which sit and hold space around them. The rest are bit players. I think of it like dropping an inkblot in water, there needs to be dissonance and that’s what makes the Old Town so interesting, it’s the hugger-mugger of what you don’t expect.”

This urban design strategy was inspired by a visit to the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro in Lucca, Italy, a public square bounded by buildings that follow the elliptical shape of a Roman amphitheatre. “It’s a beautiful enclosed space but you wouldn’t give tuppence for any of the buildings, none of them is particularly special. But wow, that space. It’s not about the architecture. We wanted to create a gathering space for festival events.”

Small flourishes are there to be found, notably a two-storey arched pend through to the Canongate. “It’s my favourite element”, states Murray. “I thought, how do I make a small thing at the front bigger at the back, like the TARDIS. You can stand there and see the whole of the Nelson Monument because the arch lifts.”

© ALLAN MURRAY DESIGN, PAD STUDIO, INEFFABLE TALE

Left - A focus on experiment and ideas informed this housing project in Quatar Above - From the air the St James Quarter can be read as a natural extension of James Craig’s New Town

Still thinking big Murray is championing ideas drawn up for Network Rail at Waverley to top over the railway station with a proper 21st-century roof and bridges and restore the Nor Loch as part of an urban park. “These are ideas that are worth pushing forward. We have to regain the high ground in architecture and in doing that show, not just clients, that we can bring forward new ideas that are going to benefit the city environment and bring joy back. The creative part of AMA was me.

“I’ve always believed in myself. It’s a prerequisite for being an entrepreneurial architect. I started with nothing. When I came back from Harvard to Edinburgh the last project I did was a skyscraper, you want to do large-scale important work.”

“That’s why I’m starting a new practice and the key is in the last word. It’s about design. It’s about being able to experiment freely without being encumbered by what you’ve done before.” But with Allan Murray Architects you’ve got a huge team and the resources behind you, can’t you achieve more within that framework? “Not if no one else shares your values. The practice is led by me but the limit placed on how to experiment and innovate, when people are less inclined to want to do that it makes for a difficult conversation. I felt constrained and I wanted more freedom to be creative.

“When I made the employee ownership trust I thought this was the right thing to do. The trouble is you make too many bosses. I’m going to continue with a lot more experimentation and innovation. I don’t need a huge outfit behind me to work on these ideas. I just need two or three people.”

Importantly for Murray, this newfound freedom opens the door to collaborations, such as with Hampshirebased Pad Studio as well as another unnamed Edinburgh practice. “This isn’t something that happened recently, I’ve been thinking about it for the past 10 years. Big projects are great but I’m keen to be a lot more focussed.”

Unifying the large-scale universe and the quantum world is a quandary that has stumped physicists for a generation but with Allan Murray Design, Murray believes he has discovered the correct equation for bridging the long-standing gulf between design-led and commercial practices. If he is successful it will provide a model for others to blaze a trail.

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The floor for the Esteem build was completed in just three hours, demonstrating the advantages of modular timber construction

H O M E G R O W N

CONSTRUCTION IS IN FULL SWING BEHIND AN INNOVATIVE CROSS LAMINATED TIMBER SOLAR HOME WHICH PROMISES TO ENERGISE RENEWABLES. URBAN REALM SPEAKS TO THE HERIOT WATT TEAM BEHIND THE PROTOTYPE BUILD TO SEE AT FIRST HAND HOW A MARRIAGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING IS BREAKING NEW GROUND IN RESIDENTIAL DESIGN AT THE CONSTRUCTION SCOTLAND INNOVATION CENTRE.

Martin Juricek

What has been your experience so far in Team

ESTEEM? I joined the project more than 2 years ago and shortly after became an Architecture team leader. This project has boosted my personal development in so many ways. I have learned how to communicate my ideas better, improved my leadership skills and learned how to keep people engaged even after switching into online meetings. I study Structural Engineering with Architectural Design but my degree focuses far more on its structural aspect than the architectural. By leading the architectural design team, I have been able to develop my design skills whist applying the engineering knowledge to the design. But above all, I have gained a lot of good friends that I have worked with over the past 2 years.

What are the most valuable aspects you are taking from this project to your professional career? I have developed a professional network of contacts within the industry. Even the variety of the courses my ESTEEM colleagues come from, future-proves my network within large variety of professions

in the industry. As a team leader I have often had to step out of my comfort zone and learn new skills to fulfil the tasks required from me, those often being things I never knew I would enjoy. I have a much clearer picture of what is required from me as a future professional and through applying new innovative construction methods materials on our house I have been able to gain an early inside into the future of sustainable construction.

What is your role in the prototype phase and what do you

do? Besides making a lot of decisions affecting the aesthetics, I participate in the construction of the cross laminated panels at CSIC. Making those after 2 years of designing and discussing them has been a very proud and thrilling experience for me. I was lucky enough to participate in some of our big milestones - construction of our first and last CLT panels. Being at the forefront of our design team I have been trying to salvage every waste material to create items which compliment our interior.

How do you feel working in CSIC? Personally, I value the work at CSIC as an amazing opportunity to meet people out in the industry. CSIC is especially interesting as it is at the forefront of modern and innovative construction not only in Scotland but in UK in general. Just seeing the excitement in the eyes of the people working there when something comes together, must make anyone interested on being a part of the construction industry.

What have you learn so far in the construction phase

working in CSIC? I had a very basic knowledge of the works it undertakes to build cross laminated panels or glue laminated panels, as such working on their construction allowed me to learn the process. I greatly value being able to explain every part of the construction phase of this project and CSIC has ensured we are fully engaged in the construction processes at their factory.

What are some challenges you are/were facing in the

construction stage? Having to quickly learn the processes as well as all safety requirements needed at the factory was definitely a challenge. However, CSIC has offered comprehensive guidance and training for this to be overcome. Overall working under tight timescale has also been a challenge with delays in delivery of material and construction taking longer than anticipated. Team ESTEEM is lucky enough to have a lot of well experienced members to quickly resolve any issues at hance.

What is your experience working with CLT? Prior to this project I had no experience of working with CLT. From working at CSIC factory I have been able to get my hands on the material and seeing how its made and used I now understand the benefits of CLT in construction. What are you thoughts about CLT in the future. CLT definitely have a role to play in the future of sustainable building design. Its presence in Scotland and the rest of the UK however depends on the improvements of the local timber infrastructure. Currently most CLT isn’t manufactured in UK and further investments in the technology would be required to make it more mainstream building material. Nevertheless, Team ESTEEM is doing its part in CLT promotion and will hopefully impact a part of this improvement.

A message for students creating similar projects like

Team ESTEEM? This project has been a lot of hard work and volunteering hours, but I always saw that as an investment into myself and I can already see the vast improvement in my skill set compared to two years ago. The amount of work is then more of a motivation than a burden and I would encourage everyone to join any projects and volunteering experience that could potentially teach them something. Afterall, any job is a competition so employers will likely look for these experiences.

Anything you would like to add I am extremely proud of every member of the ESTEEM family. I have learned a lot from every one of those members and I can only hope they learned a little bit from me too. We overcame every problem that we have come across so far and we will continue to do so until the house is standing in Dubai.

Ayman Darve

What has been your experience so far in Team

ESTEEM? From the very beginning of ESTEEM, now over 2 years ago, it has been a huge learning curve in the best way possible. However, what has also remained consistent is the sense of family & teamwork between the team despite our massive growth over time! The skills you learn are not only valuable in a working/professional environment but even life skills which develop you as a person hugely. For example; public speaking & delegation through being Vice Team Lead is a skill due to lack of confidence I never thought would come easy, but the narrative and environment of the Team made such challenges much smoother to develop & conquer. Couldn’t ask for a better team!

What are the most valuable aspects you are taking from

this project to your professional career? The growth in software knowledge, to even having experienced liaising with sponsors and members ofthe professional industry are truly skills which make each member of the team & I valuable and applicable candidates for further endeavours. Time management, chairing meetings, organising presentations, professional documentation development for people inindustry are just a few of the huge list of hard & soft skills which will truly help me apply my best professional self in any given task. Esteem truly equips you with an almost starter kit

Precision engineering matched with innovative construction techniques and homegrown timber is helping to break new ground

of transferrable skills in assortment to ensure your professional growth.

What is your role in the prototype phase and what do you

do? In the prototype & Esteem team, my role has been; Vice Team Leader, and now after over a year will be transferring to Team Advisor. Throughout the past months the build up to the prototype has been getting more and more exciting. From organisingthe area of build with meetings alongside HeriotWatt Uni Staff members to even sponsors who will be largely involved in the upcoming procedures, for example; CSIC. The scheduling and organisation of key paperwork, materials, Gantt charts, communication lines which as student we do not normally get exposure to were some of the many tasks which I undertook in collaboration with other Esteem members to contribute in pushing and striving for the positive progression of the prototype build. I can confidently say, the rigour and hope for seeing our house finally come to life in Edinburgh is a highly anticipated sight for all of our team across the world. Getting to participate in making it a reality is a bonus!

What are you thoughts about CLT in the future. The future of CLT I believe is just beginning, given the huge gap in the market for such a lightweight, durable and flexibly applicable material, the progression and use is only sure to grow.

