Exhibition dedicated to internationally renowned architect Cedric Price opens

As the leading school in Scotland for student satisfaction in Architecture (Complete University Guide, 2025), the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment is working with five schools of architecture from across the UK, in collaboration with external partners such as the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, and Aberdeen City Council, to deliver this prestigious exhibition, ‘A delightful fun; a Cedric Price Thinkbelt for our times’, which will tour the UK over the coming months.

The Cedric Price exhibition runs until the end of October and brings together best practices from UK schools of architecture, with leading academics and professionals from architecture celebrating the influence of Cedric Price’s work today.

In Aberdeen, students from the Scott Sutherland School will present an ‘Outdoors Fun Lab for Aberdeen’, and showcase community engagement projects from across the North East of Scotland. This will include ideas to transform the Aberdeen Science Centre’s outdoor space into a sustainable, interactive community garden following the recent partnership with Aberdeen Science Centre.

Professor Maria J. Martinez Sanchez, Associate Dean for Research at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment at Robert Gordon University, said: “As one of the most established architectural schools in the UK, The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture at Robert Gordon University is delighted to be collaborating with architectural schools from across the UK,  The Royal Incorporation of Architects of Scotland and the Architecture Fringe Festival, to host this prestigious exhibition celebrating the work of Cedric Price.

“The exhibition will explore Cedric Price’s work from a contemporary perspective, focusing on the relevance of inter-disciplinary, sustainability and community and civic engagement in his projects. With this project, the Thinkbelt Network hope to influence the way architectural education engages with the cities and regions, and to explore innovative pedagogies for community engagement.”

Dr Dan Allen, Acting Dean of the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment, added: “I am very much looking forward to the Cedric Price exhibition opening in Aberdeen this autumn and to welcoming members of the public to the our Garthdee campus. The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture has a strong social ethos that underpins everything we do, and we work closely with industry, to ensure our undergraduate and postgraduate courses are relevant and responsive to today’s challenges.

"By engaging with this prestigious touring exhibition, we are offering our students a golden opportunity to engage with prominent industry figures, and to examine the influence of the internationally acclaimed architect, Cedric Price, on community projects.”

Two original prototypes of market stalls designed by Cedric Price from the Drawing Matter Collection, and never exhibited before, will be displayed as the exhibition’s centrepiece. These market stalls, and a range of archival materials – including prints of original drawings, texts, ephemera, film extracts and audio recordings – present the diversity of Price’s practice and interdisciplinary conversations, alongside community and civic engagement projects, led by each of the five schools of architecture involved in the project.

The exhibition will act as a stimulus for a conversation on site-specific pedagogies and practices in each school of architecture that respond to Price’s legacy.

Cedric Price (1934 – 2003), is considered to be one of the most visionary architects of the late 20th century. Whilst he built very little during his career, he suggested using a geodesic dome for a city entertainment space and building a giant ferris wheel on the Thames. The Millennium Dome and the London Eye are testament to his influence on contemporary architecture.

After the exhibition closes at the Scott Sutherland School on 31 October, it will travel to Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Mackintosh School of Architecture, Staffordshire School of Architecture, Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, the School of Art, Design and Architecture of London Metropolitan University, to culminate at the Architecture Fringe Festival in June 2025.

Images of ‘A delightful fun; a Cedric Price Thinkbelt for our times’ exhibition, credit Martin Parker, Gatehouse Design Agency.