Author: Neale Elder

Helen & Hard Architects: ‘Can we live together differently?’

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Friday 6 March 2026, 6.00 pm

Joint event with Dundee Institute of Architects, to be held at V&A Dundee

This event sold out quickly, but we hope those fortunate to have secured a place will enjoy the evening.

The Dundee Institute of Architects, in partnership with Dundee Civic Trust, is pleased to announce a public lecture by internationally recognised Norwegian architects Helen & Hard, taking place at 6pm on Friday 6 March 2026 at V&A Dundee.

The event brings one of Europe’s most thoughtful and socially engaged architecture practices to the city, continuing the partners’ shared commitment to promoting high‑quality design and civic dialogue in Dundee. Presented under the working theme “Can We Live Together Differently?”, the lecture reflects current discussions around new forms of living, community participation and sustainable design.

Helen & Hard, founded by Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf, explore how architecture can support collaboration, community and ecological responsibility. Their work combines research, experimentation and craft, with a particular focus on innovative timber construction and resource‑conscious design. Through participatory processes and close engagement with users, they develop projects that strengthen social relationships and respond creatively to environmental challenges. Their portfolio spans cultural buildings, public projects, housing and co‑living developments, and has earned international recognition for its social insight and environmental ambition.

The lecture will introduce audiences to the practice’s design ethos and explore how architecture can support more connected, resilient and sustainable ways of living. The event forms part of V&A Dundee’s wider programme surrounding the opening of the new Maggie’s Dundee and is supported by the Norwegian Consulate.

 

Newsflash 71

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Have you heard of the International Festival of Stone? If not, you’ll learn all about this celebration of our traditional building material in the leading article of Newsflash 71.

Inside, we take a look at plans for a recovery village and the recent proposals for an active travel network; the barriers standing the way of more city centre residential developments; and much more. Click here to read this issue.

Dundee’s lost coastline: the story of Will’s Braes

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Thursday 15 January 2026, 7.00 pm

Talk by Professor Rob Duck

The opening of the Dundee and Perth Railway in 1847 brought great economic benefits. However, in the west end of Dundee it initiated unprecedented environmental devastation, severing the connection between the land and the Tay. The coastal ‘paradise’ known as Will’s Braes between Invergowrie and Magdalen Green, much treasured by the town’s inhabitants, was almost completely destroyed with loss of botanical, geological and recreational amenity, together with the creation of pollutant-filled lagoons. This talk explores the changes that have taken place along this once natural ‘Riverside’ to the present day.

Rob Duck is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Geoscience at the University of Dundee and Chair of the Tay Estuary Forum.

This talk will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm.  Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.

Dundee’s Victorian legacy – the Improvement Act of 1871

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Thursday 20 November 2025, 7.00 pm

Talk by Iain Flett

Dundee citizens had two layers of government between 1975 and 1996: a top tier of Tayside Regional Council, which dealt with police, fire, roads and civil engineering; and the City of Dundee District Council, which was left with burials, licensing, museums and libraries. For a longer period from 1824 until 1894 (when Dundee became a unitary County of a City), it was much the same: Dundee Police Commissioners dealt with fire, police and civil engineering; and Dundee Town Council dealt with licensing, burials and eventually libraries.

‘Police’ in Scotland did not just mean bobbies on the beat; it meant good management of police, fire, public safety and sanitation. So the Police Improvement Act of 1871 dealt with lands for public markets and for public parks (i.e. Balgay); to make new streets (Commercial Street) and widen existing streets (Seagate); and, most importantly for post-cholera Dundee, to make an outfall sewer. The Police Commissioners were also meticulous in proudly recording their astounding achievements in a photograph album appropriately called Dundee Old and New.

Popular Dundee historian and archivist Iain Flett will take you through this—and you can weep at the déjà vu of mediaeval buildings being swept aside in the name of progress.

This talk will be a joint event with Dundee Historic Environment Trust and will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm.  Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.

Awards Ceremony 2025

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Thursday 16 October, 7.00 pm

The Awards ceremony for the two-yearly DCT Awards will take place in October.

The Judging Panel for the Dundee Civic Trust Awards 2025 visited five shortlisted projects in August:

  • Innovation Hub, Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc;
  • Derby Street Housing by Hillcrest;
  • Walker Luxury Jewellery Shop, Union Street;
  • University of Dundee Life Sciences Innovation Hub; and
  • Downfield House, Bank Avenue.

Two categories were considered: the DCT Award 2025 for new- build/retrofit buildings, and the DCT/Dundee Historic Environment Trust Conservation Award 2025 for those projects restoring and preserving the city’s built heritage and historic buildings.

