Build It! Adventures with Lego Bricks is proving popular with children at the National Museum in Edinburgh
like a stunningly original concept: the venue is a former training school for Catholic priests, in the aban- doned St Peter’s Seminary complex at Kilmahew, in Cardross.
THE DILAPIDATED building, set amidst dense woodland, is to be brought to life by an atmospheric sound and light show, delivered to an expected 7,000 people across the year following its opening on March 18. “Te sound is being recorded
by the St Salvator’s chapel choir of the University of St Andrews,” says Karen. “Te idea will be that you go through moving light installations and projections as you go up towards the seminary, and then you’ve got this haunting choral soundscape that’s surrounding you. It’s going to be very atmospheric.” I’m keen to learn more about the
programme, which must be difficult to conceive given that it spans an entire year. Will the public even be aware of it, if things are seen to happen without any fixed or focal point? It is a challenge, Karen admits,
but the festival, which is being sup- ported by the Royal Incorporation
of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) and its 100 partners - and has received £400,000 of public money - is excit- ing because of its sheer diversity and reach. “I think we can easily claim that the Festival of Architecture 2016 is unique in the sense that there has never been anywhere before a festival of architecture that is across a whole nation for a year. “Tere have been week-long
events taking place in a city or that kind of thing but never anything like this; so what Scotland is doing this year is unique and on an incredible scale.”
DESPITE ITS formal launch being days away some events have already started, Karen informs me. ‘Build It! Adventures with Lego Bricks’ is unsurprisingly going down a storm with kids at the National Museum in Edinburgh, and has also pro- duced some very cool photographs. And Grey Gardens – an exhibition about concrete (yes, you read that correctly) – has just kicked off at Dundee Contemporary Arts centre. “Tere isn’t a part of Scotland that
is not covered,” says Karen. “We’ve got events going on in Orkney and Shetland, to the Borders and Dum-
“THERE HAVE BEEN WEEK-LONG EVENTS TAKING PLACE IN A CITY OR THAT KIND OF THING BUT NEVER ANYTHING LIKE THIS”
Karen Cunningham, Director of the Festival of Architecture
fries and Galloway, the Kingdom of Fife and the Trossachs. Again, I think that’s what makes this so unique.” It’s impossible to cover everything
in the programme but I’m hoping Karen will reveal a few gems that haven’t yet been revealed in press releases. On that front she doesn’t disappoint. But she’s also keen to emphasise that public engagement – getting folk to notice and then take part - is crucial to the success of the festival, hence why a few wacky stunts are in the offing. In September, she says, Stirling
Castle is likely to be given over to ‘Cakefest’, where a map of Scotland will be created out of, you guessed it, cake. And on top of that edible can- vass will be Scotland’s most iconic buildings made out of, no doubt, Victoria sponges, macaroons and chocolate logs. It is an entirely new event, Karen insists. A similar thing was done for Edinburgh, but it has gone up in scale. “We’re hoping groups of col-
leagues and friends, young and old, architects, bakers, professionals and non-professionals will form groups, select their building and come
Continued on page 10 ➜ EVENTSBASE | MARCH 2016 | 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48