Modern Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh, Modernist Architects

Modern Buildings Scotland

Modernism in Edinburgh & Lothian, Scotland

Modern Edinburgh Architecture

Modern Architecture became linked to a certain genre of building and thus
over time wasn't really 'modern' anymore. Thus Modern Houses (or Modernist Houses) suggests a certain style, not simply a 'contemporary' or 'current' construction.

Modern Architecture was associated with some great architects and some powerful countries and companies. It became the equivalent of the Classical Style in the Georgian period, ie the establishment architecture, the status quo. Since the seventies architecture styles have become more fractured and we have - amongst what could be termed contemporary architects - post-modernists, neo-modernists, deconstructivists, contextualists, expressionists and so on.

Modern Houses
At the base of this page we list classic Modern Houses by key Architects, including Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Pierre Chareau, Adolf Loos, etc.

Contemporary Architects

Scottish Architecture

Modern Edinburgh Houses, Scotland:

Early 20th Century Architecture 1900-1970	These modern buildings, mostly Modern houses, are dotted around Edinburgh so probably best reached by car, or bus. Buildings covered elsewhere include St. Andrew's House, St. Cuthbert's Showroom (Point Hotel) and Grey Walls Hotel. In many ways Edinburgh fell asleep architecturally from the Georgian era up until relatively recently. None of the buildings below really compare with Glasgow's stars, e.g. Luma light factory (1936), Gillespie Kidd & Coia's churches and Cardross Seminary, Alexander Greek Thomson's churches* or of course Mackintosh's works. The first four entries are all within 1.5 km of each other in Edinburgh's affluent suburban western edge.
Corstorphine 1	Craigsbank Church, Craigs Bank, 1967 Rowand Anderson Kininmonth & Paul Echoes of Ronchamp: clean lines, powerful forms with single bell as visible icon over the suburban bungalows. Lots of exposed concrete and rough render. Under refurbishment 2006.
Corstorphine 2	Lismhor, 11 Easter Belmont Rd, 1933/35 Kininmonth & Basil Spence In a series of 1930's modern houses on this private road. Lismhor House
Clermiston 3	St Andrew's Church, Clermiston View, 1959 Sir Basil Spence & Ptnrs Landmark modern campanile adrift in trad suburbia.
Gogar 4	Maybury Roadhouse, Maybury Rd, 1936 Patterson & Brown Well-known Art Deco casino and hotel on road to airport: white, modern & streamlined with glitzy interior.
Craiglockhart 5	4 Glenlockhart Bank, 1938 George Lawrence White, modern, curved bay window; well-balanced composition for artist Helen Thornton.
Blackford Hill	A Little House on Blackford Hill, 32 Charterhall Rd, Blackford www.sillittopages.co.uk/houseonthehill.html some interior pictures of this Modern house on Blackford Hill, taken in Jan 1964 by a Glasgow Herald photographer; two of them were used to illustrate an article by Dennis White: www.sillittopages.co.uk/housemore.html This Modern House was for sale in Summer 2003 - news jun 03
Liberton 6	Mortonhall Crematorium, Howdenhall Rd, 1967 Sir Basil Spence, Glover & Ferguson Assortment of white Corbusian buildings in rolling parkland setting: the crystalline chapel's interior feels Scandinavian. Mortonhall
Grange 7	46a Dick Place, 1933 William Kininmonth: private house The late Kininmonth's own house. White-rendered two-storey rectilinear volume with focal south-facing bay window; the latter is highly-glazed and topped with a terrace. The roofs are flat but there is no nautical theme here with the roof terrace not even being expressed on the elevation.
Merchiston	George Watson's Music School, 1964 Michael Laird & Partners (now Architects) Hyperbolic paraboloid roof pitched down to fleetingly touch the ground plane George Watson's
New Town	Standard Life Assurance, 3 George St, 1964, 1975 Michael Laird & Partners (now Architects) Office building wraps round an existing corner block Standard Life Building
Southside	Royal Commonwealth Pool, Dalkeith Rd, Newington RMJM swimming pool Royal Commonwealth Pool
Old Town	Adam House, Chambers St 1954-55 Kininmonth View from Cowgate of Chambers St University building. The Old Town Fire ripped out the heart of the Old Town's World Heritage site damaging at least ten buildings. Adam House was designed by William Kininmonth and built to serve as an examination centre.
Gifford	The Rink, Haddington Rd, Gifford, 1963 Campbell & Arnott Architects private house Delightful Modern house sited in former Manse's garden.
Southside	Southside Garage, Newington Basil Spence refurbished by Duffy & Batt 2002-2003 Southside Garage
Haddington	Amisfield Park, Haddington, East Lothian 1964 Campbell & Arnott Architects Modern Houses on eastern perimeter of Haddington Amisfield Park

Architecture Tours

Modern Houses

Afshar House in Edinburgh, 2003:

contemporary style

On a personal note, my visit to Aalto's Villa Mairea, finding the owners were on holiday and being shown round by the gardener on a scholarship to study Modern Finnish Architecture in 2001 at the age of 19, has to be the highlight of my student years.
Later, whilst working for Eva Jiricna a group of us went to see the office's work in Brno - the Lavka Bridge - and to see Mies van der Rohe's Tugendhat Villa. The pictures had never made the house look so seductive but this building has the power of the Barcelona Pavilion, except it was built for a family, for domesticity. The simple red onyx wall designed to glow crimson with the sunset, peppered by opaque stones and small holes, is a tour de force as are the radical full-height windows that dropped into the floor to engage 'house' and 'garden'.

Adrian Welch

Contemporary Architecture : back to index

Modern Buildings in Scotland

British Home Stores:

Edinburgh, Scotland

* St Mary's Free Church, Broughton St, Edinburgh
competition design, c.1858, by Greek Thomson - but never built

Glasgow Houses