Architects for YES

  • Statement from Architects for Yes

    Malcolm Fraser | 16/09/2014 | 1 Comments

    There’s a case to be made for the Union, based on a history of joint commercial endeavour and the shared fight for social justice.  But it’s been hard for the British Establishment to make as both have been traduced by its shared, neoliberal ideology.

    So the Establishment’s business leaders and politicians – those who have unpicked civil society, supplanted our manufacturing base with financial services a....

    Continue Reading

  • Two thirds of Scotland's architects favour Independence

    Alasdair Stephen | 11/09/2014 | 0 Comments

    A new survey in the Architect's Journal has revealed that two thirds of architects in Scotland are planning on voting for independence.

    The AJ reports that " A hefty 59 per cent of the nearly 160 architects who voted in AJ’s recent online survey said they were in favour of the country cutting its ties with the UK – around 12 per cent above the number of yes voters in the latest YouGov poll of the general pub....

    Continue Reading

  • Scottish Architecture Unlimited - unleashing the talent

    Peter Wilson | 10/09/2014 | 0 Comments

    Lecture given at Architects for Yes meeting on 8th of September 2014

    We live in times of constant change, but change is not the same thing as risk and if we want to have assurances about the future we really need to be in control of our own destiny. The starting question for architects in Scotland therefore has to be is this as good as it gets, or can we do better?

    More than any other profession, architects are trained to a....

    Continue Reading

  • Don't Hate the Media, become the Media

    Sandy Anderson | 02/09/2014 | 0 Comments

    These headlines often make for uncomfortable reading, particularly for the most obstinate of 'nationalists', but cast aside any preconceptions you may have, and consider for a minute that these prophecies could be true;

    1.  The financial institutions in Scotland will have no option but to move their offices and headquarters south of the border should we vote to leave the union 

    Continue Reading

  • Independence follows Dependence

    Doug Clelland | 01/09/2014 | 0 Comments

    Independence follows dependence, "being controlled by someone or something else".
    What is Scotland dependent on, to be retained or rejected on September 18? Does the referendum address Scotland's future as having political integration with friends and allies, pursuing relentless distribution of opportunity, and eschewing royalty and aristocracy: a future suited to Scotland's core?

    Philip Ball, in the book Cri....

    Continue Reading

  • Architecture in Scotland's garden of cultural delights.

    Peter Wilson | 31/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    Given Andrew Marr’s known perspective on the independence debate, his conclusion to last night’s illuminating profile of Hugh McDiarmid was remarkable: “Scotland today is culturally - never mind the politics - culturally - a nest of singing birds, a garden of delights. It is crammed with wonderful poets, novelists, writers of all kinds, artists, sculptors, composers, musicians. Culturally, Scotland is as self-confident as any....

    Continue Reading

  • Inquisitiveness demands Yes

    Jonathan Mennie | 25/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    Other people with far more expertise than I can offer have given their reasons why a Yes vote is so important.  So I would like to be philosophical.  At a (very) conceptual level, if our great ancestors had decided to 'remain in the cave' due to its perceived safety; not to strike two pieces of flint together; not picked up a lump of charcoal and scratch marks on a stone wall, we would not be here today. Inquisitiveness ....

    Continue Reading

  • Architects give reasons for Yes

    Alasdair Stephen | 22/08/2014 | 1 Comments

    Some of our members reveal reasons why they are voting Yes on September the 18th.

    If you would like to share your reasons for voting Yes or why you think independence will benefit our profession and Scotland then please leave a comment on our declaration form or send us an email.  We would be delighted to share your views.

    Thank you to the architects who turned out on a wet Calton Hill for our launch.  We&nbs....

    Continue Reading

  • Architects for Yes: a manifesto for a better built environment for Scotland

    Peter Wilson | 20/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    Our built environment is crucial to the wellbeing of the nation’s population. It affects the quality of people’s lives, the best examples providing a sense of community, security and pride and the worst offering only dislocation, isolation, lowered expectations and poorer health outcomes. Architects for Yes believe independence offers us the opportunity to invigorate discussion about the kind of built environment the Scotland of th....

    Continue Reading

  • Official Launch of Architects for Yes

    Alasdair Stephen | 21/08/2014 | 1 Comments

    Architects could be at the heart of designing a new, better Scotland after a Yes vote. That was the message sent out by a group of Scotland’s leading architects who launched Architects for Yes at Calton Hill this Thursday at 1pm.

    Malcolm Fraser, director of Malcolm Fraser Architects said, 

    “I hope that this “Architects for Yes” initiative will resonate with our fellow Scottish architec....

    Continue Reading

  • Whither architecture in Scotland post 18 September?

    Peter Wilson | 18/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    Scotland is home to around 4000 architects, approximately three quarters of whom are members of the RIAS, their representative professional institution. Scotland has five schools of architecture, located in its four major cities. It has an executive, non-departmental public body, Architecture + Design Scotland and an architecture centre, the Lighthouse, in Glasgow. On the face of it therefore, the country has considerable riches in architectur....

