' The Barras Story Telling Archive' RACHEL CROOKS

The Barras Market in Calton, Glasgow is not just a place for buying and selling. It has become a culture in itself. A microcosm, separate from the centre of Glasgow, where the idea of the civic, of interaction and of story telling is almost more important than the physical aspects of the city itself.

Therefore, in recognition of this and to further my project three thesis which focused on passing knowledge down through the generations I have investigated this exchange of stories that accompanies the exchange of goods at the Barras Market through a proposal for a Barras Story Telling Archive.

This analyses the architectural interface of Performing, Exchanging and Memorialising stories.

The Concrete poetry Archives by Edwin Morgan became integral to the concept of my building as the letters of Generation upon Generation, fade out in recognition of a forgetfulness that accompanies story telling by word of mouth. I propose to counteract this through my Barras Archives.

A proximity to Glasgow Green saw the opportunity for a reintegration with the city. Upon tracing this route on an initial site visit, the lack of intent this connection currently has was made obvious at the corner of London Road and Bain Street. This is the first point of contact with the Barras upon emergence from the green, it is disheveled and off putting- making it clear that there is impetus for development here.

The green not only connects the Barras to the city physically but notionally through its centrality to Glasgow’s historic industries at the time of the highland clearances. It therefore layers a cross cultural and recreational story telling back onto the Barras via proximity. This layering of stories and connection to industry underpins the key concepts of my proposal.

HARRY BAKER

The concept of the brief is structured around opposing the functional city, opposition is asserted because this method of city planning is centered around stripping out the effects of time and regards history as an obstacle to optimisation. However, it is not just for things to be beautiful or for history to be continued but, it s for them to be possessed of a spark of authentic life and character fullness. Instead, the presence of buildings and even a city, should not be interpreted as an element that appears as such but is understood as a note, record, information or continuity with the existence of aspirations in society. The city is not only seen as the physical artefacts, but also as a representation of human aspirations in time and space. The form of these buildings and the city that persists through time is a product of history and is something accreted over countless generations and infused with presence and sensation of memory. Lost Glasgow is an organisation devoted to the documentation, discussion and appreciation of Glasgow’s changing architecture and its community throughout the last few centuries. Acting as a multi-media, interactive archive ‘Lost Glasgow’ allows its followers to share, discuss and learn from the city’s colourful past through like minded individuals and even the city’s own residents.

An analysis of the central belt of Scotland reveals that there is an extensive and diverse range of outdoor venues: from rock climbing to mountain biking to cold water swimming. Although it is critical to recognise that access to these venues is considerably harder when relying solely on the use of public transport. The outdoors isn’t open to everyone. There is a cultural and financial deficit in communities like Calton. Opportunities to experience the release of the outdoors simply aren’t available, and furthermore, outdoor spaces within the city are sparse and often without purpose or activity.

I would propose an outdoor centre in the Barras, with follies in outdoor locations within Glasgow and the southwest of Scotland. With the aim to provide opportunities where they would otherwise be unavailable, and develop a greater conversation about the way we inhabit the world. A space for physical exertion, for contemplation and learning, and a place of departure to the outdoors.

The building does not seek to bring the landscape into the city, the two are seen as distinct and inimitable. Instead through the programme, the spatial organisation, and the tectonic language, the project expresses the relationship between the two.

Within the programme, there is a curious juxtaposition between physical activity: climbing walls and skate parks – and learning: a lecture hall, classrooms and library. The two often overlook each other or even occupy the same room. A third significant part of the programme is spaces dedicated to observing the views of the Campsies, Old Kilpatrick Hill, Whitelee Windfarm and on a clear day: the Arrochar Alps.

The Barras Youth Hub provides a much-needed respite and opportunity space for the young people of Calton and the Barras. As part of Glasgow City Council s ‘Integrated Children Plan’ , the council-funded scheme will offer accessible space for young residents aged between 10-19 years. The hub offers a variety of learning, leisure and performance environments to cover a wide scope of non-curriculum and creative interests the young user group may have, to encourage alternative modes of learning alongside and after their school life.

The Barras Youth Hub provides an open programme of education and activities designed for the purpose of enhancing the personal and social development of young persons through their voluntary participation.

With the lowest average tariff score in Glasgow, there is a clear issue with the education and learning opportunities being provided in the district. Levels of deprivation and child poverty are significantly higher than average, and youth unemployment is the 2nd highest in Glasgow. In comparison to education performance levels in the city of Glasgow, Calton is ranked the worst, having the lowest Key Stage 4 tariff grades by a significant margin. Of those leaving school aged 16, 73% are found to be heading in a ‘positive’ direction, which is also the lowest percentage across Glasgow.

In the Calton Area Partnership Profile, published by Glasgow City Council, the two issues highlighted as a priority were the aid of Vulnerable People and Youth Unemployment. A 2015 survey from the residents of Calton identified ‘the lack of activities at community facilities’ as the main local issue, as well as services for young people and lack of health and wellbeing centres accessible in the area. There is currently no community outlet in Calton which offers the residents any kind of relief from the labours of the domestic environment. Aligning with the Studio theme of ‘Domesticity and Labour’, my thesis explored the ideas of Leisure’, as defined by the philosopher Joffre Dumazadier.

In relation to Dumazadier’s theory, the Barras Youth Hub therefore sets out to establish all four capacities of leisure for the modern youth generation of Calton, as a response to the crucial need for youth support in the district.

Imagine a space where reading, performance, lectures, exhibitions, research and learning happily co-exist under one roof and the door is open to everyone. ’ conversations wandered through individuals’ practices, current work, setting up galleries and managing studio spaces, prospective shows, influences, and cross-overs between institutions and organisations.

The Barras Youth Hub provides a respite to the labours of living, offering activities defined by all aspects of Joffre Dumazadier s 4 forms of leisure.

These educational categories have been defined architecturally by four distinct buildings enclosing a publicly accessible courtyard space.

The office block as a typology consists of two architectural devices, the façade and the core. A typology of spatial, economic and construction efficiency. Where value is derived per rentable m2. Thus, the architecture of the office block is an architecture of the limit, with one goal, to maximise the space within it’s perimeter. The project seeks to explore the office block as a site for the polis, a physical space contained for discussion and connection. For one evening the office block denies its original economic agenda, its space appropriated as a field in which people move through and interact within. The external facade presents a limit from which a landscape of situations to make connections presents itself.

Within the landscape of situations a table is laid for a meal, the table becomes a spatial catalyst for connection, an object-island in the space-sea.

All the while, the facade of the office sat silent, a perimeter wall enclosing a space-sea in which people interacted and in doing so, a network was made visible. The evening served to render for a few hours an ecology surrounding part of the cultural scene in Glasgow, in which architecture plays a supporting, but lesser role to the individuals themselves.

For one evening a group of creative actors from across Glasgow’s cultural sector came together to share the pinnacle of office cuisine, the sandwich banquet, and connect with friends and strangers to open up a dialogue between artists, architects, producers, designers, and students which seldom exists outside of institutions. With no rigid agenda, chance encounters happened, and conversations across the arts and architecture took place as we all searched for connection.

The conversations were refreshingly centred away from architecture, when architecture did enter into the conversation it did so as the background to a story. A kind of ancillary architecture which enabled galleries, studios and cultural spaces to function, but that was always secondary to the activities and services themselves. The

@_newpractice