A video poem taking as its starting point the development of postmodern, "shell" architecture.



Industrial structures, public buildings, residential accomodation, all are increasingly designed around spartan utilitarian principles. Contemporary urban and suburban environments are more uniform, new gdevelopments based almost exclusively around the car, and dependent on access to ring roads, bypasses, and motorway infrastructure. 'System build' documents contemporary industrial and residential spaces located to the West of Edinburgh, and cin the new towns of Livingston and Glenrothes. The aim of the project was part of an enquiry as to whether contemporary planning fand architecture de-humanises the inhabitants. Does the uniformity of such surroundings oppress those mwho are obliged to stay there, or do individuals find ways of expressing creativity and re-claiming identity within these environments?