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16 March 2023: Kirsty Maguire, “Passivhaus”

Posted on | by roderick

16 March 2023, 7.30 following our AGM

Kirsty Maguire, “Passivhaus; Design in a Climate Emergency”

Kirsty Maguire is an architect who combines building performance, industry training and the creation of creative and beautiful spaces. She leads her eponymous architecture practice, an award winning micro business based near Dundee. The practice blends design led work and environmental responsibility with quality of design, detailing and performance of the building at the heart of the process. Low energy, low carbon design is at the centre of all their projects, developing solutions that combine spatial quality, comfort and environmental criteria including biodiversity and how the building integrates with the immediate landscape to minimise the impact of the construction in the short and long term. Kirsty is a pioneer of energy efficient architecture in Scotland using Passivhaus as a tool for this. She works locally and internationally in design, teaching and specialist consultancy. The talk will look at the development of Passivhaus in Scotland and show examples of how practice has changed over this time with projects as case studies, and look to the future as to how the upcoming changes to the building regulations to integrate a Scottish ‘passivhaus’ could impact the industry.

Dundee Civic Trust AGM will commence at 7.00 pm in Dundee Arts Society Roseangle Gallery and the talk will start immediately after, at 7.30 pm.  Guests are welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.

 

50 years of Dundee Civic Trust

Posted on | by Neale Elder

2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Dundee Civic Trust. The Trust was formed in February 1973, when the post-war reshaping of the city was nearing its conclusion and the resultant sacrifices made in terms of lost architectural heritage were becoming clear. This was also the year in which the penultimate edition of the Dundee Directory was published. In its review of 1972, the Directory states that:

“The city’s most familiar sound became the roar of bulldozers. Vast areas of property in the older parts of the city were razed including almost the whole area between King Street and Victoria Road, and large tracts in Lochee and the Watson Street area. The city at the end of the year was beginning to resemble a vast builder’s yard.”

Our picture shows the Dundee into which the Civic Trust was born: a view of the cleared Wellgate, looking down from the steps towards the Cowgate. Now the Wellgate Centre, which stamped its heavy footprint upon this scene, has an uncertain future.

The world of 1973 was so different from 2023 that one is reminded of the quote from “The Go-Between”, by L P Hartley: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Some things, however, are not that different. Elected representatives and local government officials don’t always get it right. The local media have been inclined to occasionally portray the Civic Trust as a “watchdog” and we would like to think that an appropriate description. In the third decade of the 21st century, the work of community organisations like ours is as important as ever.

 

 

City Scene 2022

Posted on | by Neale Elder

2022 issue

Contents

  • Comment – from the Chairman
  • Student Awards 2022
  • Emergence and transition: 50 years of innovation at Dundee’s Botanic Garden
  • “Two bagfuls of monkeys” – the history of the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum
  • Build it and they will come – the case for cycling in Dundee
  • The Early History of Camperdown Park
  • Exploring the Scouring Burn – an early workers’ community
  • Dundee Naturalists’ Society
  • Dundee City’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Journey: Past Projects and Future Plans
  • Dundee’s Natural History Collections and Museum
  • Winter Evening Talk Summary (2021-22) – a review of our series of events

Click here to read the entire issue.

19 January 2023: Iain Flett, “Garden to Eden”

Posted on | by Neale Elder

19 January 2023: Iain Flett, “Garden to Eden”

Former city archivist Iain Flett, speaking on a wide range of subjects, is a great favourite of Trust members. His January talk will look at how Dundee was one of the first Scottish burghs to embrace lighting by coal gas to improve the safety of its inhabitants by night. Initially supplied with coal by river and later by rail, production at the gas works ceased when piped natural gas took over; but gas storage would continue. Indeed, the gas storage tank would be memorably repainted as a giant birthday cake to mark the city’s octocentenary in 1991. The site, along with its gasholder, will now be the site of an Eden Project.

15 Dec 2022: John Gray, “Forty Years of Public Art”

Posted on | by roderick

15 December 2022:  John Gray, “Forty Years of Public Art in Dundee”

Planning Officer John Gray will describe the development of Dundee’s wide-ranging public art, starting with the Blackness Public Art Programme which he came to Dundee to join in 1982.  Since then, Dundee has become well known for its extensive and varied public art and design, and this talk will challenge us to consider how this has affected the character of the city.

17 Nov 2022: David Powell, “A Menace in the Archives”

Posted on | by roderick

17 November 2022:  David Powell, D C Thomson Archive Manager “A Menace in the Archives:  The Collections of DC Thomson.”

The archives of DC Thomson have accumulated over the past 250 years as both the titles and business have evolved.  As well as being a valuable business asset they have a wider value to the communities who worked for, contributed to, featured in, or consumed, our products.  This light-hearted tour through the collections will show their breadth, influence and use and will perhaps spark a few memories. 

20 Oct 2022: Kevin Frediani, “Over the Garden Wall”

Posted on | by roderick

Thursday 20 October 2022:  Kevin Frediani, “Over the Garden Wall”

Winter evening talks will restart on Thursday 20 October when Kevin Frediani, Curator of Dundee University Botanic Garden and Grounds will give a talk “Over the Garden Wall: celebrating 50 years of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden.”

The talk will explore how a space in the west end of Dundee became a special place for people and a home for some of the world’s rarest plants.  Kevin Frediani is now the fourth curator and he will describe the cumulative work to cultivate a living collection.  It will be the story of a garden coming of age, whose globally focussed past is helping inform a local landscape that is more resilient to the future over its garden walls.

The talk will take place as usual in Dundee Arts Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00pm (1900).  Guests are welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.

Site 6 – Public Consultation Update

Posted on | by Neale Elder

The public consultation event in connection with the latest proposals for Central Waterfront Site 6 will take place at 3 pm on Tuesday 31 May 2022 at Dundee House. For those unable to attend, the display boards may also be viewed on the Cooper Cromar website here.

A further event has been scheduled for Tuesday 21 June, also at Dundee House.