Duany In Edinburgh

"The Influential architect credited with creating a slice of Utopia in America, a co-founder and prophet of the movement known as New Urbanism, has turned his attention to the Scottish Highlands. His best-known town design may be Seaside in Florida, a pristine neo-traditional community which took on sinister overtones as the setting of The Truman Show, the cult Jim Carrey movie that cleverly satirised our obsession with reality TV. However, stresses Andrés Duany, Highlanders needn't fear any outbreak of white picket fencing or clapboard houses: he and his fellow New Urbanists believe in intensive local consultation from the word go.

In Edinburgh last night to deliver the 2006 Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland lecture, Duany, a 56-year-old Florida-based architect recognised in 2004 as one of the 50 most influential figures in American residential building, has been engaged by the Moray Estates development company to help create a blueprint for a proposed new Highland community of some 10,000 homes between Inverness and Nairn.