The Awards Ceremony will take place at 7 pm on 16 October in the Dundee Art Society Gallery, Roseangle – all are welcome!

Drawing on the Vernacular – Orkney’s North Isles

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Thursday 18 September 2025, 7.00 pm

Talk by Willie Watt

Dundee Civic Trust restarts its popular series of winter evening talks on Thursday 18 September, when local architect Willie Watt will give us an illustrated talk based on his own sketch books entitled Drawing on the Vernacular – Orkney’s North Isles.

Willie led Nicoll Russell Studios’ analysis of vernacular buildings in Sanday, Stronsay, Shapinsay and Westray via sequential sketches supported by interactive sketching workshops which attracted locals, lay people, professional artists, archaeologists and architects.  The process entailed looking at and considering the buildings around them slowly and considering the sense of place, change, regeneration, appropriateness, resilience, inappropriateness, heritage and value.  These in turn are promoting the islands and furthering their interpretation.

This highly visual talk based on Willie’s delightful sketches explores those places, reflects upon the value of the vernacular and lessons learned.

The talk will take place in Dundee Art Society’s Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm (19:00).  Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.

Whither the Central Waterfront?

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Tayside House, the Hilton hotel and the old Olympia leisure centre have now been gone for a decade and more, so that they already seem like a distant memory.

Much as many people wish to have seen these and other former features of the Tay Road Bridge landfall replaced by a new expanse of urban parkland and water, perhaps imaginatively reviving the old western docks infilled in the 1960s, the reality is that renewal of the Central Waterfront was always first and foremost a real estate project. The revenue generated by commercial development of the various sites is needed to offset the capital cost of the considerable infrastructure alterations; while, of course, boosting the city’s economy.

However, the reconfigured road layout has now been in place for some ten years, while nearly three decades have passed since the renewal of the waterfront was conceived; yet anyone arriving in Dundee off the road bridge is still being greeted by an extensive series of unsightly waste land plots enclosed by hoardings.

Most of the key figures in local government who were connected with the original Waterfront Masterplan have retired or moved on. Meanwhile, the slow pace of development is now in danger of becoming (to use that tired cliché) Dundee’s ‘elephant in the room’.

It is the view of Dundee Civic Trust that, if we are to avoid another decade and more of this scenario, an honest reappraisal and change of focus is required in respect of the Central Waterfront. We have produced a comprehensive discussion document, which has been shared with councillors and officials on Dundee City Council and which you may access here. We do not expect people to agree with everything we are suggesting, but it is to be hoped our words will stimulate debate and discussion.

The Central Waterfront: a Discussion Document

Posted on | by Neale Elder

Dundee’s Waterfront development area is approaching thirty years since its inception. Dundee Civic Trust has been concerned that the city’s central area is blighted due to the seven remaining key sites that have remained undeveloped for this whole time, empty and neglected, and surrounded by ugly hoardings. There seems to be little progress.

We believe it is the right time to offer a new approach to the development of this area, and we are delighted to present a new policy discussion document which outlines a potential way forward, and which we hope will inspire and stimulate wider discussion and fresh thinking. The document can be found here.

VAT on repairs on existing buildings

Posted on | by Neale Elder

At present VAT of 20% is charged on all materials and labour employed to repair or upgrade all second-hand buildings, but no VAT is charged on the cost of new buildings.

The Scottish Government National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) indicates a preference for reuse, adaptation and recycling in relation to existing buildings rather than demolition and new build, so it seems perverse that there is a disincentive to do so. It is important to encourage the re-use of old buildings, in order:

  • to reuse and recycle as much existing material as possible
  • to maximise the drive towards sustainability and zero emissions
  • to minimise the emissions of carbon in demolition, and
  • to reduce carbon use in manufacturing brand new materials and constructing them into a new building.

It is clear that VAT is a significant revenue stream for HM Treasury, so any reduction in the income produced will be unwelcome. The Scottish Government may be reluctant to have a grant scheme to mitigate VAT at a time when its budget is stretched.

However, it is the view of Dundee Civic Trust that environmental and social needs require as much encouragement as possible to reuse existing buildings. Although there is for example a UK wide grant scheme to offset VAT on repairs to churches, it is limited to those listed by Historic Environment Scotland, has an annual limit of £25,000 and is in operation only until 31 March 2026. This is clearly insufficient and the Trust`s view is that repairs to all existing buildings should be zero rated for VAT.

Policy Statement, April 2025