Celebrating ‘new brutalism’: Leith’s Cables Wynd House to get A listed status
Historic Environment Scotland has decided to recognise Leith’s iconic Cables Wynd House – the ‘Banana Flats’ – and neighbouring Linksview House at Category A, meaning they are of ‘national or international’ importance.Continue reading A-rated Bananas!
Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the heritage body in charge of listing buildings in Scotland, has unveiled a toolkit to help local groups across the country answer the question ‘What’s Your Heritage?’Continue reading What’s your heritage?
3D scans of Forth Bridges to power educational games and learning
Incredibly detailed 3D scans of the Forth Bridge will form the basis for interactive games promoting engineering skills for school children, it was announced yesterday.
First announced in 2014, the £300,000 scanning project was one of the most challenging and complex 3D scans undertaken anywhere in the world. It has amassed a data-cloud of many billions of dimensionally accurate points on the structures of the Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and the partially built Queensferry Crossing.
Now a further grant of £425,000 from Transport Scotland has enabled Scottish digital heritage experts to start work on learning games, augmented reality apps, real-time interactive models for virtual headset tours and video fly-throughs for release in 2018, all aimed at developing STEM skills among pupils in Scottish schools.
In the meantime, the project has released a stunning animation of the “point cloud” data of the Forth Bridge and Forth Road Bridge:
Transport Scotland funded the project on behalf of the Forth Bridges Forum and the laser scanning and digital development work has been carried out by the Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation (CDDV), a partnership between The Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation and Historic Environment Scotland.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: “The Forth Bridges represent Scotland’s industrial past, creative present and our dynamic and innovative future. They are the pinnacle of world-leading design and engineering and it’s right that we conserve and protect them and also seek to inspire and educate the young engineers of the future.
“If the bridges are a globally unique showcase of Scotland’s world-class engineering skills, this amazing 3D scanning project also showcases the world-leading design, research and innovation in our Higher Education institutions.
“The possibilities for this comprehensive digital data are almost endless. It allows the production of detailed information and tools for conservation, educational resources, improving accessibility and delivering virtual records to help health and safety training as well as promoting tourism.
“It is already delivering early benefits. Our commitment to the work was a crucial element in securing World Heritage status for the Forth Bridge last year (2015). In addition, the Forth Road Bridge scans had only just been undertaken when maintenance issues forced the prolonged closure of the structure last winter. I understand the engineers were able to use the scans as part of diagnosing and solving the problem with the truss-end links.
“But now, rightly, our focus is education and creating learning tools to educate and inspire the young engineers of the future.”
The laser scanning work began in May 2015 and involved a total of 90 days digitally documenting the bridges on foot, from ropes, vehicles and boats. Mobile mapping was undertaken in partnership with Leica Geosystems UK. It has created a huge point cloud mapping the structures and their overall physical footprint over 3.6 square kilometre.
It has also been one of the most complex 3D scanning projects undertaken anywhere in the world given the vagaries of the three different structures and physical and environmental challenges faced by the team.
Alastair Rawlinson, Head of Data Acquisition at The Glasgow School of Art and CDDV said: “Laser scanning each of the three bridges has posed unique challenges for our team. We have had to use our combined experience, gained through digitally documenting globally iconic structures such as the Sydney Opera House and Mount Rushmore to create innovative methodologies to allow us to capture these incredible bridges in great detail.
“We will now use this specialised 3D dataset to develop interactive learning resources based on advanced gaming technologies and virtual reality to make the information accessible to school children across Scotland and beyond.”
Miles Oglethorpe, Head of Historic Environment Scotland’s Industrial Heritage team responsible for preparing the successful World Heritage nomination of The Forth Bridge, said: “Having such an extraordinary, detailed and accurate 3D record of The Forth Bridge is a tremendous advantage for us as we set about sharing Scotland’s sixth World Heritage Site with the World.
“UNESCO expects us to celebrate our World Heritage, and to convey it to as big an audience as possible. The latest digital technologies not only make this possible, but also allows us to consider ways of tackling some of the wider recording issues facing other World Heritage Sites across the world.”
