


The Last Straw: A Case for Reuse Ratho Community Centre – Gergana Negovanska (Student Awards 2021 in Focus)
To Introduce Architecture and Design Scotland’s Climate Action Towns work we reached out to a number of partners across Scotland to write a blog post on how Scotland’s Towns can work to address Climate change. Here Deryck Irving of the Green Action Trust explores how we can use green space and manage water to make our towns climate ready…

Outdoor Learning Hub Featured on STV News

What…if?/ Exhibition Continues
What if…?/Scotland continues at the V&A Dundee until 21 November 2021. Produced by award winning Edinburgh based architecture and design practice 7N Architects, in partnership with Architecture & Design Scotland, What if…? / Scotland seeks to re-engage the civic role of design professionals by asking communities from across Scotland to share their hopes and dreams for the future of the places they call home | Book your place here.

Andy MacMillan Memorial Lecture 2021 – Dr Jos Boys
Andy MacMillan Memorial Lecture and Student Awards shortlist announcement
Dr Jos Boys, Co-founder of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Director at Bartlett, UCL will deliver the RIAS Andy MacMillan Memorial Lecture. Dr. Jos Boys is Director, Learning Environments Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre (LEEDIC) Learning Environments at The Bartlett, University College London UK; and Programme Lead on the MSc Learning Environments. Originally trained in architecture, she was co-founder of Matrix feminist architecture and research collective in the 1980s and one of the authors of Making Space: Women and the Man-made Environment Pluto 1894. The annual lecture is free to attend. | Read more and book your space here.

Blog: Opportunities for green and blue infrastructure in climate action towns
In this blog Deryck Irving of the Green Action Trust explores how we can use green space and manage water to make our towns climate ready. To Introduce Architecture and Design Scotland’s Climate Action Towns work we reached out to a number of partners across Scotland to write a blog post on how Scotland’s Towns can work to address Climate change. Here Deryck Irving of the Green Action Trust explores how we can use green space and manage water to make our towns climate ready… | Read more about our blog here.

Blog: The future will be local
In the aftermath of Covid, we have a real opportunity to join up agendas and come together to reimagine the future society we want to create. Tackling inequality and disadvantage can go hand in hand with creating resilient, zero-carbon communities – communities that are home to thriving people, where nature flourishes, and where we live, work and play in ways that respect the wellbeing of all people and the whole planet. Philip Revell of Scottish Communities Climate Action Network outlines why he believes the future will be local. Read the blog in full here.

Introducing Climate Action Towns
How can we embed the change needed across Scotland to tackle the climate emergency?
If we as a society are to achieve the emission reduction targets of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act and adapt to the impacts of the climate and ecological emergency, we need to move beyond initiating conversations and start to work together to deliver change. The focus of the network are small towns with little historical involvement in climate action, the development of a methodology for an effective approach to communication and the initiation of collective action to tackle the impacts of climate change through mitigation, adaptation and behaviour change within our small Scottish towns | Read about our new Climate Action Towns here.

Climate Beacons for COP26

Reminder: Subscribe to our Newsletter Mailing List!
You can view the April newsletter here Featuring: thoughts on how Scotland has adapted to lockdown, one year on by Jim MacDonald (Chief Executive of A&DS), updates on WhatIf…?/ for Scotland Venice in Dundee and more.
To be the first to read our latest content, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Corporate Strategy 2021 – 2031
It’s live! Our Corporate Strategy sets out our vision for the coming decade – a Scotland whose places are healthy, sustainable and thriving, where everyone works together to shape their future. #greatplacesscotland
Read it in full here: www.ads.org.uk/corporate_strategy21-31/

Three New Further Education Case Studies
From our latest research into learning spaces, we present good practice on designing for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), social learning and in-between spaces.

Blog: Offsite for diversification not standardisation – a reflection on A&DS new Housing Case Studies
Robert Hairstans of Edinburgh Napier University reflects on our new Case Studies in terms of offsite construction adoption in Scotland.

Annual Review 2020: Our Year in Review
“At the start of 2020 we were looking forward to our usual busy programme of workshops, engagements and events, all while preparing our corporate strategy for the next decade and our contribution to the Venice architecture Biennale. But we all know what happened next.”
Ann Allen, A&DS Chair
In our Annual Review for 2020, we look at how, despite the challenges of lockdown, we continued to deliver high quality work. In a year where many of us had rediscovered our local areas on our daily walks, we continued to champion Carbon Conscious Places and the delivery of good design across Scotland. Our review features highlights from our work across the year, a look at our achievements and stories of our people – how our team responded to lockdown over the year.

Studying architecture in 2020 has been challenging. We spoke to the 2020 A&DS & RIAS Student Award winners Lily Whitehouse, Guro Vold and Linda Ledina to hear their views on how architecture can build back better in our first part of two interviews | Read this interview piece here.

The Happenstance: Dispatches
The Happenstance / Scotland + Venice (made up of Creative Scotland, British Council and National Galleries of Scotland) was Scotland’s critically acclaimed contribution to the 16th International Architecture exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia in 2018. It was curated by WAVEparticle. We have recently published a series of twelve publications or ‘dispatches’, exploring the themes and learning from the project. Through the twelve dispatches the story unfolds… the reasons, inspirations, people, places, connections, legacy… | View the full archive here.

Designing for a Changing Climate – Report
We launched our Designing for a Changing Climate Report. The report looks at how we can future proof Scotland’s places against the more extreme impacts of Climate Change and address carbon emissions by improving our self-sufficiency. Read the full Designing for a Changing Climate Report here.

A&DS and RIAS Student Awards for Architecture 2020 – The Results
We’ve published the winners for the A&DS and RIAS Scottish Student Awards Full video and list. Thanks to Jude Barber, director of Collective Architecture, for announcing the shortlist and giving her talk at the annual Andy MacMillan Lecture, which is also published online. For the full list of winners – click here.