There are multiple opportunities of more research to ensure and certify it’s capabilities, however the sheer innovation of CLT proves future thinking and sustainable the Esteem house aspires to be. The material is a huge part of our build and Esteem is proud to be working alongside CSIC to make our customised panels, as they have been a huge help in pushing forward our sustainable & innovative ethos whilst they themselves continue to perform research on the material to further grow its capability and applicability in the construction industry.

A message for students creating similar projects like Team

ESTEEM? The message or words of encouragement could genuinely be put to three words; Resilience, Teamwork & Innovation. From the beginning of our project our aspirations as a team were always to push boundaries and create a home which is representative and speaks to each & every member of our team. I feel proud & confident in saying each of our members have grown an unbreakable bond with a unique aspect of the house through the hard work we have all put in.Communication in such projects becomes very affluent and

building a bond between members beyond “professional/ working boundaries” isstrongly what I believed pushed us working so cohesively (props to our Social Media/ Events Team)! If you want more advice in a new innovative way of how Esteem is; tune in to our podcasts which we have recently began in discussion with various members ofour Team, from different specialities, backgrounds & academics/professions!

Ellenor Witton

What has been your experience so far in Team

ESTEEM? I have been a part of team ESTEEM for almost two years, since stepping into the role of Structural Team Leader. Earlier in the project, during the design stages it was less technical and more about finding a floor plan and aesthetic to the house that we liked. Since then, as more decisions were made and interest from companies peaked, we were able to design a structural system utilising different products. For example, we wanted to build a prototype on our Edinburgh campus and then dismantle before shipping the house to Dubai. This is now taking place and simplified with the use of the X-Rad system by Rothoblaas. Great for design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) and disassembly in this case too. As this project has developed so has my own knowledge and skills, applying our curriculum and much more into this sustainable house we are now building.

What are the most valuable aspects you are taking from

this project to your professional career? The most valuable aspects of this project for myself has been the opportunity to work on using mass timber, incorporating cross laminated timber (CLT) and glued laminated timber (glulam).

Sourcing homegrown timber to form these products and have that hands on experience making them ourselves at Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) has been immeasurable; learning about the material in a practical way too. This project opened opportunities at University too, being the first student at Heriot-Watt to base their dissertation this topic of home-grown timber and in the form of CLT. I have established an area of construction that I enjoy, using sustainable materials and I hope to carry this forward within my structural engineering career.

What is your role in the prototype phase and what do you

do? So far during the prototyping phase I have been based at CSIC. I have been involved in making the glulam ground beams and the CLT floor panels. I have also been involved in the postpressing processes for the wall panels: attaching the X-ones by Rothoblaas to the corners of each panel which will then be used to connect adjacent panels and used to lift them into place. The visual panels also require sanding to ensure a quality finish.

How do you feel working in CSIC? Working in CSIC has been fun and practical way to learn more about the materials we are using in our house. It is a space driven by innovation and sustainability, always looking to better the construction industry. It is a great thing to be part of.

What are some challenges you are/were facing in the

construction stage? The most significant challenge that we have been experiencing in the factory is probably the difficulty of attaching the X-one connections to the corner of the panels, which is something we have a lot of. Finding the best approach and tools to increase efficiency with this has taken a while but now the process is slightly easier.

What are you thoughts about CLT in the future. In my opinion mass timber, of which CLT is a form, is the future of construction. Timber is one of the only structural materials that could be considered renewable, with the speed of trees growth, especially softwoods which are those usually used within mass timber.

CLT can form all structural elements of a building, except underground foundations due to the implications of the moisture on the timber, and lighter than alternative materials such as concrete.

Countries such as Austria with established commercial CLT production utilise CLT within design much more than we do in the UK; but Austria alone also produce approximately two-thirds of the worlds CLT volume. CLT use in the UK is increasing but there is much more opportunity. We chose to showcase the Team ESTEEM house built out of UK-grown timber to show that further carbon reductions can be made.

A message for students creating similar projects like

Team ESTEEM? Team ESTEEM Is an extra curricular project and therefore does not take priority over university work. It is hard to distinguish this line as we are learning while doing this project and actually gaining more hands on practical experience. But you do gain a lot of experience that is practical for our future careers

Jairis Alvarez

What has been your experience so far in Team

ESTEEM? I have been working in the ESTEEM project for more than two years and it has been the most amazing experience I had during my university years. I am studying Architectural Eng nevertheless in ESTEEM I am in charge of the Communications, PR, Marketing and Events. This project made me discover other passion which I will be always grateful. It is the truly example that what you study is not want you have to be. The project make me enhance my leadership, organization, communication, engineer and team work skills which some are not thought in university. It encourage to talk to PR media companies like radio, news, magazines and to talk in presentations and conference. It made me network and meet professional not

Left - The Solariskit solar thermal collector can convert sunlight into hot water at temperatures of up to 50C Right - The prism shaped device minimises reliance on fossil fuels for heating

only from engeierin and construction but also journalist, writer and suitable consultants. It has broken the stereptype that ones you finish university you are able to talk to industry experts. Moreover, it has made me lead a group of talented students that are development their skills while contributing their knowledge in the project. I never thought I will gain so much experience during this project which has enhance my professional skills.

What are the most valuable aspects you are taking from

this project to your professional career? There are so many valuable aspects that I am taking from this project, one of them was to have the opportunity to talk to industry experts and network with companies that value a sustainable future. When I started university, it was hard to find something to be interested since I was new in the country. Finding team ESTEEM had made be out of my comfort zone because of the team leader role. I also learn that to be a leader you dont have to know everything because there is always a team, we all support each other to learn and grow professionally. Finally, I have discovered that I have a passion for communications as well as architactural eng. Therefore I hope to embrace to create a more sustainable future in which everyone is able to share the knowledge.

What is your role in the prototype phase and what do you

do? My role in the prototype phase is different than others, due to the fact that I am not in Edinbugh at the moment. I am coordinating everything online with the help of my team. We also create internal and external events to covers topics from Team ESTEEM to CLT Future. I hope to be able to flight in Edinburgh at the end of July to be part of the assembly of the CLT panels and furniture design. How do you feel working in CSIC? I had the opportunity before Covid-19 to meet staff members from CSIC, they are so passionate professional which are leasing the sustainable and timber industry. They have the energy and knowledge to share which encourage individuals to be innovative and find new solutions. As I mentioned I am also working with them virtually to organaize site visit, events and podcasts collaborations.

A message for students creating similar projects like

Team ESTEEM? My message for anyone that is working or will have the opportunity to work in projects similar to Team ESTEEM is that never give up and take advantage of every single opportunity that comes in your way. Sometimes in life we follow a professional path because ‘We were told it was the best thing to do’ However that might not be your passion. Projects like this one give you the opportunity to really know what you would like to do for a professional career because they encourage to be out of you comfort zone and to learn knew things. The world in full of opportunity to innovate and groth personally, you just have to explore and find the one that best suits you.

D O W N T O E A R T H

RIBA GOLD MEDAL WINNER SIR DAVID ADJAYE IS ON A PLANET-WIDE MISSION TO ENABLE ARCHITECTURE TO REDISCOVER LOCAL CONTEXT, SOCIAL VALUE AND SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH A NOMADIC APPROACH THAT EMPHASISES LIVING OFF THE LAND IN A LITERAL SENSE. WE UNPACK ADJAYE’S WIN AND ASSESS WHAT IT MEANS FOR A PLANETARY PRACTICE.

Sir David Adjaye has joined the illustrious ranks of RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture winners, taking his place alongside the likes of Jack Coia, James Stirling and Louis Kahn for his outstanding contributions to architecture. Recognised for his roles as founder of Adjaye Associates and as a global ambassador for the profession, Adjaye transcends national borders and specific cultures through a common language of building.

Logging into the RIBA live stream from his native Ghana a visibly emotional Adjaye said: “Being a good architect is both being a constructor and an artist at the same time. You oscillate between two worlds. As a student, I was inspired by all these great names in architecture.

“Winning the RIBA bronze medal as a young student (1993) was a validation for my parents. I remember running to tell my mum! That medal unshackled me from the burden of having to prove this was the right track. It gave me freedom early and sparked the sense that I wanted to use architecture not just as a building art form but for the social change and social justice embedded in its DNA.

“As a creative person in a profession where you have not seen yourself represented there’s always a nervousness around whether what you’re doing is correct and will be accepted. As somebody on the tip of a spear I’d want to do things but then look over my shoulder to see if it was ok or if my client would accept it. Even after the bronze medal, that question was always there.

“The gold medal and the acknowledgement of my peers is unshackling me to deliver the vision that I’ve been working towards for the last 25 years of my career and be bold about it. The freedom to creatively express yourself through the lens of the profession you choose means I can serve a social agenda but not feel I’m in any way restricted because of who I am and how I’m seen in the world.”

A global practice in every sense of the word Adjaye Associates has grown to span three continents from three separate offices, with no clearly defined ‘head office’ to stamp on a letterhead in deliberate ambiguity. “I decided early on that I didn’t want a single office that is located in one place. I prefer the approach of architects like Charles Moore or Frank Lloyd Wright who made their offices where the work was. I love the idea that when you make an office in the culture or continent where you want to work there’s osmosis which refines the work beyond the sensibilities that you acknowledge in your mind. The teams become deeply embedded in those customs and cultures and that is a useful refining device for work.”