A panel of experts, including school teachers, Napier University and the Institute of Civil Engineers, is helping CDDV develop options for the data. The work is now focusing on highly detailed models of the bridges and a suite of education materials including two digital learning games based on building the Forth Bridge for school children, an augmented reality app to showcase the industrial heritage of the bridges and a virtual reality headset-based “virtual tour” of the Forth Bridge and Forth Road Bridge. The materials are expected to be rolled-out in mid-2018.
The centuries old Stone of Destiny was winched out of the Coronation Chair inch by inch, taking collection and conservation specialists more than six hours in total to complete the careful operation. This information is among 20 facts to be released by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to mark the 20th anniversary of the Stone of Destiny’s return to Scotland yesterday.Continue reading Celebrating the Stone
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has announced a national campaign to find out what heritage really means to the people of Scotland as part of the 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology. ‘What’s Your Heritage?’ is a multi-channel project that asks members of the public to reveal which of Scotland’s places, buildings and monuments they want to see recognised and celebrated.Continue reading What’s Your Heritage?
Thousands of free tickets available for top heritage attractions across Edinburgh and the Lothians
Historic Environment Scotland is giving people across Edinburgh and the Lothians a golden ticket to some of the region’s most iconic heritage attractions as part of its annual ticket giveaway weekend.Continue reading Grab a ticket to Scotland’s past
Public invited to see ‘the Edinburgh that never was’
Historic Environment Scotland is throwing open the doors of the National Record of Scotland this weekend to reveal the hidden gems of Edinburgh’s past. Leith’s Trinity House Maritime Museum will also open its doors as part of the Scottish Civic Trust’s popular Doors Open Days programme, assembled by the Cockburn Association.
Edinburgh residents are invited to John Sinclair House on Saturday to explore the national records of architecture, design, archaeology and industry. There they will have the chance to see Edinburgh as it has never been seen before with behind the scenes tours, talks and exhibitions.
Highlights include a never before seen exhibition of Edinburgh’s historic cemeteries taken by American art curator Robert Reinhardt, and an exclusive preview of HES’s new Paul Shillabeer collection, which captures Edinburgh in the 1950s and 1960s.
Exclusive talks include ‘Unbuilt Edinburgh’, an opportunity to see how an alternative Edinburgh may have looked. The talk will focus on unbuilt projects for central Edinburgh, starting with designs by Robert Adam in the 1780s’s and travelling through to the present day.
Neil Gregory, Architecture and Industry Operational Manager at Historic Environment Scotland, said: “We’ve been curating the Scottish National Record of the Historic Environment for over a century, and it comprises over 5 million photographs, drawings and manuscripts. Doors Open Day is a great opportunity for members of the public to come and explore what we’ve got to offer. This year, we’re excited to be giving people a trip down memory lane to see photographs of how Edinburgh used to look, architectural models that have never before been on public display, as well as talks exploring plans for buildings that never made it from the drawing board to our streets.”
HES are also inviting members of the public to get hands on with history by using and adding to the National Record. Demonstrations of the Scotland’s Places and Scran websites will show visitors resources that they can use when conducting their own historical research, and the team from Scotland’s Urban Past will be on hand with information on how to become an Urban Detective.
Meanwhile in Leith, Trinity House Maritime Museum will also be opening its doors to the public. In its bicentenary year, visitors are invited to gain insight into the stories and voyages of Leith’s seafaring past with self-led tours, object handling sessions, quizzes and a free stained glass craft activity.
To mark the Year of Architecture, Innovation and Design, Trinity House will also have a temporary exhibition for visitors to enjoy, exploring 200 years of Leith’s nautical heritage. There will also be opportunities to meet painting conservators and find out more about the work they do to care for HES’s significant collection of paintings.
John Sinclair House is open on Saturday 24th September, 9.30am – 4.30pm.
Trinity House Maritime Museum is open on Saturday 24 & Sunday 25th September, 10am – 4pm.
Glasgow’s favourite ‘Son of the Desert’ Stan Laurel is to be commemorated with a plaque, which will be mounted on the Glasgow tenement building where he sppnt many of his formative years. The comedy legend is one of twelve Scots nominated by members of the public to receive a commemorative plaque. Continue reading Another fine mess: commemorative plaque for Stan
Historic Environment Scotland have challenged a group of top travel bloggers to visit as many historic sites as possible in just two days with the History Hunters challenge.Continue reading History Hunters roam wild this weekend