The Art of Reconnecting

Nuart Aberdeen's Hopeful Return

- Evan Pricco

Aberdeen, situated in the northeast of Scotland, is known as the “Granite City,” and if you dive deeper into the mine of colloquial nicknames, you will also hear it referred to as the “Silver City with the Golden Sands.” But what is immediately striking is the wall-to-wall omnipresence of gray, an accordion of Victorian, Edwardian, and Brutalist architecture butting up and stacked right next to each other. Although centuries apart, the commonality of concrete and granite unite them as perfect peers. Brutalism is, indeed, brutal, eponymous by definition, harkening back to the UK’s postwar redevelopment, whereas the centuries-old structures, impervious to time, proudly represent what was known as a glorious era of British world power. Where Brutalism is by its nature practical and future-forward, the Edwardian and Victorian aesthetics holds reverence to the past. Yet here, they exist in harmonious dichotomy, representing the essence of granite, its solid, infinite permanence. These structures of Aberdeen, no matter their intent or architectural era, seem to turn time inside out; they head back and forward, their existence ever-lasting in their firm foundation. They are both rigid in form and aura. Ironically, if not the perfect metaphor, a law in Aberdeen means that painting on the granite is forbidden, destined to remain unmarked, unchanged, and unresponsive to changes surrounding the city.