‘More trouble than Coventry Cathedral’: The Architectural Identity of Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh 1961-67.

In 1962 architect Sir Basil Spence wrote to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh that the Mortonhall Crematorium ‘job is giving me more trouble than Coventry Cathedral’. The postwar period in Scotland witnessed Modernist architecture becoming inextricably linked with ambitious utopian visions representing a new social order based on equality and improvement, whether for the living or the dead. Glasgow and the West had set the bar high in terms of progressive crematorium building during the 1960s – its record was remarkable – Scotland’s first crematorium, Maryhill opened in 1895 and Daldowie, Craigton and The Linn all completed by 1962. Edinburgh might have been hard pressed to match this achievement had it not responded by commissioning the internationally renowned Sir Basil Spence. The result was one of the finest crematorium designs in Europe. The story of Mortonhall, illustrates very eloquently, the arguments and compromises over costs that architects often had to face to produce civic buildings of quality that identified the visions and values of an urban society and culture. This paper chronicles the architect’s quest to create not only ‘a dignified and austere crematorium for the city of Edinburgh’ but also to ‘get the best crematorium in Britain’

In Defiance of a Stylistic Stereotype: British Crematoria, Architecture, Design and Landscape

This paper presented a new critical reading of the crematorium, rendered ‘invisible’ by the taboo surrounding death and provided the first opportunity to disseminate this research to an international audience. It focussed on the ways in which architects responded to the challenges of modern secularism and relativism. The paper developed issues identified by the research for Death Redesigned (Grainger 2007), in particular it explored the social, political, economic determinants that hindered the development of an identifiable architectural canon and investigated the reasons why the architectural pluralism that followed attracted so much early criticism from architects, architectural commentators, clergy and members of the public alike. It discussed the challenges that this building type presented arising from a lack of a common understanding of what is required by a building at once functional and symbolic, secular and religious. The crematorium has to provide a stage for the ritual of all denominations and none. For many people cremation is a religious act. For those individuals, the principle determining the arrangement of a building used in any religious service needs to be the physical expression of a religious rite, whether this be for example Christian or Hindu. The building must therefore embody its ritualistic purpose in a coherent and recognisable architectural form. For those who do not belong to the dominant religious groups, their spiritual and emotional needs must also be provided for in a meaningful way. But, a crematorium as a religious space, deriving directly from liturgical imperatives – the accepted norm in ecclesiastical architecture – is problematic because there is no liturgy for cremation in Europe – no agreed order of service. The result has been the lack of a conceptual basis for these buildings, and this paper examined the variety of stylistic options that architects adopted in order to address the dilemma

The RUSI Journal in 1922

The journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies has provided a semi-authorised voice on British military affairs since 1857. In 1922 the British empire was at it's greatest extent, it was also breaking up. This article will analyse the contents of the journal issues for 1922 within this context

The Escherichia coli RutR transcription factor binds at targets within genes as well as intergenic regions.

The Escherichia coli RutR protein is the master regulator of genes involved in pyrimidine catabolism. Here we have used chromatin immunoprecipitation in combination with DNA microarrays to measure the binding of RutR across the chromosome of exponentially growing E. coli cells. Twenty RutR-binding targets were identified and analysis of these targets generated a DNA consensus logo for RutR binding. Complementary in vitro binding assays showed high-affinity RutR binding to 16 of the 20 targets, with the four low-affinity RutR targets lacking predicted key binding determinants. Surprisingly, most of the DNA targets for RutR are located within coding segments of the genome and appear to have little or no effect on transcript levels in the conditions tested. This contrasts sharply with other E. coli transcription factors whose binding sites are primarily located in intergenic regions. We suggest that either RutR has yet undiscovered function or that evolution has been slow to eliminate non-functional DNA sites for RutR because they do not have an adverse effect on cell fitness

Digital cultural heritage: Collaborating with students and discovering lost museums

Our paper consists of two parts. First, we review the history of the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) museum, its collections, its closure and the dispersal of its collections. Second, we synthesize this analysis with a summary and reflection on the challenges of undertaking a collective memory project that represents the rise and fall of empire. To synthesize these two points, we discuss the museum’s history and highlight how digital cultural heritage initiatives have catalyzed an interest in digitizing and archiving RUSI’s collection records. Following our review of RUSI and its museum collection, we discuss the value of academics forming partnerships with cultural heritage institutions, and we analyze our experiences managing two student projects hosted at RUSI. Our discussion of student work will reflect on methods for designing engaging curriculum that encourages students to practice record keeping for cultural heritage institutions

