As both an Aberdonian and former architect, I visit Aberdeen with mixed emotions...
The wealth generated by fisheries and agriculture between the 18th-20th centuries created for Aberdeen a fine Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian, granite architectural heritage: Aberdeen is known as “The Granite City”.
Since the discovery of North Sea Oil in the 1970s, Aberdeen's fortunes have been linked with those of the oil industry. Aberdeen has now played host for more than 30 years to those involved with oil exploration, extraction, exploitation and associated support services.
Millions of dollars have flowed through the city in the last generation and many have been handsomely rewarded, but the city itself has little to show. There are few examples in the civic realm that demonstrate investment or retention of any of this wealth as a lasting legacy for Aberdeen.
This project is concerned neither with the exploration of missed opportunities, nor the communal failure to produce anything other than the prosaic architecture of recent years. It is, however, a personal comment on changes that the oil industry has made on the landscape and environment of Aberdeen: stigmata brought about through the pursuit of oil.
