The Scottish Government

Architecture

The quality of the built environment affects everyone in Scotland. It is the purpose of architecture not only to meet our practical needs in housing our activities, but also to respond to the social and cultural values to which we as a nation aspire - to improve the quality of life for the people of Scotland. How buildings are made, the quality of their design and of the built environments they help shape should be a matter of concern for us all. This government believes that its key challenges for the built environment of Scotland are to help to:-

• create successful, thriving and sustainable places and communities
• to deliver well-designed public buildings which are greener - and which represent good value for money
• to tackle the barriers to good quality development, through education, skills and advocacy

Policy summary

The Scottish Government recognise the importance of quality in the built environment in relation to the delivery of a wide range of social, cultural, environment and economic policy objectives. Since the launch of policy in 2001, the central aims of architecture policy have been to promote and to raise awareness of the value of good architecture and to encourage high quality in new development in Scotland. These aims continue to underpin policy objectives, however a new statement on policy in mid 2008 will reshape policy in order to better fit with the wider strategic objectives of government. In order to move the agenda forward, and to achieve greater impact, the future policy on architecture will focus on a simplified approach, with 3 key objectives:-

• focusing on the delivery of better-designed outcomes;
• promoting a positive view of our architectural culture and heritage; and
• promoting a sustainable and inclusive approach to our built environment