    Continue Reading

  • Spot the Quaffle

    Peter Wilson | 15/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    Watching Alistair Darling being interviewed by Sally Magnusson on Reporting Scotland this evening was revealing. Wearing his shiny new curmudgeonly expression and obviously itching to repeat his standard - and only - script on the perils of currency union, our Al clearly didn’t expect Sally to be so firm and to press so hard on some of his more questionable mantras. He certainly didn't anticipate her asking him what his vision for a ....

    Continue Reading

  • IndyRef: the gift that just keeps on giving

    Peter Wilson | 13/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    Whoop-de-do! Another day, another UK government announcement of the big bucks it’s pouring into Scotland! It almost makes you wish the referendum process could be given an extension of time, right up until the next UK general election in 2015. Then we could be in the joyful position of watching the Conservative and Labour parties down south continuing to slug it out in order to show which of them can offer even more to Scotland after one....

    Continue Reading

  • Peer Review

    Peter Wilson | 12/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    So, you haven’t made it to the House of Lords yet? It can only be a matter of time, given that you’ve made a handsome contribution to one of Westminster’s three main political parties. Oh, your donation was to the Liberal Democrats in support of their plans to reform the upper House of Parliament? Sadly, that idea – just like their stated intention to get rid of student fees in England & Wales - didn’t pan out....

    Continue Reading

  • Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

    Peter Wilson | 11/08/2014 | 0 Comments

    So let me see if I’ve got this right. It’s 19 September 2014 and a majority yes vote that every major polling organization somehow managed to fail to see coming has sparked off blind panic in the streets of Perth and every other city north of the border. Scottish readers of 39 southern-owned newspapers such as the Express, the Mail and the Times have been caught completely unawares, their daily litany of the horror pending having t....

    Continue Reading

  • Independence Would Allow Scotland To Enter World...

    Andy Summers | 15/07/2014 | 0 Comments
    My maternal grandfather was an SNP activist for many years through the 1960s, 70s and 80s. It was suggested on a number of occasions that he stand for parliament in Edinburgh North but he always declined as he did not want to be a politician. Growing up I had no idea whom my parents, brother or wider relatives voted for; we were not a politically indoctrinated family. My dad passed away a little over a year ....

    Continue Reading

  • Architecture: Shaping the Background

    Ross Aitchison | 11/07/2014 | 0 Comments
    Architecture can play a significant role in the development of communities and wider society. It is architecture which provides the background for a nation; persistently it projects who we were, who we are and who we want to be. The last decade has changed Scottish society for the better, Scotland’s cultural output has grown and its architectural confidence risen.
     
    It is perhaps particularly appro....

    Continue Reading

  • Architecture: Rewarding Confidence

    Ross Aitchison | 11/06/2014 | 0 Comments

    The National Portrait Gallery, like the National Museum, has also seen a substantial redevelopment which has reawakened a national treasure. It was already impossible not to be taken in awe by the wondrous central hall decorated with murals depicting the great acts of Scottish history, but Page/Park Architects have managed to bring the same degree of joy to the gallery spaces. De-cluttering the many alterations that had damaged the architec....

    Continue Reading

  • Scottish Architecture and Independence

    Alasdair Stephen | 30/07/2014 | 0 Comments
    On the 18th of September Scotland will hold the most important vote in its history.  It is sometimes difficult to appreciate the enormity of the decision or the significance of the process that has led us to this position.  
     
    Uniquely, a left of centre nationalist movement, not based on identity, bloodlines and patriotism, but reason, fairness and democracy has – over a period of a hundr....

    Continue Reading

  • The Beauty of Utility by Malcolm Fraser

    Malcolm Fraser | 17/07/2014 | 1 Comments

    I’m a great softie, especially for home and country matters: I can well-up just re-watching James McFadden’s wondrous goal for Scotland against France at the Parc des Princes, or at jangly pop genius Edwin Collins’ will to live and make music after a cerebral haemorrhage left him able to say only four phrases, repeated over and over: “yes”, “no”, “Grace Maxwell” (his wife’s name) a....

    Continue Reading

  • Building an Independent Scotland

    Alasdair Stephen | 17/07/2014 | 0 Comments
    "This is Scotland”, said Malcolm Fraser, the renowned architect showing a photograph of a snow-covered shepherd’s bothy set within a stunning autumnal Highland landscape. The audience at the event in the 2002 Biennale in Barcelona gasped.
     
    Then followed a series of other images, from a beautiful fishing port of the East Neuk of Fife, the near perfect planned village of Inveraray, to the....

    Continue Reading

Promoted by Architects for Yes., Unit 4, Building 5, Templeton Business Centre, 62 Templeton Street, Glasgow, G40 1DA.