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 and expertise 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, which led to various publications and presentations, including a co-authored Open Access book, Building Modern Scotland (2025). Alistair subsequently worked with Historic England to edit and complete a book on the 1940s generation of new towns, originally drafted by the late Elain Harwood (to be published 2026). He is currently working on a book about the new towns begun during the 1960s, tentatively entitled Towns of Tomorrow.
• The idea of ‘urbanity’ within post-war architecture and planning in Britain. Supported by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust (2025-27), Alistair is researching how the idea of ‘urbanity’ emerged as an important theme in planners’ and architects’ work after the Second World War in Britain. A key focus is the innovative high-density low-rise housing of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the afterlife of the term in the 1980s and 1990s.

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). 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.