The Recap: a weekly update from Architecture and Design Scotland

A group of women sat on chairs during the panel session at the Climate Action Towns Gathering and resource launch.
Published: 17/04/2024

(17 April 2024) Welcome to the first weekly update blog from Architecture and Design Scotland. We plan to share a brief, weekly update on what we’ve been up to and what is coming up next. This is based on our internal blog that is shared with staff and board members (most) Fridays. 

The purpose is to briefly share our work in progress, the meetings we are having and what is happening from week to week. (Please note that this week’s blog is shorter than usual due to the Easter holidays with many of our colleagues taking their annual leave.) 


Climate Action Towns: Just before Easter, we held the Climate Action Towns Gathering, where we were delighted to launch a series of resources for community-led climate action. 

To date, these resources have already been viewed over 1,000 times. We received great feedback from the people attending the event – both in person at the Engine Shed in Stirling and online. You can explore the report here and toolkit here.  If you missed the event, we’ll be sharing a recording from the event in our newsletter next week.

In other news:

Making an impact: We have created and circulated a new set of slides to update our stakeholders about our plans for the coming year. The presentation also includes examples of recent work and how it has made an impact. 

Place conversations: we made preparations for our latest Place Conversation LinkedIn Live which took place on Wednesday 17 April. We were joined by Claire McArthur, Aberdeen City Council and Rory Kellett, from Threesixty Architects to look at how collaboration and design can help unlock town centre living. The recording from the event will be shared across our channels. 

Scotland + Venice: The latest meeting of the Scotland + Venice partners board took place on Wednesday. The main topic for discussion was the ongoing review of the whole project which is entering its later stages ahead of a report next month. 

Collaboration and meetings: Our Chief Executive Jim MacDonald met with PAS Chief Executive Johanna Boyd last Thursday covering everything from the circular economy, community voice, to working together. We’ve also got meetings with SFT, our Scottish Government sponsor-team PARD as well as joining others at a reception hosted by 7N Architects as well as attending a City Leadership event organised by Stallan-Brand Architects.  Other meetings coming up include the Town Centre Action Plan Forum and the Place and Wellbeing Alliance meeting. Our Board meets on 18 April. 

That’s it for this week, but more to follow!

Header image was taken during the panellist session at the Climate Action Towns Gathering and resource launch in March 2024.