Christmas in Edinburgh: 5 Architecturally Amazing Sights
It doesn’t quite seem possible, but it’s that time of year again: the countdown to Christmas has begun. Shortly the city will be transformed into a winter wonderland. Christmas lights on the Royal Mile will be switched on, and the infamous Market on Princes Street will open its gates to tourists and locals alike.
To help you make the best of your festive visit, here are five architecturally amazing sights not to be missed during Christmas in Edinburgh.
Social housing buildings in Edinburgh before WWII
In 2020, an exhibition named “Housing to 2040” is set to “help to inform the Scottish Government’s final vision and route map for housing over the next 20 years”. The portable exhibition will travel around Scotland, providing a public platform for the public to engage in the conversations about housing and places of the future.
Most beautiful interiors in Edinburgh
Edinburgh has on average 124 rainy days a year. So, if you can’t spend time outside, you might as well spend it in the most beautiful interiors of the city. To help you figure out where to go next time the weather foils your plans, here is a selection of the best interiors in Edinburgh open to the public.
Unbuilt Edinburgh
With motorways going through the city, different buildings serving as landmarks, or even a different castle, Edinburgh could have been a drastically contrasting city with what it is today. By exploring what the Scottish capital could have been, we can make sense of the cityscape that we know. Alternatives help to explain decisions made and understand our current built heritage. Therefore, it is interesting to examine unbuilt architectural projects.
Here is a selection of the most interesting schemes proposed for Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Doors Open Days 2019
Every year on Edinburgh Doors Open Days, buildings usually closed to the public open their doors. This is a great opportunity to discover some of Edinburgh’s best architecture. This year on the 28th and 29th of September, over 130 places will be open in the Scottish capital. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of options, so we have put together a selection of tried and tested places to visit.
Art Deco Architecture in Edinburgh
It’s easy to imagine Edinburgh as just a medieval Old Town alongside a Georgian New Town. But our city was never one to stand still, especially during the inter-war period. Our burgh contains numerous hidden 20th century gems that should be admired. Last month we looked at the brutalist heritage of the 1960s. Today let’s jump a few decades earlier and discover the art Deco style of the 1920s and 30s.
The future of Edinburgh’s architecture
When walking through Edinburgh, it may seem like the city has been set in stone for centuries. But as William Morris wrote, “All continuity in history means is (…) perpetual changes”. Our city is constantly evolving and is currently building numerous exciting new projects, all enriching Edinburgh’s history. Here is a selection of the most promising upcoming designs.
Brutalist legacy in Edinburgh
Brutalism is an easy movement to hate on aesthetic grounds. Its bare concrete buildings can stand out in a uniform sandstone city like Edinburgh. The lack of decoration on its block-like structure has fallen out of fashion since the 1970s. Prince Charles even famously qualified a brutalist proposal as a “monstrous carbuncle”. But in order to fully appreciate and understand the style, it is important to understand the moral and historical implication of such movement. Edinburgh has a great legacy of brutalist architecture, offering us a wide range of examples, such as social housing blocks, university buildings or office constructions.
EDINBURGH OLD TOWN: CITY SHAPED BY FIRE. PART 3
Standardisation was used as a tool against the threat of fire. However, this method was not completely successful in stopping fires in the old town. Disastrous fires in Edinburgh prompted large scale urban planning projects in the Old Town, which allowed for wider, cleaner, uniform streets.
EDINBURGH OLD TOWN: CITY SHAPED BY FIRE. PART 2
In Part 2 of the series I look at how, after centuries of frequent and repetitive burnings, the city of
Edinburgh started to use its architecture to prevent and reduce fires. Control through laws and regulations was used as a means of prevention.
Edinburgh Old Town: City Shaped by Fire. Part 1
In this three-part series, I explore how the different forms of fire,
from the physical element, the threat of burning, and the control of this
fire, have all lead to the uniformity of architecture in the historic heart of Edinburgh.
To Replicate or to Readapt?
At the time of speculations on the replacement of the spire at Notre Dame de Paris, we take a look at how Edinburgh has dealt with restoration of its lost architecture.
Many ways to cross the Forth
The river Forth boasts an awe-inspiring set of bridges. All built with a different structural approach, they bring many an engineer for a tour.
Fife and Dundee:
from Scots cottages to starchitecture
For those architecture lovers who venture outside of Edinburgh, Fife coastal route offers an exciting day out, checking off a potent blend of historical and cutting edge contemporary “starchitecture”.
Hiring a new architectural guide
We are looking for a new guide to join our small but growing architecture tour company in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh’s Lost Architecture: A tour to David’s Tower
For nearly half a millennium it lay built over and only rediscovered a century ago. It is usually closed to visitors, but on a special tour organised by Historic Scotland events team the entry was permitted to a group of enthusiasts.