An Accommodating Typology

(RIBA article, January 2011)

India Street in the snow.

One of the great pleasures of winter in edinburgh is the opportunity to walk through the streets of the New Town while it id covered in a blanket of fresh, crisp snow. It is an area made for cold, clear weather. Its dignified, restrained facades are complimented by the stillness and quiet of the snowscape which confines cars to their spaces and hides all the usual clutter of a city under covering of pure white.


To look at the New Town in these conditions, with such a brilliant white backdrop, is almost like looking at a drawing upon a clean white sheet of paper. It reinforces the clarity of the plan and the detailing of the facades which are formal and elegant without being over-elaborate. It also emphasises how little the facades give away about the activities within. Depending on the area of the New Town, the buildings may contain shops, offices townhouses or apartments, but the facades are little altered by these changing functions.


This is one of the most interesting features of the New Town, It is able to incorporate significant changes in the use of individual buildings or entire areas with ease. From its beginnings as an almost entirely residential extension to the cramped and chaotic Old Town, it has evolved to become the commercial centre of the city. The grand hallways of townhouses have become office foyers. The generous living rooms have become restaurants and art galleries.


the remarkable thing is how little the buildings themselves are altered by these ever changing activities and uses. That well worn mantra, that form follows function is disproved in the stylish bar that was once an accountant's office, before that an antiques dealer and before that someone's dining room. This points to an underlying strength in the typology. Perhaps it is the large rooms with high ceilings and bay windows, the sturdy quality of the construction or the clear and rigid definition of servant and served spaces, of front and back.


Some combination of these qualities and others has led to the buildings of the New Town being accommodating enough to allow change, without being transformed by it. It is not that they are flexible, but that they are rigid. They set a series of constraints that can accommodate nearly any function but which require the function to adapt to the building.


In this way the identity of the architecture and of the city is given precedence over the rather fleeting and transient requirements of individual functions. this identity is now so well established in the New Town that no one would dream of changing it, but at at time when new development focuses so much on the virtues of flexible space and adaptability, that some of the most enduring elements of our built environment are the ones which force new functions to adapt to fit the city, not the other way around.