The Development of a Policy on Architecture for Scotland

TOURISM

The quality of our architecture and buildings in our towns and cities and in our rural areas is vital, too, to the success of our tourist industry. Tourism makes a major contribution to the Scottish economy. Towns and cities where good architecture and good urban design have flourished in the past and rural areas of outstanding natural beauty remain the most popular venues for visitors to Scotland. The quality of new buildings and new development in our towns and cities and in our countryside is, then, critical to the preservation and enhancement of Scotland's rich diversity of urban areas and natural landscapes. Outstanding examples of new architecture, as well as contributing to their urban and rural contexts, can, of course, become visitor attractions in their own right. The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, the new Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao are all notable examples.

	19 Bennachie Visitors Centre, Inverurie Lewis & Hickey

EXPORT OF SKILLS

The construction industry is itself a major part of the Scottish economy. It provides employment and creates new jobs. It has a substantial annual turnover and accounts for a significant proportion of Scotland's Gross Domestic Product. And it fosters design and construction expertise and skills that are important not only domestically but also abroad. Good building design requires imagination and encourages innovation. Good construction requires experience and sound practical and craft skills. The process of construction requires organisational and management skills. All of these skills have value and can form the basis for export and cross border partnerships. The development of these skills, however, depends upon a flourishing domestic industry in which good design and good construction are encouraged and valued. All buildings, of course, cost money. But good building design need not cost more than indifferent design. And good building design and good architecture, in the contribution they make to urban and rural regeneration, to the efficiency of industry and commerce, to tourism and to the development of construction skills, create an economic resource of lasting value.

Those who design and make our buildings for us, then, must respond to a complex and demanding agenda. Buildings must meet our practical needs for shelter, space and services and do so efficiently. Buildings must respond to social needs and support and encourage social interaction and community life. Buildings must acknowledge and be in harmony with their surroundings whether in town, city or countryside yet must be manifestly of their time. Buildings must acknowledge their role in meeting the objectives of sustainable development and be part of an ecology of place. And buildings must contribute positively to our nation's economic life. Good buildings do all of these things. It is the purpose of architecture to find solutions to these demands of building that exhibit grace, wit, compassion and elegance and to extend into the world a humane and rational image of ourselves and our society.