When Andy Summers, co-curator of the exhibition “A Fragile Correspondence,” reflects on Dundee, his affection for the city is clear.
“Most of my best friends are from Broughty Ferry,” the Edinburgh-raised 46-year-old says, laughing.
“I’ve known the city for over 25 years.”
He’s quick to recognise the dynamic transformation of Dundee’s waterfront, particularly with the addition of the V&A Dundee.
The building was designed by Kengo Kuma to blend with its environment while challenging the way we think about architecture’s role in the future.
Now, this unique connection between architecture and place is taking centre stage at the V&A Dundee, which is hosting A Fragile Correspondence – Scotland’s official contribution to the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale.
What does A Fragile Correspondence bring to V&A Dundee?
The exhibition brings together a creative collaboration of architects, artists, and writers, exploring the intricate relationships between land, language, and architecture across Scotland’s diverse landscapes.
For Andy Summers, this exhibition’s return to Scotland feels especially fitting in Dundee, a city that continues to evolve culturally and architecturally.
“The V&A Dundee is incredibly significant in this regard,” Andy says, noting the museum’s role in bringing art, design, and architecture to the forefront of the city’s transformation.
“It’s a wonderful space to engage with an exhibition that asks how architecture can contribute to a more reciprocal relationship between humans and the land that sustains us.”
The exhibition is as much about the landscapes themselves as it is about the architectural response to them.
From the dense forests around Loch Ness, to the rugged Orkney Islands, to the industrial wastelands of Ravenscraig, the project traverses Scotland’s past and future, while grappling with some of the planet’s most urgent environmental questions.
Mapping connections across Scotland
Andy speaks of A Fragile Correspondence as an exploration of “how we work with land, not just on it”.
As an architect, he was on site with the Riverside Museum in Glasgow for two and a half years, and worked on the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad and other projects in Beirut.
The relationship with environment therefore has personal resonance.
“I’ve worked in architecture for many years, and in that time, I’ve come to see how buildings can consume resources, extract from the earth, and leave scars,” he says.
“In our current moment, when environmental and climate issues are at the forefront, architecture must evolve to reflect a deeper understanding of our relationship with the earth.
“This exhibition asks how we can shift that perspective. How can we work with the land, rather than simply upon it?”
Andy says this dialogue is especially timely in Dundee, a city historically shaped by industry and now pivoting towards a future where sustainability and cultural identity are more closely linked.
The exhibition’s lexicon of landscape words, developed by artists, architects, and local contributors, offers visitors the chance to reflect on how language can shape our understanding of places.
Through a rich blend of architectural models, photographs, and written narratives, the exhibition explores how the forces of industry, land ownership, and natural beauty intertwine to form Scotland’s unique identity.
“It’s thrilling that Dundee, with its vibrant cultural scene and connection to Scotland’s industrial past, is the first UK venue to host the exhibition,” he says.
“It’s an intimate opportunity for the local audience to engage with these ideas, in the very city that has experienced similar transformations.”
A reflection of global conversations
The 18th Venice Architecture Biennale was curated by Dundee-born Professor Lesley Lokko OBE, who grew up in Newport, and recently featured in The Courier.
Scotland was represented at Venice by the collectives Architecture Fringe, -ism magazine and /other.
Selected to represent Scotland, the exhibition resonated with an international audience, sparking conversations about how architecture and the environment can work in harmony.
While it’s rooted in the specific landscapes of Scotland, its messages are universal.
The theme, Laboratory of the Future, which underpinned the exhibition in Venice, continues to resonate in Dundee, where the city’s own history of industrialisation, decline, and rebirth mirrors some of the exhibition’s core themes.
The landscapes featured in A Fragile Correspondence are not just symbolic but lived realities, with each one telling its own story of resilience, loss, and regeneration.
The industrial ruins of Ravenscraig, once Europe’s largest steel mill, now lie in a state of environmental recovery, where nature is slowly reclaiming the land.
In Orkney, ancient settlements and folklore shape a culture that has adapted to the harsh yet resilient environment.
Loch Ness, often idealised as a wild and untouched landscape, masks a history of displacement and dispossession during the Highland Clearances.
“A Fragile Correspondence” is free to visit at V&A Dundee until spring 2025.
Conversation