{"id":17580,"date":"2017-12-15T17:15:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T17:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=17580"},"modified":"2017-12-15T17:15:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T17:15:19","slug":"dbw-features-steven-robb-on-geddes-and-conservative-surgery-in-edinburgh-ihbcs-conservation-and-urbanism-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=17580","title":{"rendered":"DBW features Steven Robb on Geddes and \u2018conservative surgery\u2019 in Edinburgh: IHBC\u2019s \u2018Conservation and Urbanism\u2019 Context"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DBW<\/a>Recently featured on the Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW) email alert \u2013 sent to nearly 8000 registered users \u2013 is Steven Robb\u2019s article on \u2018Conservative surgery in Edinburgh\u2019, from IHBC\u2019s Context<\/em> special issue on \u2018Conservation and urbanism\u2019.<\/h3>\n

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Steven Robb, Deputy Head of Casework for Historic Environment Scotland (HES), writes: \u2018Throughout the 20th century Edinburgh and its council wavered between \u2018conservative surgery\u2019 and more sweeping solutions to the city\u2019s repair and rejuvenation\u2026 Geddes pioneered diagnostic\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0followed by\u00a0conservative surgery in Edinburgh\u2019s medieval Old Town, largely abandoned by the wealthy for the New Town in the late-18th century. It was also the area where the council advanced several housing renewal\u00a0programmes<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Geddes believed that cities should be seen as continuously evolving organisms, setting great worth on the continuity of tradition and physical characteristics of a place. Once the essence of a place was understood, he believed, it could be given a new lease of life through good design and by targeting detrimental elements. Returning to the medical analogy, diagnosis, followed by minor surgical procedures, rather than amputations, allowed the rest of the body to flourish.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Geddes arguably struggled with his concepts in print, but in practice his approach was electric. Moving into an unfashionable Old Town tenement in 1886, he enticed his neighbours to remove a ruinous building, clearing space for a\u00a0garden<\/a>. His practical hands-on approach was endorsed by the council in its 1893 Old Town Improvement Scheme, where Geddes cleared three cavernous Lawnmarket closes of decayed extensions, creating an accessible open court and breathing space for several reconditioned historic buildings and a sensitively designed new arts-and-crafts tenement. His approach turned out to be cheaper and less socially disturbing than the council\u2019s major redevelopment scheme of 1867\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

Related links identified on the Conservation Wiki are:<\/p>\n