A day-long fieldtrip to Kilmahew estate and the ruins of St. Peter's seminary, organised in association with 'The Invisible College', an interdisciplinary research network, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Join members of the project team for a unique event based around a site visit, and the premiering of an audio-walk artwork by Michael Gallagher.
The estate of Kilmahew, just above Cardross, twenty miles to the west of Glasgow, has been occupied for around a millennium: first by a chapel, then a castle, then a baronial mansion, and most famously, a Roman Catholic seminary, the masterpiece of the modernist architects Gillespie Kidd and Coia. The estate and buildings were abandoned in the 1980s, and have defeated subsequent attempts at reoccupation, falling into a spectacular and legendary state of ruination.
It is the aim of The Invisible College, established between the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Strathclyde, in partnership with the Glasgow based public art organisation NVA, with the Royal Geographical Society, to reverse this process of decline, and, without restoring the site to some long-lost state of perfection, to turn the landscape and ruins of Kilmahew to productive use.
Date: Monday 2 July 2012
Timings and meeting point: Meet at Glasgow Queen Street train station at 9.10am (train departs at 9.30am); return to Glasgow Queen Street station is estimated for 4.30pm to 5pm.
Booking: Free for registered conference delegates. Advance bookings only; places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis (a reserves list will operate once capacity has been reached). Return travel costs from Edinburgh to Cardross will be covered and return train tickets between Glasgow QS and Cardross will have been purchased in advance. Places should be booked using the online sign-up form and confirmations will be sent by email within five working days.
Other: Delegates should bring their own packed lunch. Parts of this trip, and the nature of the site, make it unsuitable for those with personal mobility issues.
River Restoration on the Braid Burn
An afternoon field trip to Hermitage of Braid in Edinburgh, organised by the Central Scotland Green Network (CSGN), allowing delegates to learn about recent work to identify opportunities for river restoration, providing a range of multi-criteria benefits (including flooding mitigation, public access and natural heritage designations).
The Forth Sub Basin District (covering approximately 4800 km2 in the highly populous central Scotland) currently has 28% of water bodies classified as being at good or high ecological status or potential. The Scotland River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) aims to improve those water bodies, with a target of 96% achieving good or high status or potential by 2027.
A Geographic Information System (GIS) method was used to identify ‘opportunity areas’ across the Forth Sub Basin where a single project designed with multiple benefits in mind could deliver on several international and national environmental targets.
This tour will be give you an introduction to the CSGN (the largest environmental regeneration project of its kind in Europe), an overview of the river basin management project, methodologies and rationale, and will involve a walk along a short section of one of the sites identified in the project, the Braid Burn.
Date: Monday 2 July 2012
Timings and meeting point: Meet outside the Appleton Tower (afternoon; time TBC). The tour will last approximately three hours and will bring you back to the conference venue. We will be travelling using public transport.
Booking: Free for registered conference delegates. Advance bookings only; places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis (a reserves list will operate once capacity has been reached). Places should be booked using the online sign-up form and confirmations will be sent by email within five working days.
Other: Refreshments will be provided during the trip, you will need to ensure you have you own bus fare in change (£1.40 each way). The trip will follow a well-used route around the Hermitage, and walks to and from the bus will be on tarmac footpaths. Participants should be sure that they can walk the distance and terrain. A map can be provided on request.
To complement the session 'Geographies of Enthusiasm: Exploration and Fieldwork' Hannah Neate, Hilary Geoghegan, and Ruth Craggs invite you to join them on a walking tour that will focus on Edinburgh's twentieth century architecture.
The tour will be led by Dr Clive Fenton, Secretary of DOCOMOMO Scotland, a group that promotes the study, interpretation and protection of the architecture, landscape and urban design of the Modern Movement. Clive is an architectural expert with expansive knowledge of modernist Edinburgh and plenty of experience leading walking tours. The tour will begin by looking at University of Edinburgh buildings around George Square (focusing on 1960s expansion: Sir Basil Spence, Glover and Ferguson's library, Robert Matthew's Hume Tower, and Alan Reiach, Eric Hall & Partners Appleton Tower). It will then proceed to take in other twentieth century sites within short walking distance.
Date: Wednesday 4 July 2012
Timings and meeting point: meet outside the Appleton Tower at 5.20pm (for the start of conference Session 5). The tour will last approximately two hours. The end point this will be somewhere conducive to discussing the tour, and wider questions of fieldwork and exploration, informally over a drink and a bite to eat.
Booking: please note that this tour is now fully booked and a watiting list is in operation in case spaces become available. Free for registered conference delegates. Advance bookings only; places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis (a reserves list will operate once capacity has been reached). Places should be booked by Friday 1 June 2012 using the online sign-up form and confirmations will be sent by email within five working days.
Other: please bring comfy shoes, keen eyes and camera (we would like to link your photos to the Conserving the Twentieth Century blog as a record of the event. Parts of this trip may be unsuitable for those with personable mobility issues - please contact the organisers if you have any queries.