Urban Realm vol 4 issue 17

VOL5 ISSUE17 SPRING 2014

M INE CRAF T GAME ON

PHOTOGRAPHY GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART COWGATE

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M

I F TO AN ES

2014 promises to be a momentous year for Scotland on the back of a succession of political and sporting milestones. This process has fostered a debate on the basis of national pride and identity and how this takes physical form. A notion we explore in conversation with Star of Caledonia designer Cecil Balmond (pg 52) One setback for the country was the failure of Dundee and Aberdeen to secure the title of UK Capital of Culture 2017. John Lord pays a visit to the victorious city of Hull to find out where they went wrong (pg 12).

Glasgow of course is no stranger to Capital of Culture success but in the near quarter century since its spell in the limelight much work remains to be done as Joe Shaldon of Derelict Glasgow (pg 44) knows all too well.

It’s not all doom and gloom however, as the city is currently enjoying a mini building boom following years of stagnation. One of the most significant assets to arise from

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this growth spurt is the Seona Reid Building at the Glasgow School of Art (pg 18). We assess the glass jewel to see if it lives up to Mackintosh’s legacy.

Over on the east coast designs continue to be less ambitious, with the still failing to juggle its need to grow with an unparalleled historic legacy. The recently completed Cowgate redevelopment (pg 26) being a glaring example of this unresolved conflict.

On a lighter note we leave the problems of the real world behind to delve into some fantastical Minecraft creations (pg 88). Far from being a simple game it is a surprisingly deep and flexible tool, making urban design issues accessible to more people than ever before.

It is a necessarily eclectic issue but one which demands your attention, whatever your interests.

John Glenday, Editor

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CONT ENTS QUARTERLY DIGEST 12 CAPITAL OF CULTURE 18 GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART 26 COWGATE 32 MANAGEMENT 38 SOLAR POWER 44 DERELICT GLASGOW 52 CECIL BALMOND 59 UNION STREET 64 DESIGN POP-UP 72 BRE 73 PHOTOGRAPHY 82 ARCHITECTURE FASHIONS 88 MINECRAFT 94 DIRECTORY 96 PRODUCTS 05

Cover image: MOJANG / 4J STUDIOS LTD

OUR EDITORIAL PANEL INCLUDES: Editor John Glenday Design & Production Amanda Dewar Advertising Katarzyna Uliasz, Web Manager Aleks Bochniak

Mark Chalmers, Architecture writer and photographer

Willie Miller, Founder, Willie Miller Urban Design

Paul Stallan, Director, StallanBrand

Stuart Falconer, Architect, GRAS

Chris Stewart, director, Collective Architecture

John Lord.

Founder, Yellow Book

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Urban Relam is the property of Urban Realm Ltd. The publishers, authors and printers cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. Any transparencies or artwork will be accepted at owner’s risk. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holder and publisher, application for which should be made to the publisher. Printed by Stephens & George Magazines. © Urban Realm Limited 2014 ISSN 2044-7345 Published by Urban Realm Limited, 2G Garnet Court, Glasgow G4 9NT Tel: 0141 356 5333 Fax: 0141 559 6050

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Q U A R T E R L Y D I G E S T J A N

ALL TO PLAY FOR The University of Edinburgh has unveiled a Malcolm Fraser penned ‘free play’ nursery concept ahead of its formal completion this summer.

Designed with the needs of the underfives at heart Arcadia Nursery is built to be as spacious and bright as possible the building incorporates spaces for musicmaking, cookery and soft-play, all of which

opens out onto extensive landscaped gardens through big glass doors in recognition of the importance of outdoor play.

These supervised gardens contain sensory-planting, mini allotments, a grass meadow and water play area as well as an elevated walkway and tree house to encourage exploration and play.

BRIEFS Edinburgh University has submitted plans to remodel St Cecilia’s Hall, Cowgate, to provide a 40 per cent increase in gallery space and improved acoustics, to form a Museum of Musical Instruments.

Designed by Page\Park the £6.3m project is set to move on site this autumn and will entail creation of a new harpsichord styled entrance to entice visitors off the Royal Mile.

Edinburgh Airport has unveiled its vision for a new-look entrance building as part of its £25m expansion of the main terminal.

Built on the site of an existing coach park the 6,000sq/m extension will move terminal access closer to a new tram stop and incorporates a new security area, expanded retail and a business centre.

Designed by Archial Norr the new extension is expected to be fully operational by 2015.

ABERDEEN OFFICE BONANZA

STUDENT HOUSING TEES OFF

Aberdeen City Council has granted planning approval to a £5m office scheme at South Esplanade West, amidst growing confidence in the city’s commercial property sector.

Designed by Keppie on behalf of Robertson Property Grainger House has been named after Olympic gold medal winner Katherine Grainger, who trained on the River Dee in the 1990s.

