REVIEW AND ANALYSIS 47 ADAPTIVE CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION IN EDINBURGH TERRY LEVINTHAL AT AN exhibition held in the Architectural Association in 1980 called “Urban Transformations”, Chilean architect Rodrigo Perez de Arce wrote in the accompanying booklet and catalogue, ‘the preindustrial city is a sedimentation, a layering of interventions which enrich spaces and urban life. This occurs according to three types of transformation: the recycling of architectural elements, the reappropriation of ruins and urban fragments, and the transformations of inhabited buildings. Each of these transformations is of an accumulative nature; it tends to put old and new together, and it generally provokes an intensification of use.’ As with almost all cities in the UK, Edinburgh has witnessed significant periods of change and of stasis. It has a complex urban history spanning millennia. The Old Town built on the volcanic debris from the last glacial period, was given Royal Burgh status just over 900 years ago. Its neoclassical counterpart is a stripling at just over 250 years of age. Both have witnessed continuous change and adaptive reuse since the start. As Perez de Arce highlighted, change in historic cities is a layering process, where one alteration is placed on top of another until over time, an adaptive transformation has taken place. However, it is essential to consider that decay, as he alludes to, is an important part of the adaptive process. It can be a powerful force for change and can drive radical ideas which can be as destructive as constructive. Edinburgh did not escape those processes, and it is useful to reflect, even briefly, on some of A patchwork of buildings from the medieval to the modern in Edinburgh’s Canongate (the Royal Mile): the mix illustrates well the layering of interventions considered by Rodrigo Perez de Arce to enrich spaces and urban life. (Photo: Edinburgh World Heritage Trust)
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