IT’S enough to make the former kings and queens of Scotland birl in their graves.
Edinburgh Castle, one of the country’s most-loved buildings, has been reimagined as a monstrous, modern lump in a campaign against boring buildings.
It’s designed to draw attention to the impact modern buildings are having on people’s mental health, as well as their contribution to the climate crisis.
The Humanise campaign claims there is an ongoing “quiet, global catastrophe of boring buildings that make people sick, stressed and depressed, while simultaneously destroying the planet”. Research shows 76% of people in Britain say the way buildings look negatively affects their mental health.
The UnLandmarks campaign aims to highlight that buildings are increasingly 'soulless'
The stark image of Edinburgh Castle is the result of the latest project from the Humanise movement, together with founding partners Uncommon Creative Studio.
The “UnLandmarks” were created by feeding artificial intelligence with 75 years of “soulless” development data, including the most boring modern architectural trends.
The resulting series of images shows six quintessentially British landmarks stripped of their character to reveal their boring alter-egos.
Along with Edinburgh Castle, there is a reimagined Tower of London, House of Parliament, the advert-famous “Hovis” Hill, Liverpool’s Liver Building and Buckingham Palace.
By making the UnLandmarks, the campaigners hope to highlight their conviction that new buildings are increasingly “soulless”, worsening people’s health and contributing to the climate crisis.
The campaign is looking for more 'human' buildings.
They warn that if boring buildings continue to proliferate, towns and cities will lose their “soul” and all that makes them special and important to people.
The Humanise Campaign, which was launched last October, aims to spark a global movement calling for radically more “human” buildings.
“UnLandmarks shows a tongue-in-cheek dystopia – a country where the best buildings get stripped of their soul,” said Thomas Heatherwick, author of Humanise: A Maker’s Guide To Designing Our World.
“In reality, this is a serious provocation, not for the main tourist attractions of the UK, but for the other 99% of everyday, new, unhealthily characterless buildings that we’ve become used to being surrounded by.
“What’s the actual impact on society’s mental health that these boring buildings and places are having, and what kind of story are they communicating to us and to the world? And how do we stop the vast environmental waste that the frequent demolition and reconstruction of these unloved structures creates?
“We need a new national conversation and I hope that Britain’s officials, property developers, city planners and building designers are listening.”
Nils Leonard, co-founder of Uncommon Creative Studio, said they wanted to draw attention to built environments and the power of design to inspire and also improve human health.
“Taking our most sacred spaces and making them as boring as the rest of our environments is the start of the conversation, the way to bring everyone to the Humanise cause,” he said.
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“We crafted more than 200 variations of each landmark to get to the result we felt replaced the unique character of these global icons with monotonous designs emblematic of so many new buildings around the world.”
Leonard added: “We hope people realise what we’re taking for granted – that beautiful buildings are not just a luxury, but something that’s at the core of who we are as a nation. That the cities we live in are the lives we lead, and that we can influence the spaces we inhabit. That their voices can be heard and that they can join a movement to influence things.
“We can build the cities we wish we lived in.”
Click HERE to find out more about the campaign.
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