The Scotsman

In 1971 a book was published that sparked a craze for a new style of DIY building: the bungalow. Written by Irish architect Jack Fitzsimons, Bungalow Bliss was the first publication to give people the designs and know-how to build such a home for themselves. Soon bungalows were popping up all over the Irish countryside. It's obvious why the bungalow caught on so quickly - it was affordable, easy to construct and could be put up without the help of an architect. However, these initial designs were also ugly, and 35 years later architects are still wondering what could have been built in their place. Bungalows were dismissed variously as "blots on the landscape" and "stunted, architecturally uninteresting little structures" by critics, but this weekend Glasgow architecture and design centre The Lighthouse gives the public a chance to decide what they think.