HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS? THE STORY OF MODERN HOUSING IN SCOTLAND

During the 20th century, Scotland witnessed an unprecedented revolution in housing, with the dramatic rise and fall of the ‘council sector’ framed by private-market domination on either side. Today, Scotland’s public housing revolution is now fading into history, with its built legacy increasingly privatised, demolished or otherwise slipping from view – and it’s correspondingly difficult to appreciate how distinctive, even unique it was, even in international terms. What were its main features, both in political and governance patterns and in its built forms? And what, if any, lessons does this story potentially hold for today? Is it possible, in a system dominated by market forces and society-wide participation in property speculation and price-inflation, to even conceive any more of building ‘social’ housing which works for everyone? Join historian Miles Glendinning in an event sponsored by Wheatley Homes South.

Miles Glendinning is a housing historian and academic, and author of some of the key texts on modern housing history in Scotland and globally, including Building Modern Scotland, Mass Housing, Tower Block and Hong Kong Public Housing.