Modern Buildings Scotland, Photos, Architects, Houses, Images
Modern Edinburgh Architecture : Information + Images
Modernism in Edinburgh & Lothian, Scotland
Modern Edinburgh Buildings
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.
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.
46a Dick Place, The Grange : private house
1933 William Kininmonth
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.
4 Glenlockhart Bank, Craiglockhart : private house
1938 George Lawrence
White, modern, curved bay window; well-balanced composition for artist Helen Thornton.
Lismhor, 11 Easter Belmont Rd, Corstorphine : private house
1933/35 Kininonth & Basil Spence photo from the owner Lismhor House : In a series of 1930's modern houses on this private road
A Little House on Blackford Hill, 32 Charterhall Rd, Blackford : private house
- photo from former owner
This Modern Edinburgh House was for sale in Summer 2003, again in Autumn 2008
The Rink, Haddington Rd, Gifford : private house
1963 Campbell & Arnott Architects photo from the owner
Delightful Modern home sited in former Manse's garden.
Southside Garage, Newington, Southside
2002-03 Basil Spence refurbished by Duffy & Batt photograph from architect Southside Garage
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'.
Buildings / photos for the Modern Edinburgh Architecture pages welcome:
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