Context 160 - July 2019

C O N T E X T 1 6 0 : J U L Y 2 0 1 9 51 commitment to a regionalist agenda but from legal provisions.’ This perhaps understates the concern for context that Urban so well describes elsewhere in the book. In Glasgow, for example, this involved reinventing the city’s traditional tenements in new forms. Urban does not discuss the question of why, unlike other parts of the UK, there was historically such a strong tradition of tenement- building in Scotland. That is fair enough: in view of how common tenements are outside the UK, it is the relative lack of them in England that needs explanation. Beyond the buildings themselves, Urban sees the new tenements as part of a movement in urban planning that rejected the functionalist, heritage-destroying, car-oriented approach of the 1950s and 60s in favour of protecting the rights of cyclists and pedestrians; reclaiming streets and squares for communication, leisure and play; and promoting relatively high densities and mixed use. Often though, Urban recognises, the new tenements have benefited members of the middle classes like himself, rather than the original inhabitants of the inner city. That is not the fault of the building type, he suggests, but a consequence of the political contexts in which the planning decisions were made. For the urban lexicographer, the book introduces some delightful terms that urbanists have come up with in describing the processes of renewal. They include the Dutch gebundelde decontratie (bundled deconcentration); the Danish byfornyelse (city renewal); the German behutsame Stadterneuerung (careful city renewal); and, from Austria, sanfte Stadterneuerung (gentle city renewal). A ‘fruit-salad estate’ is a housing development ‘comprising buildings of diverse outlines and heights’. But Urban is surely wrong in defining the German Emmentaler- Fassade (Swiss-cheese facade) as one in which ‘repetitive windows in an unadorned plaster facade are lined up like holes in a Swiss cheese’ with ‘rectangular facade elements and repetitive windows’. The holes in the Emmental in my fridge look as reassuringly random in size and distribution as ever. New Tenements is well illustrated by more than 300 colour photographs and a particularly good selection of plans. Rob Cowan, editor of Context MONUMENTS IN MONUMENTS CONFERENCE MONDAY 2 – WEDNESDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ENGINE SHED, STIRLING Monuments in Monuments 2019 , held by Historic Environment Scotland, will investigate the challenges of conserving carved stones and objects inside buildings. Understanding the whole environment surrounding monuments is key to slowing decay and preventing their loss entirely. Explore how traditional skills, emerging technology and conservation science are helping to do this. Hear from specialists and experts in conservation from all over the world, including Conservation Science Consulting Sàrl, the National Park Service, and the Institute of Conservation UK. See monument conservation in action as you enjoy unrivalled access to some of the most iconic sites in Scotland. Book your place now at engineshed.scot/whats-on Day ticket and student ticket options are available. For further information, contact MiM2019@hes.scot