Located between urban and rural, in Duddingston village, and referencing the Northern people’s bond with place, the programme is for a School of Rural Studies – a place for academic study, exploring the social, economic and political systems used to manage the countryside and support rural businesses and communities, or a place to learn practical, agricultural skills – growing crops or looking after livestock.

The focus is on using materials from the ground – sculpting clay and joining timber – stereotomic and tectonic – materials of differing permanence; materials dissolving into, or left as ruins; addressing environmental and sustainable concerns in how we build and live using locally sourced materials especially in relation to the particular demands of a Northern climate.

These investigations of the relationship between people and landscape call for architectural responses that resonate, amplify and build on nature. Using the ideas of George Monbiot, could people live allowing nature to find its own way, restoring our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea.