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Faculty of Health, Caledonian University, Glasgow
RMJM |
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Archeolink, Oyne
Edward Cullinan Architects |
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Victoria Quay, Edinburgh
RMJM |
Government has an interest in architec-ture and a responsibility for its promotion for three principal reasons. Firstly, archi-tecture is a part of, and contributes to, a nation's heritage. Scotland's built heritage is a tangible and visible record of the history of Scotland and its people. This built heritage has a range of values to society. As well as its own intrinsic value, the built heritage is vital to an understanding of archaeology, history, architecture and building materials. It provides a sense of place and identity and contributes to the diversity of townscape, landscape, ecology and culture. It is also an important social, economic, recreational and educational resource. It is a source of enjoyment and inspiration, touching most aspects of everyday life and offering lessons from the past for the present and the future. The built heritage is an irreplaceable part of national heritage that Government has a responsibility to conserve for future generations. Our challenge today is to make buildings and a built environment of the same quality and significance as has been achieved in the past.
It is a particular challenge where we build adjacent to historic buildings of value. We must ensure that what we build now will be worthy of preservation and conservation as our heritage in the future. The Government's responsibility for the care and conservation of Scotland's built heritage must, then, be extended to embrace a concern for the contribution that new architecture can make both to Scotland's existing and future heritage.
Secondly, Government has an interest in architecture because architecture is a cultural phenomenon. It is an important manifestation of our cultural life and a vigorous and healthy cultural life is vital to the well-being and success of a nation. It is through our culture, our visual arts, architecture, literature, theatre, music and film, that we define and re-define our identity and give voice to our values and aspirations. Cultural activity fosters imagination, creativity and innovation. And a capacity to innovate, to imagine new futures, is essential to our ability to adapt and deal with the challenges of a changing world. Of all the arts, architecture is the most public and enduring. It is unavoid-able and pervasive. It is the art which enables all others to take place. A concern for architecture and for its promotion, then, is part of Government's wider responsibility for a national policy on culture.
And finally, architecture is of concern to Government because building is one of the key delivery mechanisms for Government policies aimed at improving social development and modernising the nation's services and infrastructure. For many policy issues, social exclusion, homelessness, crime and sustainability and in many policy areas, housing, health, education and industry, the quality of our architecture and the built environment it helps shape are major determinants of successful policy implementation. Without the capacity of architecture to create coherent, humane and sustainable environments, our expectations for successful policy implementation will be diminished. We need the leverage of architectural imagination, properly applied, if we are to meet effectively the social, economic and environmental challenges that face us now and will face us in the future.
Architecture, then, cuts across a number of areas of Government's responsibility. It defines our past and is part of our heritage. It is an important expression of our culture. And it is the means by which we shape our present and, in so doing, determine the value of our future. We need to give greater recognition to the value and importance of good architecture. And we need to consider ways in which good architecture can be encouraged and its benefits promoted.
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