A Sense of Awe

I stood on a school site in Orkney and thought – place matters. In truth the actual words I thought were much more forthright. When landscape, history, culture, skyscape, the sea, architecture . . all come together, you know in your bones that the design of the place on which you stand can be profoundly important.

Likewise, I visited Madras College in Fife – a significant place in the history of educational thought. The older part of the school dates from the early 19th Century and, once again, you know when you enter it that this place matters – the values of its story are written in the stones of its well proportioned facades.

Design seems difficult because it is. When we are inspired by a place we need to acknowledge it with more than polite professional words – and sometimes with a sense of awe at the responsibility we have in reshaping the world we live in.