These ideas are coming to a head in Ghana where Adjaye is leading efforts to establish a West African architecture

Top - Specere is a stark timber structure at the summit of Deadwater Fell in Kielder Forest Bottom - Adjaye’s range takes him from remote mountaintops to the urban cliff face of the Sugar Hill mixed use development in New York

© ASSEN EMILOV

The Bernie Grant Art Centre in London demonstrates Adjaye’s ability to furnish communities with a more dignified environment

that builds on the specific history of the region, adapting it to meet the needs and standards of today. Adjaye said: “The opportunity is not for architects to do what we’ve always done and bring it over here. The continent has suffered so much of that. It’s ripe for an investigation of what the idea of architecture can be. It’s not just a project for architects of African descent, it’s a project for architecture to imagine the opportunity of culture and geography which is the foundation of the world.”

Leading by example Adjaye is pioneering the use of rammed or reinforced earth construction as a means of reducing reliance on concrete and the associated carbon dioxide emissions linked to the production of cement. “Rammed earth is the vernacular for most of the continent and is ripe for rethinking. There’s pioneering work by my colleague Diébédo Francis Kéré in Burkina Faso but I’m interested in how to use this technology to make large scale buildings.

“At the Thabo Mbeki project in South Africa, we’re creating a monumental rammed earth structure for a presidential library, something previously unheard of. It is the most abundant material on the planet and the most important for its ability to return to its original state. It has profound biophilic properties, it kills germs and insulates and I’m obsessed with it.

“What’s exciting about the continent is that there are more than green shoots. There are systemic opportunities that will lift the continent in the next 25-30 years. It’s already started.”

In the West Adjaye’s attentions are focused on finding an identity within architecture from which to create a dignified environment for communities, ably demonstrated by the practice’s work at the Stephen Lawrence Centre and Bernie Grant Centre in London. In the US this approach finds a grander outlet with the African American Museum of Black History and Culture, a totemic project for Adjaye who welcomed the opportunity to delve into some of the critical issues affecting the African American community and its relation to America, Africa and the world. “That allowed me to think critically about the ways diverse communities operate in different contexts,” observed Adjaye.

Although involved in these local endeavours Adjaye does not lose sight of the big picture, unafraid to couch his work in expansive terms. “It creates a body of work which is planetary, not global, it’s about a specificity of geography and culture concerned with resolving needs. It also allows a body of work to have a different authorial voice, not just the language of architecture and its range but the ability of architecture to continually learn and investigate sustainability, ecology and social pressures.

“Sustainability is the backbone of geography and culture.

Culture as social sustainability and geography as ecological sustainability. The backbone of any piece of great architecture is the ability to work between geography and culture to create unique works with limited resources.

Adjaye paid moving tribute to the art teacher who set him on the path to becoming an architect. “The first prompt as a young teenager was my art school teacher who said I was creatively very capable but I didn’t pay any attention to it. I was too obsessed with science and maths. This incredible teacher said was the first to suggest I should pay attention to this side of myself.”

Conscious of the need to inspire a new generation Adjaye had this to say to those seeking to follow in his footsteps: “Every opportunity can teach you things that will become the archive of your future. That means every opportunity is a moment of excitement for what that can do for you in the present and the future.”

“For me, the gold medal is traditionally something for an old man or woman. As an architect, we say your mid-fifties are when you’re a young teenager so I like to think I’m a teenager who is just getting going!

The 2021 Royal Gold Medal selection committee was chaired by RIBA President Alan Jones and included architects Lesley Lokko, Dorte Mandrup and 2020’s Royal Gold Medal recipient Shelley McNamara and structural engineer professor Hanif Kara.

© ALAN KARCHMER

Left - The Smithsonian National Museum of African American Arts and Culture is described as a bronze statement in a city of marble Above - A fountain rains calming waters, offering a serene oasis for visitors fresh from heart rending exhibitions below

© LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Barack Obama

Former US President Barack Obama led tributes for Adjaye in a recorded message from across the Atlantic, lauding his ability to harness the power of architecture to speak directly to diverse communities.

“In many ways, David and I are kindred spirits, we’re both about the same age although he was smart enough to shave his head so he doesn’t have as many grey hairs! We both had childhoods moving all over the place. I grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, David’s father was a diplomat so his family moved around Africa and the world before settling in London.

“Growing up in different places doesn’t make you a good architect, if it did I’d be able to do more than just doodle. But it does give you a perspective that others might not have and an understanding of different cultures and an appreciation of different conditions. An ability to put all those things together in new ways and see the world in all its unique, indescribable beauty.

“Over the years David has used that perspective to create spaces unlike any the world has ever seen. I’ll never forget watching the Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture rising near the White House. That bold bronze statement in a city of marble. Imagine having a chance to step inside and feel how this Ghanaian-British architect helped tell a uniquely American story. It was genius, pure and simple.”

Z I N E S C E N E

THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION HAS HIT PUBLISHING HARDER THAN MOST BUT IN A SECTOR EVOLVING BY THE DAY GRASSROOTS JOURNALISM CONTINUES TO THRIVE IN PRINT. WE ROUND UP THE BEST ARCHITECTURE ZINES FROM GLASPAPER TO MATZINE, CRUMBLE AND -ISM TO PROVE THAT WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS WOOD PULP IS STILL IN A CLASS OF ITS OWN.

I fell in love with zines when I was a teenager, when the possibilities were infinite…

The story of zines begins with the music fanzines which blossomed either side of 1980, when fans began to publish their response to New Wave music. Among the first were “Punk”, produced by John Holmstrom in New York, “Sniffin’ Glue” edited by Mark Perry in London, and soon afterwards “Pastelism”, put together by Stephen Pastel in Glasgow.

As a teenage music fan fifteen years later, “Sun Zoom Spark” was a fanzine I could actually buy. It was published in Galashiels during the early 1990’s and soon morphed into a professionally-published magazine. A couple of years later Sun Zoom Spark folded, but the collaborators went on to form indie rock band, Dawn of the Replicants.

Later I followed the breadcrumb trail of zines to explore graffiti, freight hopping and urban exploration. I came across “Section 61” zine and “Not Guilty” mag – both with fresh takes on the urban environment. Section 61 delved into derelict buildings and underground spaces, while Not Guilty captured the work of graffiti writers on mass transit systems.

Yet the zine isn’t a new form. Robbie Burns was a zinester, and his poems were originally circulated in the literature of ordinary folk, the chapbook. Printed crudely onto cheap paper and illustrated with raw woodcuts, chapbooks were anonymous pamphlets containing tales and ballads. Like Tam o’ Shanter’s “snowfall in the river”, zines are ephemeral – yet just like Burns’ chapbooks, they leave

A selection of seductive covers from Section 61 & Not Guilty illustrate prints allure

4 URBAN CABARET

September 2001 glaspaper

EDITORIAL

GLASpaper 09 On the Edge was conceived in May 2004 when ten new member states joined the European Union (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus). Like Scotland, these countries exist on the geographic periphery of the EU. On the Edge records certain aspects of GLAS’s critical journey through 8 of these 10 new member states.

Political, cultural and historic mechanisms shape our built environment and everyday lives. GLAS travelled by train from Estonia to Slovenia to investigate the social and economic conditions shaping these countries and to explore alternative ways to experience place and history.

GLAS devised four specific tasks to explore each city and gain impressions within a short time frame. These tasks established alternative criteria for looking at places and challenged the ‘official’ histories and cultures that are relentlessly represented on conventional tourist trails.

GLAS used the tasks to observe, follow, encounter and record each city; its urban structures, infrastructures, social relations and rituals. It is hoped that these might be used as a template for students, teachers and individuals to construct similar critical journeys.

The outcome of the Photo Reporter task has been compiled into a large fold-out poster to form a Polaroid matrix of places and activities: the architecture of the everyday.

Information gathered during the remaning tasks (Treasure Hunt, Get on the Bus, Passport Control) has been presented as a series of critical writings and graphics to encompass pertinent issues affecting the countries visited.

On the Edge presents shifting European boundaries in their wider historical context. The new eastern European ‘Edge’ has been reviewed from Moscow. Readily accessible European state capitals are shown to be wide open for capitalist invasion. The recent concentration of wealth has been limited to tourist trails, business districts, UNESCO heritage centres and huge, out of town shopping malls.

The erosion of existing public services and the decline in locally controlled commerce are an inevitable progression.

GLAS believes this to be a step in the wrong direction. TRAVEL TASKS

PHOTO REPORTER

The purpose of Photo Reporter is to build a concise visual journey through the everyday. The equipment required is a Polaroid camera, maps and labels. Only twenty photos can be taken in each city. These photos should relate to a set of predefined subjects. Example subjects: Football, Motorways, Public Housing, Private Housing, Spaces of Labour, Swimming pools, Prostitution, Play areas, Hospitals, Panorama, Allotments, Café, Bus queues, Markets, Kiosks, and Nightlife. Labels can be used to make notes to describe not just the ‘what’ but ‘why’ each photo has been taken. Maps are required to locate where the places/people/objects have been photographed.

