Peter Wilson’s Wrap

I’ve mentioned Oliver Chapman Architect’s premises (“Schop”) in Edinburgh’s St Mary’s Street before and I confess to being intrigued by the practice’s latest venture. A banner to be seen of late in the window advertises the availability of further education evening courses in architecture. The first of these starts at the end of this month and runs for six weeks, at the conclusion of which participants should be able to design a small structure. Now I appreciate that for all of you out there who watch Grand Designs and despair when some of Britain’s thickest and greediest people insist they don’t need an architect, this new venture by Ollie and Mark Cousins will have an effect not entirely dissimilar to fingernails being dragged across a blackboard.

But with its small display area, exhibition catalogues for sale and rentable desk spaces for other creative industry types, I would suggest that this is exactly what every city and town in Scotland needs – a veritable architecture centre that people can drop into and take part in events and courses as they please. I would even go so far as to say that if Scotland were to create a network of similar spaces run by people who know something about architecture, we could substantially upgrade public perceptions about the modern built environment. And - in total cost terms - at a fraction of those incurred by the Lighthouse before its widely unlamented demise. So, does anything more need really need to be said on the subject, or do the powers that be in the Scottish Government’s Architecture and Place division require the virtues of this model for the 21st century to be further spelled out before piloting some projects?