I like to read about futuristic architecture, speculative buildings that seem to push at the edges of what is possible or indeed sensible.
For example I've just started reading Visionary Architecture - Blueprints of the Modern Imagination by Neil Spiller, but I am struck by the contrast with what is actually happening in Scotland.
The Edinburgh trams project has in rough terms, already spent nearly half a billion pounds, spending 80% of its budget on only 20% of the infrastructure. An earlier Edinburgh project by the Catalan architect Miralles, resulted in huge cost over-runs and a controversy that hung over the emergent Scottish Parliament, building and legislature like some doomy haar for its first decade.
There is nothing particularly remarkable about a trams project. Granted they are vastly more heavy than they were a hundred years ago, but plenty of cities have trams, the technology is hardly cutting edge. The Scottish Parliament is a big concrete building, similarly the technology is nothing all that remarkable, the Romans had concrete after all.
What happened to our future, we were promised rocket packs and moveable cities. We cannot even deliver technology that is over a century old on time and on budget.
Perhaps we need to get better at recognising that merit lies in delivery and not creativity in some garret. We need to celebrate people for getting things done effectively, and not for being lone creative voices in the wilderness. Perhaps the Scottish pantheon of greats needs to be realigned to emphasise people who were consistently capable of delivering projects.
