'Joyless box-ticking' – capital's new buildings

Published on Sunday 1 November 2009 21:13

ONE of Scotland's leading architects will this week lead an outspoken attack on the quality of new buildings being created and pursued in the capital over the last ten years.

Malcolm Fraser will warn a "box-ticking" culture has already left the city saddled with a legacy of "joyless" architecture.

The architect behind award-winning Edinburgh buildings like Dance Base, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and the Scottish Poetry Library will warn that a "toxic" atmosphere over major developments has led to the failure of projects across the city.

And he will call for the city to bring an end to a relentless "slug-out" between developers and heritage campaigners by instigating major design competitions for key regeneration sites.

His intervention has come just days after the rejection of a 17-storey hotel development in the Haymarket area by the Scottish Government triggered a major debate over the future development prospects in the city.

Mr Fraser – whose practice was also behind the refurbishment of the HBOS building on The Mound and the transformation of the old Infirmary Street baths into an arts centre – is expected to criticise a host of new buildings at Thursday night's lecture at Edinburgh University's new Informatics Building.

These include the new Holiday Inn and Smart City hostel in the city's Cowgate, the Radisson Hotel on the Royal Mile, and the towering hotel at Haymarket.

Mr Fraser will also declare that major mistakes were made over the controversial Caltongate development by trying "to be all things to all people". And he will mount an attack on the "thoughtless" development of Edinburgh's waterfront for ignoring long-established urban design traditions.

The developers behind Caltongate blamed delays in the planning system for the demise of their scheme earlier this year due to funding problems, while the Haymarket hotel project was called in by the Scottish Government after an outcry from heritage bodies and local residents.

A revamp of a former Odeon cinema has also been stalled while no new buildings have been created on Princes Street for more than five years.

Mr Fraser will say: "Given that the renewal of Edinburgh is the essence of 'sustainable development', and that Scotland's economy is hugely dependent on the robust health of the city, the current impasse disgraces us.

"Often it is the relentless, numbing, self-defeating slug-out between elements of the heritage and development lobbies, that brings with it dereliction.

"Recent developments are joyless exercises in box-ticking, the product of a culture that relies on entrenched interest groups reluctantly approving the mediocre. The toxic atmosphere encourages people wanting to invest in the most historic parts of Edinburgh to follow the path of least resistance, to produce schemes of timidity and aridity in an attempt to avoid getting anyone cross.

"(Design competitions] might achieve results which are fresh, and surprising, and achieved through passionate debate rather than pyrrhic battle."