What does the strategy address?
- The importance of place and the Place Principle
- Our aim for the coming decade, including a route map and timeline
- How we believe our work will lead to change
The context
Scotland’s places need to be at the heart of tackling the climate emergency, reducing inequality, improving wellbeing, and ultimately creating a thriving country.
This means neighbourhoods where everyone has access to safe, warm and affordable homes, quality greenspaces on their doorstep, and local work and training opportunities.
It means places that promote health and wellbeing, that are zero-carbon and climate resilient, and that support local, inclusive economies where people are well connected.
How does this relate to the Place Principle?
We know from experience that a place is better when the people who live there work together to shape it. This is what we mean by the ‘Place Principle’ – or a whole-place collaborative approach.
The Place Principle, adopted by the Scottish Government in 2019, asks agencies in a place to collaborate with the people who live there to create a shared vision for its future.
What is the strategy’s core aim?
Our aim is to see the benefits of the Place Principle become an everyday reality in the way Scotland’s places are created, adapted and sustained by 2031.
Our role
Our role will be to lead on the spatial aspects of the Place Principle – how people live, learn, work and play in relation to a place – to transform how Scotland’s places are planned, designed, delivered and sustained.
Ultimately, our strategy is to use our remit and expertise to tackle the big challenges we all face. Above all, Architecture and Design Scotland is about bringing people together to create better places for everyone.
Corporate Plan 2021-24
We set how we are delivering the first stage of our strategy in our Corporate Plan 2021-24. This plan focuses on the first horizon (2021-24): building a common understanding of a whole-place collaborative approach by sharing evidence of the benefits.
Header image credit: Richard Carman
How we can help
We work together with community groups, architects, local authorities and key stakeholders who are involved in designing Scotland's places. We bring people together to make better places for everyone. From championing good design and collaboration to providing advice on projects, learn more about what we can do.