The Architecture of William Burn: Style and Identity in Scotland's Imperial Age

Project Information

BURN-BEYOND

Grant agreement ID: 101022188

DOI

10.3030/101022188

Project closed

EC signature date 27 April 2021

Start date 8 September 2021

End date 7 September 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 212 933,76

EU contribution

€ 212 933,76

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BURN-BEYOND (The Architecture of William Burn: Style and Identity in Scotland's Imperial Age)

Reporting period: 2021-09-08 to 2023-09-07

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This study on 19th-century Scottish architect William Burn, including his use of styles, has stressed the importance of taking into consideration visual culture as an expression of nationhood. The issue addressed was to look at how one of Scotland’s most prolific architects of the early 19th century articulated his patrons’ social aspirations, as well as the vision of their place in the United Kingdom, at a time of profound socio-economic transformations. This study has shown that it is possible to go beyond the standard historiography which looks at 19th-century Scotland as reflecting ‘unionist nationalism’—a cultural expression of nationalism which did not pose a threat to the Union. This topic is relevant for our society because it allows us to better understand the cultural expressions of nationhood at a time of resurgence of nationalisms on a global scale.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the fellowship, we have been able to collect reproductions of 95% of the William Burn collection of drawings, and therefore been able to prepare the first full length monograph on the career of the architect. The pandemic context has meant that accessing material in the National Records of Scotland (NRS), Edinburgh, was more difficult than anticipated. We have, however, been able to access the entire volume of archival material from the following repositories: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE), Edinburgh, and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London. This study is therefore primarily a study of the architectural projects of William Burn, analysed in the context of nation identity formation. We have prepared individual essays (WP1, WP2, WP3, WP4) which form the individual chapters of a monograph on Burn, to be sent to Edinburgh University Press. This research has been presented at seminars (including at the University of Bamberg, Germany, in May 2023) and at international conferences such as the Congress of the French Society for Scottish Studies, Sorbonne-Université, 17-19 November 2022 and the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society Conference, University of St Andrews, 18-21 July 2023. I have also received an invitation from the Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen, where I will be presenting my research on 9 April 2024. Efforts have been made to disseminate this research to a wider public, beyond the UK and France. I was invited to give seminars to students in France, the UK and Germany. I also gave a 30-minute interview on myths and legends in Scotland, and their relation to national identity, to the Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) on 20 April 2023: www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2023/audio/mythes-legendes-et-identites-nationales-4-5-ecosse-un-loch-d-idees-recues-26119666.html

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This detailed study of one of Scotland’s most prolific and yet neglected architect improves our understanding and management of Scotland’s built heritage. This project enables a new kind of appreciation of nationalism, and its complexities. Nationalism can come from the left and the right, and can be both nationalist and internationalist in its outlook. This project sheds new light on the basis of national identity at a time of resurgence of right-wing national identity in Europe and the rest of the world.
Also, this project highlights the role of material culture in the formation of group identity. This study on early 19th-century Scottish architecture can therefore be applicable to other remits of our material culture, in objects and architecture (cars, houses, clothes etc.) and to today’s culture. This research also has an impact on scholarship beyond the UK, and can lead to comparative research with other nation states.
This project will form the starting point of a major study on the relation between architectural style and nation identity formation, taking a comparative approach of the UK, Germany and France (1700-1900). Scotland forms an interesting case study because it fits into a global polity, the UK, which subsumed different nations. In Germany, a coherent German identity was able to develop and express itself beyond the individual federal states. In France, style was to express the idea of a centralised state structure. This study will rely on the methodology used for the Burn project and expand it to a wider geography and timescale. Discussion on style and why it matters was central to art historian Ernst Gombrich’s scholarship, but his work has remained unfinished. We believe that bringing about a better understanding of how and why nations expressed their identities through the development of styles will help enrich studies of nationalism. Using the tools of the cultural historians and looking at visual culture, which we have been able to do during the Marie Curie Fellowship, is perhaps as important for understanding the nation as using the tools of the sociologist. This study will unite scholars from several European countries and help frame an enriched understanding of the nation and its visual expression.

Burn Tyninghame House