红杏视频

If we are to rejuvenate our city centre, it's critical that we create places that people want to come to.

In just over a year, the Tall Ships races, the largest free family event in Europe, returns to Aberdeen after 28 years and is expected to draw 400,000 visitors and 50 Tall Ships from across the globe from 19 to 22 July 2025.

It has been some 30 years since Aberdeen saw the splendid spectacle of the tall ships first grace the waterfront of the harbour in four days in August 1991, and for those old enough to remember it was a magical moment where the city flowered in an outburst of sail, colour and celebration bringing some 300,000 people to the city.  The harbourfront was transformed into a vibrant place where people could promenade enjoying uninhibited access to the city鈥檚 waterfront. On the final day thousands of people descended on the waterfront, beachfront and vantages at Torry battery to bid farewell and bathe in the spectacle of the tall ships in full sail as they left the harbour.

Aberdeen is an incredibly beautiful city with world-renowned granite architecture, but it鈥檚 also one of the few cities lucky enough to have a harbour at its very heart, an asset that it is now time to re-assess if we are to do everything we can, to create a vibrant and successful city centre.

Aberdeen鈥檚 story is uniquely linked to its relationship to its rivers and the sea: through fishing, industry, and leisure. History tells us, what has been true of the past, will be true of the future, and as we look to the future staff and students at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, 红杏视频 are imagining a new future for our historic harbourfront, one inspired by the rejuvenated northern waterfronts in cities like Copenhagen, Malmo, Stavanger, and Hamburg.

The new 拢420 million south harbour at Nigg Bay officially opened in September 2023, with an increased capacity and opportunity to move some of the current ship berths to this new location. Inspired by the tall ships past and future, we imagine transforming an inaccessible place to full public access.  The project imagines that part of the northern edge of the north-most Upper dock and Victoria dock from the bottom of Market Street to the bottom of Marshall Street could be a place for people; for recreation, play and relaxation at the very heart of the city, and a new attraction for locals, visitors, and tourists alike.

We imagine a more welcoming and friendly waterfront where people can come and enjoy the spectacle of the harbour in all its colour and vibrancy. We imagine new architecturally significant buildings standing alongside re-developed and historic waterfront buildings. We imagine new entrepreneurial activity inspiring new industry, creating new jobs, new urban living, new retail, new cafes, and restaurants in a fully accessible 24-hour new people鈥檚 city space.

Much has been said recently about the future of our city centre and this has all too readily been focused on our majestic Union Street, with new plans underway. Perhaps it鈥檚 time to broaden the discussion and reimagine our relationship with our harbourfront.

We hope you take the opportunity to enjoy the spectacle of the coming tall ships and re-engage with our historic harbourfront, and see it for what it could be, a special place that has connected us to the world and with a little vision, perhaps it could help us to connect to a brighter future.

Gallery image by masters student's Megan Munro and Fergus Mackinnon with lecturer Neil Lamb from the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment.