Teaching: Dr Alistair Fair​

Alistair teaches at all levels of the MA (Hons) in Architectural History & Heritage, including specialist research-led option courses on aspects of British architecture in the twentieth century. These elective courses mix conventional lectures with interactive seminars and visits to key buildings and archives. Alistair also contributes to the MSc in Architectural Conservation. Beyond Edinburgh, he is a regular guest lecturer for the University of Cambridge's MSt in Building History, and from 2016-20 was External Examiner for the University of Warwick’s MSc in Theatre Consultancy. He has examined PhDs internationally.

Alistair supervises PhD topics related to twentieth-century Scotland, England and Wales, and welcomes initial enquiries focused in this area. Current students are looking at topics including; the Scottish Office new towns policy and practice, 1945-96; Scottish architecture after modernism, 1975-2000; New Labour’s policy regarding heritage and conservation, 1997-2010; and interchanges between British and Brazilian Brutalism. Previous PhDs, supervised to successful completion, include studies of: post-war Scottish hospital architecture; the writing of P. Morton Shand; Wheeler and Sproson; and Doxiadis.

Recent public engagement has included invited talks on UK post-war theatre (The Theatres Trust, 2016 & 2022; C20 Society, 2018; Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, 2020), Glasgow's unbuilt cultural centre (Glasgow Doors Open, 2018), Dundee Repertory Theatre (2023), post-war office design (C20 Society, 2020), the Royal Festival Hall (C20 Society, 2021), 1980s public architecture (C20 Society, 2023), Scotland's new towns (Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, 2022), and supermarkets (C20 Society, 2024). Alistair has also appeared on the TV programme Secrets of the 70s Supermarket(Channel 5, 2023), on BBC Radio 4 (2024), and a BBC Sounds podcast (2024). He is also a member of the Casework and Publications committees of the Twentieth Century Society.

Alistair co-created the ESALA Architectural History and Theory seminar in spring 2015, and co-convened the series until summer 2020, resuming the role in 2023. This seminar offers a fortnightly programme of talks for students, staff and the public. 

Research: Dr Alistair Fair

Alistair's research examines the architectural history of Scotland, England and Wales in the twentieth century, and is shaped by two key ideas. First, that architectural modernism was a broad-based project in which clients, designers, and consultants all sought to explore and respond to the idea of modernity itself. Second, that ‘mainstream’ practice is as significant as the kind of avant-garde projects more usually featured in architectural histories. As a historian, Alistair is interested in investigating these ideas using a wide range of documentary and other contemporary evidence, setting architecture in wider contexts.

Current research interests are as follows:

• Post-war new towns. Alistair was Co-Investigator on a major Leverhulme Trust-funded project (2021-24) examining the social and architectural histories of Scotland's new towns, for which he worked in particular on the earliest (East Kilbride) and the last (Stonehouse, which was abandoned). This work has led to various publications and presentations, and will in early 2025 result in a co-authored book, Building Modern Scotland, which is in press with Bloomsbury. Alistair also has a continuing interest in the later English new towns, such as Milton Keynes and Central Lancashire. 
• Housing design since the 1960s in Britain. Alistair’s current book project is engaging with the emerging architectural history of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It explores the ways in which housing design – especially within the public sector – was rethought in this period. This project ranges across planning and architecture. It considers topics including housing density, traffic planning, landscaping and the rise of contextual styles. It also examines how broader urban, economic and social agendas related to architectural practice (and how architecture might inform a better understanding of this period’s history more generally). The project looks at a range of examples from England, Scotland and Wales, including the new towns as well as major urban expansions and inner-city developments.

Other areas where Alistair has particular expertise are as follows:

• Theatre architecture in twentieth-century Britain. This work has led to numerous publications. In particular, the book Modern Playhouses: an Architectural History of Britain’s New Theatres, 1945-1985 (Oxford, 2018; reissued in paperback in 2020) is the first architectural history of Britain's post-war theatre-building boom, exploring some 70 of these buildings and their wider contexts. The book was shortlisted for the 2019 SAHGB Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion for the best architectural history published in Britain in 2018, and the 2019 Theatre Book Award. Alistair subsequently completed a further substantial book about contemporary theatre design, Play On (Lund Humphries, 2019), and a book about an architectural practice known for their theatres, but whose other work was also significant (Peter Moro and Partners, Liverpool University Press, 2021). 
• The relationships between ideas of community and the built environment in Britain, c. 1919-79 (funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, 2020-22, and resulting in several academic articles on topics including privacy, social development, and the 'centre' as a form of planning, the latter co-written with Dr Elizabeth Darling) 
• Scottish architecture in the twentieth century, including work on the Scottish Special Housing Association, and architecture and planning in post-war Edinburgh. 
• Post-war universities and hospitals.

Full details of Alistair’s publications may be found on the Edinburgh Research Explorer link above.