TREASURE HUNT

The purpose of Treasure Hunt is to discover and establish spaces and places known by locals. A key factory or office should be visited within each city. Locals working within these workplaces should be followed or asked to describe their journey from work to their home, nearest café, train station, launderette etc. The equipment required is a sketchbook and pen. These should be used to document a mental map of directions given, to record conversations that took place, to sketch the experience of spaces visited. The use of city maps is strictly forbidden. Bits of ‘treasure’ should be collected along the way (newspapers, matchbooks, launderette tokens, flowers from park).

GET ON THE BUS

Get on the Bus requires that a bus, tram, train, bike or boat be taken to the end of the line of a non-tourist related route. The purpose of this task is to form a subjective account of a journey through a particular part of the city. The equipment required is a sketchbook and pen within which to narrate the journey. The use of photographs is strictly forbidden. The journey should be documented as a stream of consciousness rather than a full piece of text. This could be a loose collection of thoughts relating to views, smells, people, places and sounds.

PASSPORT CONTROL

The purpose of Border control is to investigate and record facts about fellow travellers. The equipment required is a set of flyers, a camera and an adjustable date stamp. The flyers should be distributed within the train carriage or bus in which you are travelling. Attempt to collect at least two ‘cards’ per train journey. Example facts could be: name, age, date of birth, destination, duration of stay, reason for journey. These should be set in a passport style flyer, with a front page that gives a brief explanation of your project. As an icebreaker to starting conversation share some tea and biscuits.

GLAS would like to thank the following people for their support before, during and after On the Edge:

Levente Polyak in Budapest (www.kek.org.hu), Architect Karine Kreja in Warsaw, Ondrej Chrobak of Display Gallery in Prague, Ivan Stanic and Maja Simoneti in Ljubljana (www. trajekt.org). Barbara Golicnik from Glasgow School of Art for helpful pre-trip advice. Thanks go to Mr Kossak for the donation of polaroid film and to John Davies for the travellers’ notebooks and pens. Special thanks go to Jan Timmermann and Holger Schwarz for their dedication and enthusiasm during the trip. GLAS would also like to extend a large thank you to the Lighthouse and the Innovation Fund for their continued support.

GLASpaper is no longer available via mailed subscription. GLAS contact details, copies of all GLAS publications can be found and downloaded at the GLAS web-site: www.glas-collective.com

Published by Glasgow Letters on Architecture and Space (GLAS) Copyright © GLAS. All material in glaspaper may be reproduced in full with the prior consent of GLAS.

ISBN 978-0-9554623-0-6 TRAVEL KIT

polaroid camera

notebook and pen map pack task information

record box city maps

Above - GLASpaper employ sketches, montages and tongue in cheek advertisements to convey hard-hitting messages Right - Mmm Magazine adopted a more colourful style for its brief run, slapping your eyeballs with vivid comicstrip art

THE JOURNEY

Glasgow to Tallinn (D1)

Tallinn (D1) to Riga (D2)

Riga (D2) to Vilnius (E3)

Vilnius (E3) to Warsaw (C5)

Warsaw (C5) to Prague (A6)

Prague (A6) to Bratislava (B7) 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Bratislava (B7) to Budapest (C7)

Budapest (C7) to Ljubljana (A8)

D1 Estonia Capital Tallinn

Geographic coordinates 59 00 N, 26 00 E Area total 45,226 sq km Land 43,211 sq km, water 2,015 sq km Land boundaries total 633 km (Latvia 339km, Russia 294km) Coastline 3,794 km Population 1,341,664 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate -0.66% (2004 est.) Population Density 30.000 people per sq km Tallinn Population 400,378 Labour force 654,000 (2003 est.) Labour force by occupation - agriculture 11%, industry 20%, services 69% (1999 est.) Unemployment Rate 10.1 % (2003) Tourism 950,000.00 visitors each year

D2 Latvia Capital Riga

Geographic coordinates 57 00 N, 25 00 E Area total 64,589 sq km Land 63,589 sq km, water 1,000 sq km Land boundaries total 1,150 km (Belarus 141 km, Estonia 339 km, Lithuania 453 km, Russia 217 km) Coastline 531 km Population 2,306,306 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate -0.71% (2004 est.) Population Density 36.000 people per sq km Riga Population 747,157 Labour force 1.18 million (2003 est.) Labour force by occupation - agriculture 15%, industry 25%, services 60% (2000 est.) Unemployment rate 8.6% (2003 est.) Tourism 490,000.00 visitors each year

E3 Lithuania Capital Vilnius

Geographic coordinates 56 00 N, 24 00 E Area total 65,200 sq km Land NA sq km, water, NA sq km Land boundaries total, 1,273 km (Belarus 502 km, Latvia 453 km, Poland 91 km, Russia (Kaliningrad) 227 km) Coastline 99 km Population 3,607,899 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate -0.33% (2004 est.) Population Density 55.000 people per sq km Vilnius Population 542,287 Labour force 1.642 million (2003 est.) Labour force by occupation - agriculture 20%, industry 30%, services 50% (1997 est.) Unemployment Rate 10.3% (2003 est.) Tourism 1,422,000.00 visitors each year

C5 Poland Capital Warsaw

Geographic coordinates 52 00 N, 20 00 E Area total 312,685 sq km land 304,465 sq km, water 8,220 sq km Land boundaries total 2,788 km (Belarus 407 km, Czech Republic 658 km, Germany 456 km, Lithuania 91 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 206 km, Slovakia 444 km, Ukraine 526 km) Coastline 491 km Population 38,626,349 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate 0.02% (2004 est.) Population Density 124.000 people per sq km Warsaw Population 1,671,670 Labour force 16.42 million (2003 est.) Labour force by occupation - agriculture 27.5%, industry 22.1%, services 50.4% (1999) Unemployment Rate 20 % (2003) Tourism 17,950,000.00 visitors each year A B C D E

A6 Czech Republic Capital Prague

Geographic coordinates 49 45 N, 15 30 E Area total 78,866 sq km Land 77,276 sq km, water 1,590 sq km Land boundaries total 1,881 km (Austria 362 km, Germany 646 km, Poland 658 km, Slovakia 215 km) Coastline 0 km (landlocked) Population 10,246,178 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate -0.05% (2004 est.) Population Density 130.00 people per sq km Prague Population 1,165,581 Labour force 5.25 million (2003 est.) Labour force by occupation - agriculture 5%, industry 35%, services 60% (2001 est.) Unemployment rate: 9.9% (2003) Tourism 5,610,000.00 visitors each year

B7 Slovakia Capital Bratislava

Geographic coordinates 48 40 N, 19 30 E Area total 48,845 sq km Land 48,800 sq km, water 45 sq km Land boundaries total 1,524 km (Austria 91 km, Czech Republic 215 km, Hungary 677 km, Poland 444 km, Ukraine 97 km) Coastline 0 km (landlocked) Population 5,423,567 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate 0.14% (2004 est.) Population Density 110.00 people per sq km Bratislava Population 428,672 Labour force 2.58 million (2003) Labour force by occupation - agriculture 8.9%, industry 29.3%, construction 8%, transport and communication 8.2%, services 45.6% (1994) Unemployment rate 15.2% (2003 est.) Tourism 975,000.00 visitors each year

ON HERITAGE

The accession of eight Middle- and Eastern European states in May 2004 drew their respective national capitals to our ‘western’ attention. While cities like Budapest and Prague, and to a lesser extent Warsaw, have sat in our consciousness for quite some time, we have yet to “discover” cities like Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius in the Baltic or Bratislava and Ljubljana. They all form places that now attract international capital or in which companies like the car manufacturer Volkswagen relocate their production. They are increasingly seen as opportunities for multi-national investment and construction companies, as well as a new operational field for big architectural firms in the “Old Europe”. Most of all they are developed and marketed as new tourist destinations.

While these eight capitals have many differences they also have many similarities. Each city displays economic, social, and spatial disparities between the so-called historic cores and the surrounding city of the 19th and 20th century. This is of course nothing new and is prevalent in most European cities. However, what makes this contrast in these cases even more poignant is that their historic cores are – with the exceptions of Bratislava and Ljubljana – all inscribed as UNESCO world heritage sites.

Yet it is significant that those areas, which are designated as protected world heritage sites, make up only a tiny proportion of the actual city surface of Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Prague, or Budapest. In Tallinn and Vilnius these are the medieval or baroque, partly walled town centres. In Riga it is the combination of Hanseatic old town and the Art Nouveau quarters of the early nineteenth century city extensions. In Prague and Budapest this includes the ensembles of city quarters from the 17th to the 19th century and imposing castles on both sides of the rivers Vlatva and Danube. Warsaw’s completely reconstructed old town was almost entirely destroyed during the Second World War. Indeed, all of these ensembles have their architectural merit and are of historical interest.

Nevertheless, for the visitor who is willing to look beyond these designated heritage zones, the question whether this protection through the UNESCO world heritage status is of actual benefit for the development of those cities in their entirety will inevitably come to mind. One might ask how more desirable and necessary developments beyond those boundaries are subsequently prevented from happening. The concentration around a core that is considered as being worthy of attention may lead to a negligence and degradation of the areas that surround it.

