Wednesday 21st February 2024, 1pm Reilly Room
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This talk will reflect on the architectural and social histories of Scotland’s post-war new towns. Between the 1940s and the 1970s, six new towns were ‘designated’ in Scotland: East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld, Livingston, Irvine, and Stonehouse. They were intended to offer exemplary new housing as well as being sites for economic growth and new employment. The aim, for policymakers and planners, was to forge a modern nation, using contemporary architecture and planning to create a new image of Scotland whilst also considering jobs, education and leisure in a holistic way. For those who chose to move to the new towns, meanwhile, these places offered the chance of a new way of life. Drawing from a collaborative Leverhulme Trust-funded project involving researchers at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, this talk will consider the architectural ambitions, the response of residents, and, with new towns returning to the agenda in the twenty-first century, some of the lessons that might be learned" Dr Alistair Fair is Reader in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh, and a historian of architecture in twentieth-century Britain. His recent books include Modern Playhouses: an Architectural History of Britain’s New Theatres, 1945-1985 (2018); Play On: Contemporary Theatre Architecture in Britain (2019); and Peter Moro and Partners (2021 "Cumbernauld: Park Housing.
Biography
Dr Alistair Fair is Reader in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh, and a historian of architecture in twentieth-century Britain. His recent books include Modern Playhouses: an Architectural History of Britain’s New Theatres, 1945-1985 (2018); Play On: Contemporary Theatre Architecture in Britain (2019); and Peter Moro and Partners (2021
Links
New in Architectural History: 'Privacy, the Housing Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh and the Courtyard House, 1959–70'
New in Planning Perspectives: '‘The core’: the centre as a concept in twentieth- century British planning and architecture' (co-written with Dr Elizabeth Darling), Part 1 and Part 2
New in Urban History: 'Stonehouse: Scotland's last new town, c. 1967-77'
For more aboutAlistair Fair,'s work, including Scottish new towns and post-war theatres, click here.
Photo: Cumbernauld: Park Housing, Alistair Fair, 2023