Current Issue

The current issue of Urban Realm contains articles on:

• Scottish Design Awards
  The annual hunt for Scotland's best new buildings throws up a fresh of helping of celebrated bricks and mortar. Urban Realm reports from behind the scenes to give the lowdown on the winners.
• Rural Mural
  Graffiti art has come of age in our urban centres in recent times with the rise of Banksy et al elevating the medium to wider acceptance but it is in the unlikely locale of the Borders that a new arts initiative seeks to change perceptions of the medium.
• Israel
  Far from fostering peace the recent decision by The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to condemn the construction of new buildings on occupied Palestinian territory has instead started a war of words at home as architects on either side of the fence trade increasingly bitter representations as to the merits or otherwise of the stance. We try to disentangle what's really going on.
• Procurement
  The Scottish Government has come under fire for strangling the architecture profession with risk-averse planning, prioritising low-cost bids, squeezing out architects and relegating design to an afterthought. Here Urban Realm finds out what's gone wrong.
• Recruitment
  Urban Realm is taking a closer look at the nascent bounce in construction and the knock on effects this is having on recruitment to see whether this is beginning to feed through to salaries and reduce the available pool of graduates and experienced talent. Is it still an employers market?
• Freiburg
  Alistair Scott of Smith Scott Mullan recounts a recent study trip to the German town of Freiburg. Its relaxed way of life is bolstered with extensive cycle networks, bold use of colour and an embrace of renewable technologies make it an excellent test bed for where we are going wrong.
• Commonwealth Games
  With the starting pistol about to be fired on the Commonwealth Games Urban Realm invites several commentators to give their verdict on the sporting spectacle, has an abortive effort to shoe horn in the demolition of the Red Road estate harmed the image of the event?
• Helix Park
  Two of the largest equine statues in the world now stand tall as the centrepiece of the Helix Park, Scotland's newest piece of landscape architecture and one of its biggest. We speak to those involved in the park's creation and assess its regenerative potential.
• Landscape Architecture
  Urban Realm returns to sing the praises of the unsung heroes of landscape architecture, examining how current thinking is serving to shape more confident interventions which blur the boundary between man-made and natural.
• Sustainability
  Chris Stewart of Collective Architecture interviews former teaching colleague Lori McElroy of SUST at the Lighthouse to discuss the new GREEN 2014 exhibition and whether a new sustainability is finally starting to blossom.
• Scenic Routes
  Peter Wilson of the Wood Studio at Napier University discusses the conception of the Scenic Routes competition and the avenues it has opened up for a new generation of young architects to make headway in the profession.