The areas that are designated as sites of cultural world heritage receive a disproportionately high level of communal, national and international funds for the restoration of their historic building stock,. regardless of whether the whole city population profits from these measures. This inevitably fosters the unequal social and spatial treatment of core and periphery. There is a further gentrification process through costly restoration and conservation measures that force existing residents and traditional businesses to leave as they cannot afford rising rents and property prices. Their place is taken by emerging wealthier social classes and most of all by an armada of international fashion shops, cafes, restaurants

CONVENTION CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD SOCIO-SPATIAL HERITAGE

GLASGOW LETTERS ON ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE meeting in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Moscow and Glasgow from the 12th September to the 26th September 2004, at its ninth session.

We note that our rich and diverse socio-spatial heritage is increasingly threatened with destruction that although a traditional feature of capitalist development is a process that globalisation and neoliberal economic policies has aggravated and greatly accelerated.

We consider that the deterioration or disappearance of the complex social and spatial heritage fought for in the history of various political and environmental struggles constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the social history of all peoples and classes.

We think that the protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of international forces that are threatening it and of the insufficient economic, cultural and moral considerations of the country where the heritage to be protected is situated.

We consider that all international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning social and spatial achievements should demonstrate the importance of safe guarding these universal achievements for all the peoples of the world, regardless of their race, class or national identity.

We consider that the ‘ignored’ elements of the socio-spatial history of everyday life is of outstanding interest and therefore needs to be preserved as a part of the world heritage of humankind as a whole.

We think that in view of the magnitude and gravity of the persistent dangers threatening them, it is incumbent on the global community as a whole to participate in the protection of the above sociospatial heritage, at the very least by striving to regulate the activities of international capital and property developers.

We consider that it is essential for this purpose to adopt new provisions in the form of a convention to establish an effective system of protection of the complexity and diversity of our socio-spatial heritage, organised on a permanent basis and in accordance with contemporary means and methods.

We have decided at our sixteenth session, that this question should be made the subject of an international programme that rethinks the role of heritage and the values considered important in our respective urban histories.

We adopt this on the twenty-sixth day of September 2004 at this convention.

and hotels predominantly geared towards growing tourism. Designated as UNESCO world heritage, these city centres – and this applies to a similar extent to Bratislava and Ljubljana – develop new targets within the ever-growing tourism industry. By cleansing the presented architectural and city history from any aspects that are not marketable the old towns are frozen in a hyper-historical condition. They become – as in the cases of Tallinn, Warsaw, or Prague – historical theme park attractions for international tourists.

But what lies beyond these UNESCO cores? The foreign visitor runs the risk of romanticising conditions and experiences. Poverty might be mistaken for a simple way of life. Nevertheless, behind the officially propagated image of all these capital cities one can observe numerous social and spatial aspects and achievements. One must ask if it should be these that are to be protected against uncontrolled economical, social and spatial changes.

A well developed public transport affordable for all social groups; markets where, in contrast to mushrooming out-of town supermarkets, local produce is on offer; places of informal trading which form an important addition to the small income of pensioners or small farmers; a residential housing provision that

something lasting behind.

This article is a brief survey of independent architectural publishing in Scotland over the past couple of decades: the pamphlet architecture, D.I.Y. press and zines whose occasional issues come out according to their own inner dynamic. Five of the six titles here – Crumble, Gargoyle, GLASpaper, -Ism, Matzine – sprang from architecture schools, while Mmm magazine was in several respects a one-off.

The first architecture zine I came across was GLASpaper, and uniquely it was the outlet for a design co-operative, rather than an end in itself. It’s the most politically-conscious of the zines, and as Adrian Stewart told me, “It’s very refreshing to hear GLAS referred to again, especially as many of the issues we were responding to are even more valid now than ever.”

G.L.A.S. was a collective of architecture students, teachers and designers based in Glasgow which came together in 2000. As Jonathan Charley explained, “G.L.A.S grew out of a design studio that I ran for ten years at Strathclyde. Together with ex-students we decided to organise an architect’s co-operative with a mission to provide a radical critique of the capitalist built environment.”

G.L.A.S. produced nine thematic issues of GLASpaper. The first appeared in 2001 and a second quickly followed, protesting against the M74 extension. By issue seven the team had travelled from Glasgow to Berlin, and the ninth and final issue appeared in Winter 2004. As it happens, it was printed as a broadsheet – just as the original chapbooks were.

Mmm Magazine was conceived and edited by Rory Olcayto, and like the early issues of GLASpaper, it was supported by The Lighthouse. “Man made memories - Helensburgh” appeared in 2003; unlike the others here, it lasted for only one issue. Its bold drawings and vivid colours were strongly influenced by comicstrip art, and it borrowed the format of a graphic novel to relate ideas about architecture and urbanism.

After several zine-less years, Matzine arrived in 2009, and became the longest running of the titles. I chatted to Rowan Mackinnon-Pryde who explained, “We began the zine as a group in our final year in Architecture at Dundee. When we graduated, and everyone was dispersed and working in practice, it was decided that each issue would be edited by a different member of the team … whilst at times that might be problematic, in fact it’s quite liberating.”

Lines on a map are apparently drawn arbitrarily. Over time they shift and deflect, revealing that their positioning on the page reflects not the physical features of natural geography but political motives. These are capricious lines which distribute space according to the exigencies of a certain moment – a political bargain, the wilfulness of a leader, the location of an ethnic group or a precious natural resource. No line on a map, however, is ever drawn arbitrarily. It only seems so because the motives under which it is shaped are invisible to the naked eye. Invisible but infinitely powerful. The lines of the map tend not to accept ambiguity or even history. Instead, they impose new relationships on to the landscape. The past is full of examples: the estate maps of eighteenth-century England which spoke of the desirability of appending common land to the landlord’s holdings; the lines of the Down Survey in Ireland which dissolved the traditional indigenous relationship to land and replaced it with new English property rights; the 19th century maps of Africa which posited a landscape bereft of culture, a blank canvas on to which colonial powers were invited to inscribe their identities; the maps of the Third Reich which showed the location of ethnic German minorities in such a way as to suggest their inclusion into an expanding Greater Germany was both inevitable and natural; the line which divided India and Pakistan in 1946 that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and irrevocably altered an Islamic culture which had inhabited India for more than a thousand years. And so on.

The nation state is born from such lines cast abstractly on to a page, its borders shaped according to the same caprices. But once drawn, its culture must be made to fit the lines of geography. States which in the past may have enjoyed only a fleeting, ephemeral existence are re-made, given a history that speaks of longevity, of legitimacy, of a culture that is unique, rarefied and distinct from the influences of elsewhere. National heroes are resurrected as are the types of architecture, food and music and other cultural phenomenon which are designated to be ‘typical’ of the nation. Under tourism this process intensifies as the State’s uniqueness becomes its greatest selling point.

It also inevitably requires omissions. Thus, historic Prague is described as a Czech city rather than what it was: a city of the Austro-Hungarian empire whose cultural flowering owed everything to its heterogeneous population and its position as an intersection of Czech, German and Jewish cultures. Similarly, in Warsaw where one will struggle to find the remnants of a five hundred year old Jewish culture or even the location of the largest Jewish ghetto of the Second World War, while being confronted on almost every street corner with commemorations of the ethnic Polish uprising against the Nazis of 1944. In Vilnius – before the Second World War, known as the Jerusalem of the north – the Museum of Genocide pointedly fails to mention the fate of Lithuanian Jews and concentrates instead on the horrific experiences of ethnic Lithuanians at the hands of Soviet Russia.

In countries whose existence is owed to the break-up of a colonial power, the identity of their former rulers – most explicitly statues and monuments – is most systematically removed or suppressed. Vestiges of foreign, alien cultures are purged from the history books, chiselled off public buildings and eclipsed from everyday memory. Some vestiges, however, are human. The Russian ethnic minorities of the present day Baltic states find themselves practically stateless. Re-located here under the economic plans of the Soviet Union, since its break-up and retrenchment they have found themselves on the wrong side of a national boundary. Unable to work in certain jobs and denied other benefits of citizenship unless they learn the official state languages of Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian, they are compelled to pay for the Soviet Union’s past aggressions and expansionist policies. It is tempting to say that the places where they live in the city reflect this. In the vast concrete estates of the urban fringes you will often find the majority of signs are written in Cyrillic script and a predominance of Russian speaking voices. These are places the tourist seldom sees. This architecture of mass, social housing, of flat roofs, reinforced concrete and deck-access speaks of internationalism and other, discredited ideologies. A stark counterpoint to the spires, fachwerk and pitched roofs of old Tallinn, Riga or Vilnius, it is regarded with the same suspicion as its Russian inhabitants.

But curiously, it is the quaint and picturesque old town centres which, while ostensibly celebrating the indigenous and local, most rigorously pursue the international. Here, to provide comfort to western visitors one will find the icons of luxury and familiarity: Italian coffee, French delicacies, German hospitality, Irish beer and of course, words plucked from English to convey to the tourist, the ‘character’ of the place. In the world of commodities the ideology of the nation-state is infinitely flexible.

