Glasgow's year as UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999, of which The Lighthouse was the showpiece, tended to focus on the city's rich architectural heritage, but it did strive to remind Scots of the importance of the buildings around them. The prominence of work such as Sir Norman Foster's 'Armadillo' building on the banks of the Clyde, and the titanium-clad Glasgow Science Centre, opened immediately opposite the Armadillo in 2001, prove that the city still has an appetite for innovative modern design. Dundee, too, is expressing its cultural renaissance with some appealing architecture, notably Richard Murphy's inspiring DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts) building, but also a cancer care centre at Ninewells Hospital - the first British work of Frank Gehry, the American architect of Bilbao's Guggenheim museum.

Edinburgh, meanwhile, boasts the contorversial (to say the least!) Scottish Parliament building, based on designs by the late Catalan architect Enric Miralles, situated opposite the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom of the Royal Mile, and the innovative and beautiful National Museum of Scotland, which has been described as the finest post-war building in the capital. So, does the new parliament building offer the Scots an architectural icon to help define their aspirations in a new century? Discuss...