April 8 2025

Urban Realm takes stock of how 2025 is shaping up this spring with a detailed look at recent retrofit success stories alongside more retrograde demolitions.

Among the former, a World War 1 naval barracks at Port Edgar plays a vital role in the battle to keep a roof over people's heads.

This echoes the revitalisation of surviving tenements, which was helped in no small part by a lifetime’s knowledge and advice on maintenance and repair imparted by John Gilbert.

It is an approach that has come too late for the B-listed Caerlee Mill in the Scottish Borders, which is to be demolished rather than refurbished on structural advice, hot on the heels of the Wyndford Road flats in Glasgow.

These stories and others show it is a pivotal year for our built environment before reuse becomes the default, not the exception. Follow these stories and more in real time and begin your subscription to Urban Realm.

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