1799

Tallinn is the Russian Empire, Riga is in the Russian Empire, Vilnius is in the Kingdom of Poland, Warsaw is in the Kingdom of Hungary, Prague is in Austria, Bratislava is in the Kingdom of Hungary, Budapest is in the Kingdom of Hungary, Ljubljana is in Austria, Malta is French, Cyprus is in the Ottoman Empire.

1914

Tallinn is the Russian Empire, Riga is in the Russian Empire, Vilnius is in the Russian Empire, Warsaw is in the Russian Empire, Prague is in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bratislava is in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Budapest is in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ljubljana is in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Malta is in the British Empire, Cyprus is in the British Empire.

1925

Tallinn is the Estonia, Riga is in Latvia, Vilnius is in Lithuania, Warsaw is in Poland, Prague is in Czechoslovakia, Bratislava is in Czechoslovakia, Budapest is in Hungary, Ljubljana is in Yugoslavia, Malta is in the British Empire, Cyprus is in the British Empire.

1942

Tallinn is the Reichskommissariat Ostland (Germany), Riga is the Reichskommissariat Ostland (Germany), Vilnius is the Reichskommissariat Ostland (Germany), Warsaw is under the General Government (Germany), Prague is in Germany, Bratislava is in Slovakia, Budapest is in Hungary, Ljubljana is in Italy, Malta is in the British Empire, Cyprus is in the British Empire.

1950

Tallinn is the Soviet Union, Riga is the Soviet Union, Vilnius is the Soviet Union, Warsaw is in Poland, Prague is in Czechoslovakia, Bratislava is in Czechoslovakia, Budapest is in Hungary, Ljubljana is in Yugoslavia, Malta is in the British Empire, Cyprus is in the British Empire.

2004

Tallinn is the Estonia, Riga is the Latvia, Vilnius is the Lithuania, Warsaw is in Poland, Prague is in the Czech Republic, Bratislava is in Slovakia, Budapest is in Hungary, Ljubljana is in Slovenia, Malta is Maltese. Cyprus is 63% Greek and 37% Turkish.

63% of Cyprus and 100% of all the rest are in the European Union.

Lunchtime - Day one - Week 80 - It is an unexpected high pressure shirt sleeve day - Incongruous at this time of year but the weather is haywire in Russia as well - Eager for familiar tastes The world in sealed mouthfuls has arrived - “Sir, would you like Dim Sum, Gyozzas or Tortellini ? - I stick to Pelmeni, hollow Russian dumplings stuffed with meat or fish generously drenched in butter or smetana Twenty years have passed since I first stepped foot in Moscow. Like many before me I developed a blind spot as I walked through the city for the first time. It was impossible to remain unmoved by the statues of Lenin and Marx and by the list of revolutionary heroes chiselled into walls. Equally impressive were the hammers, sickles and red stars that decorated the city in a superficially refreshing departure from the advertising detritus of western capitalism. This was the way ideology worked, using text or stone to camouflage state repression. As a politically naïve twenty five year old I was aware of the mantra “neither Washington nor Moscow”, but desperately wanted to believe that something had survived from the ten years that shook the world between 1917 and 1927. Armed with revolutionary memorabilia I returned from that first trip via Kiev, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest and Prague. Determined to return east as fast as possible, I started learning Russian and immersed myself in the work of the political and architectural avant-garde of the 1920s. The relationship between political change and urban development grew into an obsession and took me back to Moscow many times. Four political regimes later I am not at the age yet to write memoirs, but I suddenly felt older as I reminisced in the Hotel Rossiya devouring blinis stuffed with smoked fish. When it first opened in 1967 its three thousand bugged rooms made it the largest hotel in the world and certainly for its time the most ambitious electronic surveillance operation. Peppered vodka clinked between us as we laughed at the fairyland panorama of Red Square and the Kremlin. We agreed that Russia would never be let it into the new Euro club. It is simply too exotic and unpredictable for fragile western European sensitivities, too prone to what imperial apologists call “Asiatic despotism”. Besides which it is geographically absurd for Europe to stretch to the Sea of Japan.

Evening rush hour - Bandits and businessmen storm the highways - Car ride with a rich friend who knew how to play the market - Marinated garlic and gushing buffets of food not seen outside of the Kremlin [except in Paris] for a hundred years We left the convoy of black bulletproof four by fours and drew up in the tarmac forecourt of one of Putin’s favourite restaurants. A cabin of Tsarist nostalgia it sits discretely at a junction in the forest to the west of Moscow. Obedient servants in peasant outfits proffering trays of sumptuous duck and fish have replaced surly state employees ladling kasha in Soviet canteens. Pickled grasses nibble away at platinum grade vodka. The bill would have been two months average wage if there was such a thing as an ‘average’, that is ‘middle’ class. “Djonatanchick, vi znaete, u nas net srednovo klassa,” only rich and poor. It was strangely warm that night. Warm enough to sit in a silver birch forest toasting relatives and friends whose names we could hardly remember. The chandeliers and security lights of the homes of the siloviki and new bogatiye flickered through the rhythmically arranged trees. Like the nouveau riche everywhere they are paranoid, kitsch and in love with spying. Who cares if the mansion looks like a Palladian villa or an outsize dacha built out of marble. After seventy years of enforced discretion the display of privilege and largesse has been hungrily embraced. It might be enveloped in gangster chic and turbo blonds but it is ostentatious in the extreme. Part of what it means to be Russian is doing nothing in half measures. Drink vodka in 100ml shots, construct cathedrals with domes that swirl to heaven in a myriad colours sparkling with gold. Plan boulevards to land planes on. Reverse the flow of rivers. Arrest people en masse and ensure that all productivity records are broken. Nothing is too much for Russia. But it is too much for Brussels man.

Day Two - Good morning Gospodin Maxim Gorky -Burnt vodka stomach- Ten different things made from milk for breakfast - Triple espresso in a sixties gay retro bar - A few shivers but recovery is foreseeable - Not for Gorky - He’s gone - Dostoevsky sits in front of the Bilblioteka Lenina - But that’s a good thing compared with Peter Pan on the river A quick 360-degree pirouette at the bottom of Gorky Street [I will not call it by its ‘new’ pre-revolutionary name Tverskaya] is enough to understand. To the South overshadowing Revolution Square, giant advertising hoardings hide the hole where the Party Hotel “Moskva” once stood. It was mysteriously demolished on the orders of Major Luzhkov’s engineer despite the fact that three generations of Soviet citizens had shuffled past its monumental stone façade. Opposite, buried under glass domes that drain Moscow’s energy supplies sits the elite shopping centre on Maneshnaya Ploshad. To the north, banners and signs for Samsung, Italian Breakfasts, VIP Slot Machines, New Collections, Universal Invest, and “revolutsia”www.ctc-tv.com, dominate the runway-sized boulevard. After decades of commodity deprivation the city centre embraced the retail revolution with the same zeal that was formerly reserved for organised state spectacles. It is now a predictable soup of historical theme park and consumer outlets with all of the coffee bars and business lunches that you would expect in a twenty first century global city. Needless to say, when it came to embracing legalised private property, Russia did so with gigantic open arms. On the foundations of a powerful state capitalist system, 1930s Chicago was spliced with laissez faire nineteenth century Britain, a heavy dose of Yakuza, and stirred. The kind of ‘gibkiye, bezumni capitalism’ that was unleashed transformed Moscow into a kleptomaniacs paradise, a ‘feudo-capitalist’ cocktail of epic proportions and unknown taste. Bewildered citizens began to spin out of control like demented wind up toys. It was pitiful to see the Professor of Historical Materialism selling flowers outside the metro to make ends meet. Welcome to the new Russia. Look but do not taste the party snacks. They are reserved for paying customers only. Continuity is everything despite the fact that historical amnesia is the leitmotif of the early twenty first century. The roads still part like the Red Sea when the sirens of authority bleep down the streets. But everything else is fragile. Licences guaranteeing press and media freedoms are revoked as soon as they are granted, just as the lightweight packaging of the consumer boom is as easily peeled off the remains of the Soviet State as it was stuck on.

