The Recap: A weekly update from Architecture and Design Scotland

On Monday, as part of our Value of Design campaign, our Principal Design Officer Kate Hendry, Communications Officer Rachel McBryde and Communications Manager Saoirse Docherty travelled to Dundee for an interview with Director of V&A Dundee Leonie Bell.

It was Rachel’s first time visiting the V&A Dundee and she was pleased to see that some of the interactive pieces within the museum specifically focused on architecture and design – such as a section for kids to ‘design their dream high street’ using building blocks.

The visit was also a great opportunity to catch up with Jennie Patterson, Head of Communications and Media (Campaigns) at V&A Dundee, as well as Assistant Curator Svetlana Panova who spoke to us about the upcoming Dundee Design Festival and the V&A exhibition of A Fragile Correspondence, which opens in November.

The week before, Rachel, Saoirse and Kate also travelled to Glasgow to film at two locations for the Value of Design campaign. They first visited New Practice’s office at the Barra's to film an interview with Samuel Stair, Chair of Open Plan Scotland, and Luca Sode, Student Coordinator for Open Plan Scotland.

It was great to hear Sam and Luca's focus and experience of design for the LGBTQIA+ communities, sharing examples of some of the projects they’ve been involved in.

The second location was across town at the Kinning Park Complex to interview Becca Thomas, Creative Director and Architect at New Practice, and Marc Cairns, Managing Director of New Practice. It was great to hear about the design process and experience of the retrofit project at Kinning Park Complex.

Look out for these interviews on our socials and our Value of Design showcase page soon.

Last Thursday, we gathered in the impressive event space at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) for the inaugural ‘Welcome to EFI’ event for academic staff, partners, and professional service colleagues across EFI and the wider University.

EFI Interim Director Professor Kev Dhaliwal gave an overview of the institute and introduced us to EFI’s Autumn 2024 Events Season – Learning Curves, which focuses on the future of learning and education through panel discussions, poetry, live music, debate and discussion.

This was one of many planned events to encourage networking and collaboration with our EFI neighbours and colleagues.

As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), last week our Board member Daisy Narayanan had the privilege of co-hosting a positive, fun and lively conversation with architect Jude Barber on ‘Shaping the Feminist City’ as part of the Curious Festival of Knowledge.  

Daisy said, “We had a fantastic panel – Suzanne Ewing, Cllr Holly Bruce and Dr May East – who approached the topic from the lens of academia, policy and practice."  

An hour and half flew by as the panel considered the potential and opportunities that a gender-sensitive and feminist approach could bring to how we shape our towns and cities. Making clear that ‘Feminist Cities’ does not just mean ‘designed for women’ but a completely different approach to looking at city and place design, including transport networks, policy development, gender budgeting, safety, art and activism.

Around 200 people attended (in person and online) which is testament to the growing conversation around feminist cities across Scotland – Edinburgh and Glasgow have both declared themselves to be Feminist Cities.

You can watch the discussion here. If you're interested in this subject, our book recommendations are What if Women Designed Cities by Dr May East and Feminist City by Leslie Kern.

Ahead of the Scottish Leaders Forum (SLF) workshop on the Place Principle later in the month, our Chief Executive Jim MacDonald joined the other speakers and colleagues from Scottish Government for a briefing session. The workshop will be chaired by none other than our former colleague and now SFT Associate Director Diarmaid Lawlor. 

Jim will be joined on the panel by Dr Ailsa Cook, Director and Co-founder of Matter of Focus, and Jim Savege, Chief Executive at Aberdeenshire Council. Originally planned as an in-person event to be held at the wonderful Glasgow Women’s Library, austerity measures have forced it on-line. The workshop will be a great opportunity to hear from senior leaders across the country and share some of what we’ve learned about implementing the Place Principle.

Our 'What's next for place?' event in collaboration with The University of Glasgow and the Academy of Urbanism takes place on Wednesday and Thursday, and we say farewell and good luck to our Senior Architect David Fletcher who leaves to take up a full-time post at Strathclyde University.