Last week, Unit 1 went to visit Siccar Point and Cockburnspath, Southeast Scotland. It was here, by investigating the unconformity of the rock formations, where James Hutton found evidence for his theory of Deep Time, and Geology was officially born as a scientific discipline. Although hard for us to conceptualise today, until then the Bible was the best geological book around and the Christian date of 5,000 years was taken as the age of the Earth.

This is a site of significant importance in the history of modern science, where Huttonian theory led to Lyell’s geological discoveries and Darwinian evolution, and that of Scotland, as James Hutton was one of the most active members of the Scottish Enlightenment. Our task as designers is to commemorate the importance of the site and allow further geological investigations by designing a geological research centre and museum for visitors who come from all over the world to see the site.