Late Morning - Mushroom pies in the ‘bistro’ chain - A Baltic cold front - The weather has shaken off the Indian Summer- Time for a treat on the metro - Good to see it hasn’t been vandalised - Head for Kievskaya via my favourite Mayakovskaya There is something unspeakably sad and forlorn at the park of Victory on the western fringes of the city. Its sombre demeanour is compounded at this time of year by the first chill winds of winter blowing in bursts between the fragments of low sunshine. Dedicated to the millions of Russians who died in the Second World War and to the ‘victory of the Red Army’, it is a giant semi-circular colonnade constructed from cold granite, concrete, and stone. Faced with white marble tiles it surrounds a monumental obelisk and small church. Nestled in the gaps between the columns polished green cannons point skywards. In the woods at the back stand a lonely Jewish memorial and an equally lonely mosque. Couples are getting married and hold on fiercely to hemlines and bouquets. Cross-country skiers practise their moves on giant elongated roller skates. I headed down the triumphal promenade towards the hoardings and lights of Kutozovski Prospect thinking that a funereal walk punctuated by shiny guns and gods seemed an inappropriate way of remembering such slaughter. Once mass murder enters into double figures it is already unspeakable. When it hits seven figures it becomes too abstract for mortal comprehension and symbolic monuments. The Second World War and the internal system of discipline and punishment had scarred the history of every family that I had ever met. I read the names of cities liberated by the Red Army in 1945, cities that had already been annexed by Napoleonic, Austro Hungarian, Tsarist and Nazi troops and who were quickly to find themselves incorporated into the gulag. The grainy black and white footage of Soviet tanks entering Budapest and Prague replays itself, as do the revelations of the show trials and labour camps. I remind myself to stop reading tales of human misery. At the entrance to the tube a man who was either Chechen or Georgian was being stopped and searched, an unfortunately common sight in the city. Moods are saturated with ruined buildings and twisted bodies. People are tense, suspicious and jumpy after the summertime attacks. Desperate for explanations for the wave of atrocities many have grasped at dangerously simplistic explanations rooted in conspiracy theory, paranoia and racism. Others wallow in nostalgic images of Saints and Stalin. Beslan is too much for anyone to talk about, but it has undoubtedly reinforced the fear of ‘other’ people. There are still a few Africans in town despite the petty harassment and the racist attack on the Patrice Lumumba student hostel. Some of the once large population of ‘international comrades’ stayed after the ‘end’ of the liberation struggles, a few married Russian girls, and alongside the ubiquitous Chilean flute band there is now a sprinkling of African and Brasilian footballers. But there is barely concealed hostility towards anyone who looks remotely Arab, Chechen, or Uzbek. The city centre, public transport system, and shopping malls are virtually Muslim free. Of course many of them still live in the city. But they have merged into the periphery, close to the bazaars and markets that they have run for a thousand years.

Early Afternoon - Black bread and fried chicken on Novinsky Bulvar- I always liked the smell of benzene - In sight of the plaque commemorating the student killed by a tank in the 1991 uprising - Off to pay homage to the Constructivists again There it is, in worse shape than ever. Alert. The modern masterpiece the Dom Narkomfin built in 1926, the prototype incubator of a “new way of life” faces erasure. There are two reasons. The first is because there are only a few individuals who care enough about the ideas of the Soviet avant-garde to want to preserve the memory of a “housing commune of a transitional kind”. The second is that it sits on a prime piece of real estate next to the American Embassy. “Why do you take so many photographs of that crumbling wreck?” Asked a war veteran sitting on the broken bench in the remains of the children’s park. “Well believe it or not Sir, despite the render falling off the brick work and the reinforcing steel bursting through the concrete frame I consider this ruin to be one of the most important buildings of the twentieth century.” I climb up the wall at the foot of the neighbouring wedding cake to say farewell. In front of me a wine tasting ceremony is being arranged in the entrance to a glass office block - the architectural signature of global capital. Back out into Novinsky and along the old Kalinin Prospect. Cut down to the Arbat and through the open-air matrioshka market. Giant billboards sell “Ekolegend Kottedges” with the fraudulent hookline of “freedom, happiness and security” emblazoned across an image of a smiling middle class Russian family. For the more prosperous, elite incarceration is on offer in one of the new retro-Stalinist “penthaus” towers, whilst the superrich retire to eclectic fortified star houses in close proximity to nature so as to remind themselves of their humanity. Enough for one day

Late Night TV - Pomegranate Juice - More Pomegranate Juice - I remember Paradjanov’s “Zvet Granatov” - Chat shows - Beslan - Putin’s latest autocratic moves - Smoke from roadside fireworks make passers by jump -10.30 -1970s Nostalgia Film - Life, love and politics on The Collective Farm - It makes life look so peaceful and simple Can you imagine a book being published in this day and age with the title - “Town Planning Culture in European Socialist Countries.”? I think about this extraordinary concept as the film lulls me into ideological delusion with its surreal portrayal of daily life as a pastoral idyll. The next programme - a drama about hostages, Chechen terrorists and exploding bodies, rudely interrupts this dream of another world.

Saturday - Crisp autumn golden light paints a misty skin on the city - Time for some revolutionary tourism to set my head straight - New types of teenagers born when it all collapsed are confident in their consumption They left the statue of Marx in front of the Bolshoi. Not because of the carved slogan “proletarians of the world unite”, but because tourists need memorabilia, and the lion headed orator is a great photo opportunity. All the older certainties have gone. The whole of Moscow seems to be galloping with a beer in the hand. Hot piroshki, a shot, and an espresso under the gaze of Pushkin are a welcome change from the austerity of food queues and prohibition. I read an article in the paper about the descendents of pre-revolutionary aristocrats trying to reclaim their estates. I get angry as they moan with acute memory loss about how unfairly their families were treated by the revolutionary tribunals during the civil war. Any one would think their Great Grandparents ran their former lands and factories, as benevolent charity workers. Out of curiosity I decided to visit the museum of the revolution, which an elderly red track suited woman reminded me was on the corner. “Ah yes of course, just up there on the left the old maroon pastel coloured building. But it’s not called that any more, no, now it’s the museum of recent history.” The City authorities had called time on time itself. Capitalist boomtowns do not possess such embarrassing relics. Now it’s a dead and buried clutter of dimly lit timber and glass cases surrounded by fading turquoise walls. The same grandmothers that had welcomed heroes in former days supervise it. Now they are there to usher visitors to the souvenir shop. None of it ever really happened you know.

Saturday Night - Day Five - A visit to an old friend - An architect turned landscape painter - Piati-etashni concrete panel housing - Fond times of carpets - The smell of oil paint - Dill, tomatoes, agurtzi, belomorkanal, glasses please At the end of the metro line in a station like Ulitsa Podbelskovo urban life is a brutal parody of the privatised historical theme park in the city centre. Out on the periphery there are few tourists. There are no sharp suits and shoes, no sign of the middle class, rather a chaotic bazaar of kiosks selling toxic vodka and Korean Lacoste shirts. Awash with alcoholic poverty the doors to the flats have new metal covers. Kids hang around on threadbare roadside verges jacking up with a shared needle in full view of passing prams. Adrift and resentful there is a whole generation reared on the idea of cradle to grave state support and employment that have no place in the neo-liberal economic project embraced with passion by the siloviki. They remember all too well the experience of a slowly disintegrating economy and the periodic “deficits” of consumer goods and food. Now they face deprivation again. They look with astonishment at the twenty-year transformation of Moscow from a dusty citadel of extraordinary political and military might into a kaleidoscope of adverts and shops. It seems somewhat banal to point out that many of the new emporia seem bereft of proletarians, in the same way that it is predictable that the flip side of Moscow’s transformation into a show case for all that global capitalism has to offer has been deepening social inequality. It is autumn now. Russia always explodes in autumn. If not in this one then in the next.

ON THE EDGE

FROM TALLINN TO LJUBLJANA

glaspaper

critical writings on architecture and space

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Matzine treads the fine line between serious ideas and intellectual playfulness, which helps to give it the characteristic personality which is sometimes lacking in titles which have a revolving editorship. When I asked whether Matzine was part of a wider movement, Rowan noted that, “We were aware of ‘zine culture’ but the invitation to be part of Archizines perhaps brought to our attention the wider movement of informal architectural publications.” Archizines was a touring exhibition and later a book produced by Elias Redstone which captured the zine scene a decade ago.

While some titles are uncomfortable with being called a zine, Rowan was quite emphatic: “Matzine is definitely a zine,” and she went on, “To try to define what the content of a zine should or could be, probably misses the point! Matzine stretched the format of the magazine to include debate and voice. The events and debates became an important and intrinsic exploration of each theme, and brought us together as editors.”

I wondered how zines fitted into the wider Scottish architecture scene? “Zines and commercial magazines serve different purposes and can co-exist quite comfortably. The freedom that the zine structure/ lack of structure offers can lead to some really creative outputs, however the fact that these projects are often self-funded can prove to be limiting.”

Costs aside, the physical format still offers lots of value.

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Ada Ju `šic

Balkan soviet architecture always strived to make the mundane grand and heroic, from public art to towerblocks, whether it was appropriate or not. Most people find it hideous but I’ve always had a soft spot for it, where I was born in Sarajevo we could see the ali-pashine polje housing estates from our flat, they were built in parallel phases with the buildings in different heights so there was a layered effect, parts of some phases visible behind the others, I think they were supposed to give the impression of a mountain range or rolling hills. It’s more like crooked teeth when the sun hits it right you can see what they were aiming for under the crumbling facades and peeling paint.

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Matzine made a splash surfacing the unconventional strains of beauty to be found in Balkan architecture

“As a group, I think it’s true to say that all the editors of Matzine share a love for the printed artefact and we are interested in how a physical publication is constructed.” After a run of thirteen issues plus a special, Matzine went on hiatus in 2014 although Rowan explained, “The zine isn’t currently active, but all the editors are still in touch, and it’s not dead, just hibernating!” 2017 was a productive year, with another two titles emerging: Crumble and Gargoyle. Crumble sprang from Edinburgh School of Architecture and its first issue begins, “This is not a magazine about architecture,” which previous editor Holly Baker reinforced: “It’s an architecture magazine that isn’t an architecture magazine”.

