The Recap: A weekly update from Architecture and Design Scotland

Welcome to the Recap - a short weekly update blog from Architecture and Design Scotland. This is based on our internal blog that is shared with staff and board members on Fridays. This blog is for the week ending 11 October.

On Tuesday 8 October, our Chief Executive Jim MacDonald and Director of Design Heather Claridge attended the latest meeting of the Town Centre Forum, at St Andrew's House in Edinburgh. 

The Forum, chaired by Dumfries and Galloway Councillor Gail MacGregor, includes representatives from Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), Scotland's Towns Partnership (STP), Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development (SLAED) Group, Scottish Property Federation, COSLA, and the Robertson Group. Minister for Employment and Investment Tom Arthur also joined the meeting as his portfolio covers regeneration, town centres, and community wealth. The meeting focused on recommendations for testing place-based collaborations in five different towns over the next five years. 

On Wednesday 9 October, Jim, Heather, Board Member Lynn Wilson, Communications Officer Rachel McBryde and Communications Manager Saoirse Docherty attended the A&DS and RIAS Student Awards for Architecture at Civic House in Glasgow.

An annual highlight in the A&DS calendar, the awards provide a place to bring together the five schools of architecture in Scotland to celebrate the continuing high standards of Scottish architectural education, and to ensure that construction professionals and the public can enjoy the creativity and vision of Scotland's future architects.

This year’s awards saw over 170 entries (over twice as many than last year) from the five Scottish schools for architecture. The entries included projects spanning various environments – including cities, post-industrial sites and rural settings – as well as a range of themes such as building with data and building with bio-based materials.

The projects submitted this year continued to push the boundaries of how design can contribute to a more sustainable future and they showed a strong engagement in social and civic issues.

The judges were:  

• Dr Lynn Wilson | Creative Director, Circular Design Synergy and A&DS Board Member
• Kuan Loh | Senior Architect, Scottish Government 
• Helen Lucas | Director, Helen Lucas Architects 
• Holly Bruce | Councillor, Glasgow City Council 
• Jude Barber | Director, Collective Architecture
• as well as supporting judges not in attendance: A&DS Interior Designer Alex Laurenson and A&DS Senior Architect and Principal Design Officer Laura Hainey

The evening, overseen by RIAS President and former A&DS Chair Karen Anderson, also included the award for Design Tutor, as well as the Andy McMillian Memorial Lecture. This year the ‘lecture’ was an in-conversation with Glasgow City Councillor Holly Bruce, and Collective Architecture's Jude Barber. It was a great conversation that, among other aspects, discussed the systemic and cultural barriers towards gender sensitive place making. 

Details of the award categories and winning projects can be found here.