Architecture, Innovation And Design

This highly visual Issue celebrates innovation by past and present pioneers across architecture and design in Scotland and elsewhere. The very best of sculpture and architecture, a translated graphic novel, interactive maps, fiction, and an interview appear alongside internationally revered art and design icons.

St Peter’s, Cardross: Birth, Death and Renewal

The modernist ruin of St Peter’s College has sat on a wooded hilltop above the Scottish village of Cardross for more than three decades and has gained cult-like status among architects, preservationists and artists today. Books from Scotland provides a preview, including impressive photography, of what you can expect when St Peter’s, Cardross: Birth, Death and Renewal is published later this year.

The modernist ruin of St Peter’s College has sat on a wooded hilltop above the village of Cardross for more than three decades. Over that time, with altars crumbling, graffiti snaking across its walls and nature reclaiming its concrete, it has gained a mythical, cult-like status among architects, preservationists and artists. A new book to be published in November by architectural historian Diane Watters – St Peter’s, Cardross: Birth, Death and Renewal – will trace the story of an architectural failure which morphed into a tragic modernist myth.

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Interview with Lari Don & Kelpie Map of Scotland

In this interview author Lari Don talks to Liam Davison about the writing process, what inspires her, and her journey to becoming a best-selling children’s author of books including The Secret of the Kelpie. We also highlight the fun and interactive Kelpie Map of Scotland which you can use to see how the story of the mythical kelpie varies around the country.

Lari Don, author of books including the award-winning Fabled Beasts Chronicles series and the hotly anticipated forthcoming Spellchasers trilogy, has always been a writer – she was making books before she could even write.

“My mum used to come into my bedroom every night and read me a book. After she put out the light and closed the door, I would sneak out of the bed, put the light back on, and get a piece of paper. I would fold it up until it looked like it had that f...

Your Country Needs You: The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster

‘They have become design icons’

Scotstyle: 100 Years of Scottish Architecture

‘An analysis of 100 years of Scottish architecture throws up changes in politics, patronage and production’

Arrivals and Sailings: The Making of George Wyllie

“It takes one absurdity to question another”

The Kelpies: Making the World’s Largest Equine Sculptures

‘They transformed from abstract steel assemblies into living equine giants’

Alpha: Abidjan to Gare du Nord

‘A story of endless dirt roads, refugee camps, people traffickers, perilous sea crossings and constant danger’

The Amazing World of M.C. Escher

‘Are you sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling? Are you absolutely certain that you go up when you walk up a staircase?’

The Secret Lives of Buildings

‘Like stories, buildings are gifts, and like gifts, if we wish to enjoy them, then we must pass them on’

Site Works

‘An industrial relic it overlooked the men’s hut like a strange Gothic watchtower’

Fallen Glory

‘In its lifetime, the same building can meet Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. What human could claim the same?’

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