ABSTRACT
Edinburgh’s geographic and historic context has woven a stunning urban fabric of world-wide fame that serves as a strong backcloth to contemporary urban design debates. The Scottish capital occupies a panoramic setting between the Firth of Forth and Pentland Hills, astride several dramatic extinct volcanoes. A World Heritage Site since 1995, the whole of the city centre and immediate surroundings is a series of conservation areas, containing numerous listed buildings and ancient monuments. The landform and townscape are amongst the city’s most famous assets, a major draw for around 3.5 million visitors a year, the second most popular tourist destination in the UK. The city is also a major cultural centre, host to the largest arts festival in the world every August. Edinburgh has the strongest economy of any city in the UK outside London, with unemployment low at 2.2 per cent, and is one of the fastest growing city-regions in Europe. It is largely based around the service sector, including public servants, finance, higher education and tourism. Recent research on Edinburgh and Glasgow confirmed ‘strong links between physical assets and competitiveness’ (Turok and Bailey 2004: 172).