I spoke to current editor Felix Wilson and asked him to explain the paradox. “We aren’t a glossy ‘architecture magazine’ but I would argue we are more formal than a zine, yet more intermediate and anti-dramatic than a ‘traditional’ magazine. By creating an architecture magazine that isn’t an architecture magazine, I think we are able question and focus on what exactly the discipline is about, what it can entail and what is even relevant to ask.”

True to that manifesto, the writing is accessible and the articles are pithy – but the most striking aspect of Crumble is its design and repro. The Risograph machine has become identified with zines, just as the xerox machine was in the 1980’s, and Riso printing offers the potential to work with spot colours as a screen printer would. It also has an endearingly wonky character which Burns’s chapmen would recognise.

Felix explained, “We chose Risograph partly because of the striking visual aesthetic, partly because of the scale of production and partly because of what is on our doorstep. We have a lovely relationship with Out of the Blueprint, our printers from the start.” Felix agreed with Rowan at Matzine that printed matter still has a place in 2021: “Physical media has more pleasure, joy and excitement to it.”

Since the editorial baton has passed from Crumble’s founding editor Theo Shack to the next generation of students, I asked Felix what the advantages are of having a revolving editorial team. “In many ways Crumble is an untested Prototype form of practice as we are forced to change leadership every couple years and our contributions to architectural culture extend beyond our physical magazine.”

Also part of the Class of 2017 is Gargoyle, which offers a whimsical take on the city: photos and drawings >

Left - A Spartan approach at Gargoyle left the content to do the talking Right - Crumble magazine positions itself in philosophical tones as ‘an architecture magazine that isn’t an architecture magazine’

interspersed with lyrics and reflection. At 16 pages of A6, which expanded to A5 size in the most recent issue, Gargoyle is modest. When I spoke to co-editor Liam Cooke, he explained, “Gargoyle has always been a small publication – initially the equivalent of a single sheet of A3 paper. We only had two guest contributors per issue and the rest of the content we produced ourselves; there is no large revolving team behind it!”

The editors met at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, although “When we launched Gargoyle in 2017, we weren’t aware of a contemporary movement of zine culture in architecture. We had publications like Archigram and the original MacMag in mind … but it was only later that we started to meet other zinemakers who were engaging in architectural discourse, and now it is easy to see Gargoyle as part of a wider ‘archizine’ movement in Scotland.”

Liam continued, “I attended an Architecture Fringe event a few years ago which involved a discussion with several speakers from various levels of architectural publishing – from small zines to established magazines – and while each viewpoint differed, some content to be included in the discussion, others calling for disruption and critique, the resulting conversation was fascinating and one I hadn’t heard before.”

“For us, with Gargoyle we try and open up the discussion on architecture to a wider audience, to appeal to the reader who wouldn’t pick up an architecture magazine and read a review, but might buy a poetry collection or visit a photography exhibition.” As with Crumble, Gargoyle aims to reach out beyond architects and architecture students; but like Matzine, Gargoyle is currently taking a break after a run of eight issues. -Ism Magazine is the most recent of the six titles, approaching its brief with a theoretically-inclined curiosity and publishing some stylish and acute writing. -Ism also neatly closes the zine circle. When I spoke to Aoife Nolan, she explained, “We were exposed to GLASpaper while at university, having been taught by Jonathan Charley who was a member of their editorial team.” -Ism started out in 2019 at Strathclyde and three issues have been published so far. Aoife explained, “Overall, the magazine is evolving in parallel with our team’s experiences, which has provided us with a prism based on the different stages of an aspiring architect’s career, initially as students and currently as young professionals working full-time.”

I wondered whether the editorial team saw -Ism as

2 The Shuffling Machine: a concrete skateboarding bowl located in Iso-Vilunen, a former gravel pick-up site between Iidesjärvi and Kaukajärvi, both lakes in Tampere. 3 Modernist tower and concrete grandstand at Kaukajärvi lake.

4 The modernist viewing tower and concrete grandstand at Kaukajärvi lake undergoing renovation.

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-Ism is the most recent title to emerge, building on the acculmulated knowledge of those who went before while serving as a standard bearer for a broader movement

76

5 Inside the skateboarding bowl at Iso-Vilunen.

6 Ville-Pekka exploring the skateboarding bowl through movement.

7 Dalia rotating at the side of the skateboarding bowl at Iso-Vilonen. xiv. DMS VPS

-ism

part of a wider movement? “Yes, we do feel there is something happening in Scotland with magazines, zines and publications in relation to architecture. We can’t pinpoint it, but hope it’s going to keep growing.” Aoife continued, “We are not trying to challenge established titles per se., but would like to challenge established themes or norms that are ingrained in our thinking … Some of the other magazines do this too, but we like to celebrate this attitude of fearlessness.”

Aoife ended by suggesting, “The current movement of publications in Scotland carries a tone of, ‘Hello, we are here just trying to figure things out’ because we’ve learned, as a younger generation that not being open about this statement has caused disastrous problems in the profession.”

That spirit of exploration shows that there’s more to architecture writing than news items, building reviews and PR pieces. As Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.” Zines are a vehicle for discovery, if not a rival to commercially-published magazines like Urban Realm which report, record and occasionally rant.

Yet the two cultures aren’t mutually exclusive; some of the Matzine team have written for Blueprint, while Rory Olcayto went on to become the editor of Architects Journal. But there’s also a counter-story to the rise of zines – which is the decline of print magazines. The AJ gets thinner each year, Building Design went digital, and Arca magazine, which was a competitor to Urban Realm’s predecessor, closed after a few issues.

Nonetheless, print is still important. As the zine makers emphasised, part of the joy of zines is in making a physical thing. Aoife Nolan admitted, “We try not to fetishise printed matter, but let’s face it — we do!” and perhaps that sums up the essence of the archizine.

D I V I N E

D E S I G N

THE JUDGING IS DONE AND THE NOMINATIONS ARE IN FOR THE SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS 2021 REVEALING A LOCKDOWN-PROOF SELECTION OF THE BEST NEW PROJECTS TO GRACE US WITH THEIR PRESENCE. FROM A SHIPSHAPE CHURCH TO A BARNSTORMING LUMBER MILL THERE IS SOMETHING TO EXCITE EVERY TASTE AHEAD OF THE AWARD PRESENTATION THIS 15 JULY.

The Scottish Design Awards have published a bumper number of finalists for 2021, reflective of a robust architecture and design community thriving in difficult circumstances.

Twin judging panels faced the unenviable task of whittling down hundreds of entries to a chosen few during two intensive remote judging sessions with panellists praising the high calibre of presented work.

Recalling a notably collegiate decision-making process, design panel chair Hiten Bhatt, head of design at RAPP, said: “What I loved most was walking away with a new respect for the design industry in Scotland. As a judge, we can sometimes have a very London-centric view of creative work. And that needs to change. So it was brilliant to see equally impactful and outstanding work coming from our neighbours in Scotland.

“I’ve always been blown away by the level of craft – packaging in particular. This year, it was the turn of the motion and experiential entries. Not only were they beautifully put together, but there was a clear and striking concept at the heart of the work.”

The architecture panel was headed by prof Alan Dunlop who was similarly struck by the high standard of work. He said: “A very pleasant day spent chairing the Scottish Design Awards with informed, insightful colleagues. We reviewed a number of extraordinary projects, reaffirming that the standard of architecture and design across all project types by Scottish architects is very high indeed and in a few cases exceptional.”

The Scottish Design Awards 2021 results will be brought to you via a free broadcast event on 15 July. Tune in with your friends, peers and clients on the night for an evening of celebration.

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Previous page - The Floating Church by Denizen Works is a unique mobile congregation space Above - Fraser Avenue by 7N Architects heralds the rebirth of an unfit for purpose housing estates Below - Ayr Grammar by BDP challenges perceptions of what a school should be

© DAVID BARBOUR

Above - Lockerbie Sawmill by Konishi Gaffney sells timber before you’ve set foot inside Below - The Larick Centre by Collective Architecture marries utility and joy

This Bearsden home by McGinlay Bell illustrates well the delights of suburban living

© ROSS CAMPBELL

Above - St Andrew’s Drive by jmarchitects employs ‘urban villas’ to deliver affordable accommodation Below - Commercial Quay by Morgan McDonnell offers ‘edgy’ serviced office space for on-trend Leith tenants

Above - Rutherglen is home to this pair of Keppie designed office pavilions commissioned by Clyde Gateway Below - At Dublin Street Lane, Edinburgh, DS Architecture have inserted two contemporary mews homes in a historic setting

© ROSS CAMPBELL

© KEITH HUNTER

Top Left - Glenkinchie Distillery by Michael Laird Architects saw a B-listed Victorian building refurbished as ‘The Barden Distillery’ Top Right - Inverness Justice Centre by Reiach & Hall provides the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Services facilitates fully integrated court proceedings Bottom Left - Royal Hospital for Children and Young people by HLM draws numerous NHS departments together on one site for economies of scale Bottom Right - Walter Bower House by Atkins reimagines the site of an old paper mill as an integral part of the University of St Andrews