It’s a curious conundrum but the more onerous the planning legislation and rules, the less interesting the architectural end results tend to be.
Modern housing estates – whose plans have been scrutinised at every stage – are guilty of erring on the boring and bland side, in comparison to buildings from a different era when there were little or no restraints, controls or guidance.
The picturesque but higgledy-piggledy villages, gothic castles, follies perched on hills, churches with gargoyles and other individualistic structures that define places across Scotland would surely be rejected if they were suggested today.
So it was with some pleasure that I noted planners had allowed one glorious creature to remain in its unlikely perch atop a Perthshire project.
Had it been a new suggestion, I suspect it would have been vetoed by council officials, but the full size cow on the roof of the new £1 million Horn restaurant between Dundee and Perth has a long and proud history.
For 50 years this bovine beauty has been a familiar sight to travellers making their way along the Carse of Gowrie, serving as a landmark to locals and an attraction to visitors.
And all being well, it it will continue to take pride of place by the side of the A90 for at least another half century.
I’m not suggesting every bizarre and quirky plan should automatically be given the green light, but a more imaginative streak to tomorrow’s building projects would not go amiss.
To be fair the Scottish Government and other bodies have been pressing for improved design standards for some time and the results can be seen in recent Perth developments, notably the Caledonian school site housing and the Muirton redevelopment.
With 12,000 new homes expected to be built in Perth and Kinross over the next decade it would be nice to see the spirit of the Horn cow stretching her reach across the region, rather than the acres of harled boxes we have come to expect.
