Academic staff profile Mr. Iain Scott

Iain is interested in a compelling and fundamental relationship between his teaching and research to the extent that the boundaries between the two disciplines become indistinct. His design studios at ESALA are interdisciplinary, engaging students of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in diagnosing problematics and identifying opportunities for design solutions which add to the knowledge canon in particular subject domains and geographical places. Students become 'active researchers' working with interdisciplinary research teams and particular user groups, employing innovative research methods and co-design practices in the pursuit of original design solutions. Students from previous design units have been awarded RIAS student prizes in sustainability and urban design. Iain’s most recent ESALA Studio vehicles and emerging research themes have revolved around the problem of Scotland’s town centres, with a studio vehicle titled ‘Transforming Scotland’s Towns: Re-Thinking the High Street’ located in Falkirk and Dalkeith in Central Scotland. Other recent studios have included the ‘Care Home of the Future’, a real-life research project with a new building to be built at the Queen Margaret University campus in Musselburgh, East Lothian. Student projects are helping to feed into the project vision. In 2022-23 Iain is teaching a Masters studio titled, ‘Edge Effects: Elevating the ‘in-between’ in a city with two names: Derry/ Londonderry, NI.

Iain supervises students for MSc by Research, or PhD, acting as 1st, 2nd and co-supervisor to a number of students.

Iain’s research revolves around the relationship between people and the built environment, often including particular user groups. Previous research includes work with disenfranchised users of the built environment, 'Design for Autism' (2009) and 'Effective Briefing Techniques for Building Users with Communication Difficulties' (2011) being two notable previous publications. Knowledge Exchange Projects have included a study of 'The Impact of the Built Environment on Service Provision' for ARK Housing Association, with academics from Heriot-Watt University.

From 2013-2017 Iain was Co-Investigator on ‘Mobility, Mood and Place’, leading Work Package 1 of the project, investigating the design of age friendly places through research and co-design with older people around the UK. The project also included work with people with dementia.

More recent research has included a Knowledge Exchange project with the Wheatley Housing Group, assisting them with the development of a contemporary property development and technology strategy and investigating how the urban cemetery can be considered as a place for human activity beyond internment and remembrance.

Iain also led on the ‘Present Voices, Future Lives’ Exhibition & Workshop Project awarded by the Scottish Government and Architecture & Design Scotland in 2019. The project was commissioned to engage people from across Scotland on the draft vision and principles for a new policy for housing in Scotland (Housing to 2040). A report on the project was published by the Scottish Government in 2021 as part of the suite of HT2040 policy documents.

Iain’s most recent research strand has looked closely at the problem of Scotland’s town centres, with research-led studios titled ‘Transforming Scotland’s Towns: Re-Thinking the High Street’ located in Falkirk, Central Scotland and 'Constructing Atmospheres: The Gathering Place' located in Dalkeith, Midlothian, investigating the 21st century relationship between a town and its surrounding productive landscape. This work on towns forms part of a new collaboration called ‘Nations of Towns’ investigating the potential for collaboration into research around the subject of Towns in Scotland and Ireland between U of E Futures Institute and University College Dublin. A series of events have been held in 2021-22 with invited academics, figures from local government and industry partners to develop this relationship.

Iain’s most recent publications include studies around the dynamic relationship between urban street-vending and patterns of everyday life in Chinese cities and work on urban cemeteries and perceived restorativeness in a Scottish Context.

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