Research / Staff
k.carter@ed.ac.uk
iain.scott@ed.ac.uk
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Present Voices Future Lives, a travelling exhibition, toured twelve locations across Scotland (cities, islands, towns and rural) speaking to people, gathering their thoughts, ideas and aspirations on how Scotland’s housing should look and feel by 2040. The interactive exhibition was commissioned jointly by Architecture and Design Scotland and the Scottish Government to engage the public on some of the issues and challenges around housing today and in the future. The feedback gathered informed the development of the vision and route map for housing over the next 20 years in Scotland.
Listening to voices from across the country and across generations is vital to inform the creation of a housing system that adapts to the challenges that tomorrow brings, from an ageing population to the climate emergency.
‘Present Voices, Future Lives’ acknowledged the rich tapestry of the home in Scotland. The exhibition took a longitudinal perspective from the past, present and future in order to incorporate the spectrum of ‘good’ housing, environmentally and socially sustainable communities. This was formed from relevant urban and rural Scottish, UK and International case studies.
The exhibition was delivered with a series of workshops involving young people in each location, addressing these themes in relation to the future provision of housing in Scotland: Sustainability; Innovation; Placemaking; Design, and address key questions: Who is our housing for? What do we need to do? When do we need to do it? How can we do it?
Filmmaker Chris Leslie created a new film for each location as ‘Present Voices Future Lives’ travelled around Scotland, each gathering the voices of people on home-lives, patterns of everyday living and housing needs and across the Scottish population.
The exhibition curation, design and delivery was a collaboration between ESALA, Collective Architecture and Peak15. We also worked with Gaia Research.