Miniature Memories of Edinburgh | Edinburgh News

0:00It's September 12th. This is Edinburgh News Today, your AI-powered local news. This artist, Keith Crawley, has been using 3D printing to bring Edinburgh's history to life, one miniature at a time. He's crafted about 50 tiny replicas of the city's pubs, plus some bigger landmarks like Dow Housy Castle. It's a mix of digital design, printing, and then a lot of careful hand painting to get all the details just right. He started this whole thing about 8 years ago, just wanting to make a model of his own house. After that first project, he realized people were really into seeing miniature versions of places that meant something to them, especially the cities, pubs. Now he gets commissions from all sorts of folks wanting to remember special spots, and even from pub owners themselves. It's more than just making models. People see these tiny buildings as holding memories. Keith calls them Slices of Edinburgh, but he also thinks they're like Slices of Time. It's about preserving not just the architecture, but the personal connections people have to

1:02these places. He's currently working on a massive project to recreate Leath's old Kirkgate, an area that was mostly torn down decades ago. This one is going to take him around 8 months, and might include about 50 buildings. He's piecing it together using old photos and historical records, since so much of the original is gone. The real payoff for Keith is seeing how people react to his work. He says he builds the models, but it's the person who receives them, who truly brings them to life by adding their own memories and emotions.