Our Precipitous City: Edinburgh's Central Library

Chaired by Ian Wright

A stellar line-up comprising architect Malcolm Fraser, Edward Hollis author of The Secret Lives of Buildings and Ian Wright, the Library's development manager explored Central Library and its ‘elevation’ as an iconic building in the development of the social and cultural life of Edinburgh. This was a stonking discussion covering George Washington Browne’s original design for the Library and his confident Frenchy-freestyle; how the building sits within our precipitous city – ‘posh front door up in the air, erse in the Coogate’ – and some drawn responses to these challenges; and literature in the heart of our city. How a city’s meaning and integrity is clarified, and elevated, by the written and spoken word.

Malcolm Fraser is the director of his own firm of architects in Edinburgh which is known for its modern, highly-crafted projects including Scottish Poetry Library, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. He has been a Stirling Prize finalist and twice voted Scottish Architect of the Year. Fraser has been Deputy Chair of Architecture+Design Scotland and Visiting Professor at the University of the West of England. He writes on Architecture and culture in general and has lectured in Europe, the United States and China.

Edwards Hollis was born in 1970 in London. He studied Architecture at the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh before joining a practice, working first on ruins and follies in Sri Lanka and then on villas, breweries and town halls in Scotland. He now teaches at Edinburgh College of Art and The Secret Lives of Buildings is his first book (Granta, 2009).

Saturday 26 September 2009
Reference Library Reading Room
Edinburgh Central Library

Books supplied by Word Power.