Invisible Landmarks: The Architecture of Crematoria in the North East

Given that seven out of deaths in the UK today result in cremation, it begs the question as to why, until recently, crematoria have been almost entirely absent from architectural histories. Although in many ways the ‘invisible’ buildings of the twentieth century, crematoria nevertheless tell us a great deal about the complex and changing attitudes to death and disposal. There are currently 274 in operation in the UK, the first opening in Woking, Surrey in 1889, but the majority dating from between 1950 and 1970. As cremation slowly gained acceptance in Britain, this progress was reflected in its architectural expression and each crematorium can therefore be seen as a symbol of social change. Furthermore, crematoria and their surrounding Gardens of Rest and Remembrance were intended to created a new landscape for mourning. The crematorium presents a series of challenges to the architect. It is a building frequented by a large cross-section of religious, secular and ideological movements, all with different, but overlapping needs. From the outset the lack of a shared and clear expectation of what is required from a crematorium has given rise to the cultural ambivalence lying at the heart of many designs. Not surprisingly, architectural responses have often been ambiguous and evasive. At once utilitarian and symbolic, religious and secular, crematoria are fraught with complexity. Forty years ago the crematorium was a place for cremation and a brief committal ceremony. Now the ritual, the function and the remembrance all centre on the crematorium and setting. This paper will explore the reasons why crematoria remain ‘invisible’ landmarks, despite their growing significance in today’s society. It will draw its examples principally from the North East

Numerical Simulation of Baroclinic Jovian Vortices

We examine the evolution of baroclinic vortices in a time-dependent, nonlinear numerical model of a Jovian atmosphere. The model uses a normal-mode expansion in the vertical, using the barotropic and first two baroclinic modes. Results for the stability of baroclinic vortices on an f plane in the absence of a mean zonal flow are similar to results of Earth vortex models, although the presence of a fluid interior on the Jovian planets shifts the stability boundaries to smaller length scales. The presence of a barotropic mean zonal flow in the interior stabilizes vortices against instability and significantly modifies the finite amplitude form of baroclinic instabilities. The effect of a zonal flow on a form of barotropic instability produces periodic oscillations in the latitude and longitude of the vortex as observed at the level of the cloud tops. This instability may explain some, but not all, observations of longitudinal oscillations of vortices on the outer planets. Oscillations in aspect ratio and orientation of stable vortices in a zonal shear flow are observed in this baroclinic model, as in simpler twodimensional models. Such oscillations are also observed in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Neptune. The meridional propagation and decay of vortices on a β plane is inhibited by the presence of a mean zonal flow. The direction of propagation of a vortex relative to the mean zonal flow depends upon the sign of the meridional potential vorticity gradient; combined with observations of vortex drift rates, this may provide a constraint on model assumption for the flow in the deep interior of the Jovian planets

Green is the New Black’: Sustainability in Contemporary UK Crematorium Design.

Environmental issues have been at the forefront of crematorium design in the UK since the passing of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act. In 2005 Defra introduced a further requirement for the cremation industry to remove mercury from 50% of cremations, resulting in the need to accommodate costly filtration equipment in crematoria. This caused considerable problems for outdated buildings, particularly the many chapel conversions of the 1950s and 1960s, and presented significant financial and architectural challenges in the design of new crematoria. In 2006 the cremation industry responded imaginatively to emission compliance by creating CAMEO, the lead organization providing and managing a national burden sharing scheme, whereby emissions are negotiated between crematoria. For its part, the architectural profession responded with innovative and thoughtful design solutions in tune with current environmental thinking. This paper will explore contemporary crematorium design in the UK, with a particular emphasis on the work of Robert Potter & Partners, architects of award-winning Roucan Loch Crematorium, Dumfries and Galloway (2005) and South Lanarkshire Crematorium, Blantyre (2006). The partnership’s much acclaimed Oak Chapel Crematorium at Milton Keynes (2010-2011) privileges high standards of energy conservation by means of natural ventilation by wind towers on the roof, and heating generated from the cremators. The work of Stride Treglowan for the Westerleigh Group at Livingstone Crematorium (2010) and Melrose Crematorium in The Borders (2011), further illustrates the ways in which wider environmental aspects of crematorium design and landscapes have been addressed