And so it begins…

While London was to be the main focus of the UK leg of my trip, I stumbled upon University of Strathclyde student Ross Brown’s impressive website chronicling his Master’s research project Scottish Brutalism and on a bit of a whim decided to tack on a quick detour of Scotland before settling into London. Ross proved to be a very valuable and incredibly generous resource, providing suggestions of buildings to see and insight on their context, condition and prominence.  Though he is based in Glasgow and his research work is limited to the Strathclyde region which encompasses Glasgow and its surrounding suburbs, he was kind enough to put together a Google map of his own brutalist Edinburgh highlights.

Edinburgh’s skyline is dominated by the Edinburgh Castle (parts of which date back to the 12th century) and it does indeed feel like a very old city.  The vast majority of the city’s building stock is historic.  Nonetheless there were still a number of Brutalist buildings to be seen.  Most remarkable is how much these buildings stand out amidst the relative homogeneity afforded by the city’s historic building stock.

These buildings also feel notably unwelcome.  Many were unoccupied, with for rent signs, or nearby plaques boasting of a future redevelopment which frequently entailed the building’s demolition or at the very least an alteration so aggressive that it rendered the building unrecognizable.

Admittedly it’s a bit of a disheartening – but not totally unexpected – start to things.

The Argyle House (Michael Laird and Partners, 1968)

University of Edinburgh Main Library (Sir Basil Spence, 1967)