It would be easy to assume that the large amount of building works and new construction in Edinburgh is a consequence of the siting of the new Scottish seat of government, tagged as a "pretendy Parliament" by Scottish stage personality Billy Connolly. But factors more mundane than the urgings of the "democratic spirit" can explain this spate of new building: in particular Edinburgh"s position as the fourth biggest financial centre in Europe; the incidence of developer rather than open competitions; the invitation extended to the American modernist architect Richard Meier to come up with a masterplan for the design of the Edinburgh Park business centre; and Edinburgh"s 1970s love-affair with the motor-car, the resultant fractured city and early new-millennium ambivalence about private/public transport.Around 100 entries in this book give a framework for understanding what all this means for Edinburgh"s built environment and for reading recent architectural design in the city.