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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
The Scottish Executive launched its Policy on
Architecture in October 2001. This policy document is the
result of a process that began with the Partnership for
Scotland Agreement in 1999. One of the key themes of this
agreement is
Creative Scotland in which arts and culture have a
pivotal role in shaping Scotland's communities and
maintaining civic pride. The quality of the built
environment and the standard of design have a fundamental
part to play in realising this vision.
As part of this agreement, the Scottish Executive began
to develop the first national policy on architecture, the
first stages of which are clearly documented in the
framework publication
The Development of a Policy on Architecture for
Scotland. The main purpose of this was to raise
awareness of the importance of good building design to all
our lives. It was intended to be used as a document for
debate; to start the building professions and users
thinking about the issues involved in good design and how
to improve architecture throughout Scotland. For an
effective and realistic policy on architecture to be
developed, the involvement and commitment of not only the
building professions, but also the general public was
sought.
For the development of the Policy on Architecture to be
an inclusive process the Government held a series of public
consultations across Scotland to obtain opinions from both
organisations and individuals about the framework
publication. The findings from the consultations are
published in
The Development of a Policy on Architecture for
Scotland: Report on the Public Consultation and
strongly endorsed the framework document and the main
elements that were set out in it.
It was therefore decided that the Policy on Architecture
should adhere to the general aspirations of the framework
document, which emphasised four main aspects of the
importance of the built environment:
- it is a key component of developing an inclusive
society;
- it is an expression of our cultural identity and
aspirations;
- it contributes to the conservation and development
of our built heritage; and
- it contributes to economic well-being, stimulating
local economies and regeneration.
The policy on architecture identifies five key
objectives:
- to promote the value and benefits of good
architecture, encourage debate on the role of
architecture in national and local life and further an
understanding of the products and processes of building
design;
- to foster excellence in design, acknowledge and
celebrate achievement in the field of architecture and
the built environment and promote Scottish architecture
at home and abroad;
- to encourage greater interest and community
involvement in matters affecting local built
environments;
- to promote a culture of quality in the procurement
of publicly-funded buildings that embraces good design
as a means of achieving value for money and sustainable
development; and
- to ensure that the planning and building standards
systems and their associated processes both promote and
facilitate design quality in development.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
To achieve the objectives set out in the Policy the
Executive recognises that a partnership between the
commissioning clients, the general public and the building
design professionals should be achieved. Research conducted
in 2004 with the general public has already established
baseline measures of their awareness and attitudes towards
the built environment. The next stage of the process was to
commission research among building design professionals to
establish their views on the policy. In particular this
research was intended:
- to provide Ministers with views of a representative
sample of the building design professions on the value
of the various elements of policy, the impact the
policy has had to date and the relevance and importance
of the policy to the professions themselves;
- to provide baseline data against which attitudinal
changes over time can be analysed;
- to provide a further means of raising awareness of
the aims and achievements of policy within the
professions and in related specialist press; and
- to inform considerations of future policy
priorities.
The following chapter of the report details the research
methodology and provides information on the sample profile
of the telephone survey and characteristics of the
qualitative interviews. Subsequent chapters present the
main findings from both the qualitative and quantitative
research. The final chapter presents an overview of the
findings and puts forward implications for the future
development of the policy on architecture.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MORI would like to thank Jim Mitchell at
the Scottish Executive for his guidance in conducting the
research, as well as the building design professionals who
kindly gave up their time to take part in the survey and
qualitative interviews.
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