Thursday 19 February 2026, 7.00 pm
Talk by Professor Fionn Stevenson
Dundee has a good record of re-using its heritage buildings, when it isn’t pulling them down. Jute mills have been repurposed into housing and churches converted for business. Most recently, Hillcrest Housing successfully transferred beautiful pitch pine timber beams from an old mill for re-use in the repair of the Discovery ship. Old buildings are also relatively easy to take apart for the re-use of materials. But what about our new buildings? How easy is it to take these apart? Which components can be re-used, which can’t, and why do it anyway?
Best practice in conservation ensures that any modern intervention in a heritage building is fully reversible, in order to preserve the original building features. There are lessons to be learned here to help ensure that modern buildings can also be easily deconstructed, such that their components can be re-used rather than recycled. This saves precious energy and resources.
Professor Fionn Stevenson, current Convenor of Dundee Civic Trust Planning Group, will share her passion for the re-use of fine building materials as well her work on promoting design for re-assembly through guidance cited by the Scottish Government.
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.