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Professor Miles Glendinning

Miles Glendinning studied Classics at King’s College, Cambridge in 1974-6, followed by an architectural history masters at UEA Norwich. After working in the architectural field survey department of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland from 1978-2005, latterly as Head of Architecture, he moved to Edinburgh College of Art (University of Edinburgh) to head the Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies; since 2011 he has held the chair of Architectural Conservation at the University.

His current external liaisons and collaborations focus especially on the architecture of the 20th (and early 21st) centuries, including a longstanding and multifaceted involvement with DOCOMOMO (the international network for documentation and conservation of the Modern Movement). His current research is focused on the international history of mass housing, especially in Hong Kong and Singapore, and on the history of architectural conservation (with a global
overview monograph, The Conservation Movement: A History of Architectural Preservation from Antiquity to Modernity,
scheduled for publication in 2013).

Previous books include:

  • Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Yale, New Haven, 1994 (co-author, with S Muthesius; awarded Alice Davis Hitchcock Prize in 1995)
  • A History of Scottish Architecture from the Renaissance to the Present Day, EUP, Edinburgh, 1996 (editor and co-author, with A MacKechnie and R MacInnes)
  • Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision 1945-75, Tuckwell, East Linton, 1997, (editor and co-author
  • Clone City: Crisis and Renewal in Contemporary Scottish Architecture (co-author, with David Page), Polygon, Edinburgh, 199
  • Home Builders: Mactaggart & Mickel and the Scottish Housebuilding Industry (co-author, with D Watters), RCAHMS, Edinburgh, 1999
  • Scottish Architecture (editor/co-author, with A MacKechnie), Thames & Hudson, London (World of Art series), 2004
  • The Last Icons: Architecture Beyond Modernism (The Lighthouse Scottish Architecture and Design Series: Issue 1), Graven Images, Glasgow, 2004
  • Little Houses: The National Trust for Scotland’s Improvement Programme for Small Homes (editor and co-author, with Diane M Watters), National Trust for Scotland, Edinburgh, 2006

Key articles since 2003 include:

  • 'The Conservation Movement: A Cult of the Modern Age', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 13, 2003, 359-376
  • ‘”Teamwork or Masterwork?” The Design and Reception of the Royal Festival Hall’, Architectural History, 46, 2003, 277319
  • ‘”Una lezione di civiltà”: New Zealand House, the British Embassy in Rome, and the modernist architecture of post-colonial diplomacy’, Fabrications: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, December 2004, 83-102
  • ‘The Grand Plan: Robert Matthew and the Triumph of Conservation in Scotland’, Architectural Heritage XVI, 2005, 72-102

Within the Spence AHRC project, Miles was responsible for the Edinburgh ‘arm’ of the joint research effort, including academic oversight of the research work of the Edinburgh-based postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Clive Fenton, helping with the writing and editing of the major source-book on Spence (including essays on Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks and Hutchesontown-Gorbals ‘C’), contributing to the exhibition work, and editing the volume of papers stemming from the 2008 conference.

Contact Details

Email - m.glendinning@ed.ac.uk

 

 Miles Glendinning in Hong Kong