Earthbound Orkney

This book was written to accompany an exhibition called 'Earthbound Orkney', part of a programme of activities including public talks and training courses, delivered by the charity Earth Buildin UK & Ireland (EBUKI).

It presents several years of desk and field research on Orkney by Tom Morton of Arc Architects and Becky Little of Rebearth, supported by Historic Environment Scotland and a large number of practitioners and organisations in the heritage community.

Materiality is the essence of our work. Place is the heart of its relevance and revelation. It is through memories, skills and acts of our hands and bodies that we connect.

Our shared practice as artist, builder and architect explores the narrative of how people find and form their place among the minerals, plants, animals, water, sky and light in this place that we call Scotland.

... This work brings together Art and Archaeology, those wary sister disciplines of creative enquiry.

In this work, we have peeled back the accumulated living skin of plants to feel, taste and smell the shifting grains of earth that lie beneath; to feel the pulse of this place we call Orkney, to rest on its bed of rock. It reveals a hidden world of geological science, of natural beauty and of human craft that we hope you will enjoy and consider.