Current Issue

The current issue of Urban Realm contains articles on:

• Woodmill & St Columba's: Nested Learning
  Net zero energy has long been big news but a new generation of buildings demonstrates the growing maturity of low-carbon design at scale. We size up the UK's largest passivhaus education building to see whether we warm to it, or if it leaves us cold.
• RIAS Presidency: Leadership Style
  The passing of the RIAS leadership baton demonstrates that stewardship of the architectural profession is a marathon, not a sprint. Taking that adage to heart newly installed president Karen Anderson emphasises continuity in her two-year mission to further the role of architecture in shaping our lives.
• Who Owns the Clyde? Murky Depths
  Efforts to draw both banks of the River Clyde closer together disguise a greater issue around the opaque nature of land ownership and access. We tune into a new podcast series exploring how the promise of Glasgow’s riverfront measures up to reality. How can the Clyde be returned to its bustling best?
• Govan-Partick Bridge: Redrawing the Map
  So close, yet so far. The working-class districts of Govan and Partick have experienced wildly divergent fortunes in recent years. Facing off across the river Clyde, they may as well have been worlds apart but a new bridge brings them closer than ever. We look at what this means for their future direction of travel.
• Engineering Report: Into the Fold
  Urban Realm returns to the engineering fold with a detailed look at the practices and projects shaping the future, in a world where adaptation and reuse are finding increasing favour over new builds. Are we turning over a new page in our approach to the built environment?
• St Columbkille's Church: Best Foot Forward
  The beating heart of Rutherglen now has added soul courtesy of a modest beautification project. Rising above its utility to frame the town hall is an otherworldly garden full of temptation, introducing a touch of the renaissance to a neglected corner of Main Street.
• Skopje: City Gate & City Wall
  Rebuilt as a modernist utopia in the 1960s following a devastating earthquake the city of Skopje, Macedonia, had lost its shine come the 21st century. Rather than pursue demolition however the Skopje 2014 project gave many buildings an extraordinarily kitsch post-modern makeover. Mark Chalmers looks at the parallels with Cumbernauld town centre and the lessons to be drawn on caring for Modernism in the face of public apathy and political opposition.