Scotland on Sunday

When Sir John Betjeman urged friendly bombs to fall on Slough, one can't help feeling he was being a little bit vindictive. After all, why just pick on Slough? Britain is cursed with equally bleak towns, and even bleaker suburbs, from the 'grey box' blight that peppers the stunning Highlands to city corners that even rats wouldn't loiter in after dark. Where did it all go wrong? This is what Defining Place, the 2004-2006 review of architecture in Scotland, published by the Lighthouse, seeks to answer. "We decided this review should not just be about creating a beauty pageant of buildings," says Riccardo Marini, Defining Place steering group member and design leader of Edinburgh City Council, while admitting that, as an architect, beauty is no small consideration. Marini, the man who last year managed to insult the whole of Inverness by calling it "Scotland's fastest growing housing estate", is evangelical about our ineptitude at making and defining space. "We're not getting it right, full stop," he laughs, when I suggest he run down a list of the positives in new Scottish public space.