Work to build a 135 room student housing development in St Andrews is to get underway after the Carson and Partners scheme was given the go ahead by Fife planners.

Alumno Developments propose to erect the building on the site of an existing nursery at East Sands, providing replacement provision and a landscaped outdoor space

SILVER FIN STARTS Plans to build a £60m speculative office development at the former Bells Hotel on Aberdeen’s Union Street have been approved.

A nine storey glazed block designed

by Cooper Cromar on Justice Mill Lane, marketed as the ‘Silver Fin’ by Titan Investors, will rise behind a retained façade, providing 130,000sq/ft of space.

Skye based Rural Design have completed their latest family home in the Highlands, a zincclad house in Rhue, Ullapool, which enjoys open views to Loch Broom and the Summer Isles.

Inspired by the low-pitch agricultural sheds common to the area the scheme adopts a low profile as seen from the road but opens up to a two storey façade on the loch facing aspect. This approach, dictated by planners, sees an ‘upside down’ internal arrangement adopted with main living spaces situated on the upper level.

An application has been filed by Peter Inglis Architects for the development of a 100 bed hotel on the site of a petrol station on Dundee’s East Marketgait.

Located adjacent to the newly completed Olympia swimming pool the hotel would connect to an adjacent multi-storey car park via a dedicated link bridge.

Rising to seven storeys the blue brick clad building features an external glazed reception space across the front facade.

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Q U A R T E R L Y J A N D I G E S T FANTASTIC COMPETITION

GARDENERS WORLD

Ten watery visions of a future Scotland swamped by climate change have been unveiled by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) after they laid down the gauntlet to students at Edinburgh College of Art. Designed Spaces for Changed Places gave participants just 48 hours to compose their entries.

A public consultation has taken place at Heriot-Watt University for a £1bn western expansion of Edinburgh on green belt land, delivering as many as 3,500 homes.

Edinburgh’s Garden District has been drawn up by lead master planner DPZ, with assistance from Michael Laird Architects and Gillespies, on behalf of Murray Estates and incorporates a 60 acre National Garden.

TO THE MANOR REBORN Simpson & Brown are applying the finishing touches to the restoration of a B-listed 17th century Lairds house on the Island of Egilsay, Orkney.

Howan House saw the conservation specialists tasked with bringing the remote ruin back to life as a family home.

WHISKY BOND Places for People have submitted plans drawn up by Sutherland Hussey Architects for the conversion of a C-listed former whisky bond into 11 flats and 14 houses.

The industrial site is located off Assembly Street in the Leith conservation

area and has been conceived as a ‘courtyard accessed’ development accessed by gate from the main road.

A new build element clad in dark brick contrasts with warmer brass alloy panels fronting Assembly Street.

BRIEFS A UK based design team led by Gillespies, and incorporating Cushman & Wakefield, Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios, Buro Happold and Rider Levett Bucknall, have been named as the winning consortium in a competition to develop a new public park in Moscow, Russia.

The Park Russia design contest was organised by the Russia Geographic Society and Moscow government to devise a master plan for a 1,000 hectare site near the city’s Domodedovo Airport.

Ushida Findlay, co-founder of Ushida Findlay, has passed away at the age of 60 after battling against a brain tumour.

Born in Forfar Findlay spent 20 years working in Japan – going on to found Ushida Findlay with her then husband in 1986 and is well known for her work; notably in the design of the Orbit tower at London’s Olympic Park.

Titan Investors have submitted plans to build a speculative £17.5m office block at 20 Cadogan Street, Glasgow, offering sq/ft of grade A accommodation designed by Cooper Cromar and Woolgar Hunter.

Adopting a vertical ‘supergrid’ façade of curtain wall glazing and white masonry panels the scheme would replace two existing disused office buildings with a single block which have been deemed unsuitable for re-use.

Upstart architecture studio Stallan-Brand have unveiled a new ‘fringe’ website intended to act as a repository for ‘discarded’ ideas.

It showcases a diverse array of models, sketches, collages, paintings and installation works; drawn together from an array of projects Some of the flights of fantasy contained therein include a transposition of Glasgow’s South Side with New York’s Central Park and a view of Edinburgh Castle as it might have been built by the Aztec’s

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Q U A R T E R L Y D I G E S T F E B

TRIPLE HELIX

BRIEFS SPT have unveiled designs for a £5.3m glazed canopy at the entrance to St Enoch Station, part of a £288m revamp of Glasgow’s Subway system.

The Aedas penned glass protrusion has been inspired

by Victorian glasshouses with work expected to commence imminently.

Keppie Design have unveiled a new 110sq/m café for Falkirk Community Trust at Helix Park, one of three ‘wooden boxes’ planned for the southern end of the £43m public space which will offer classrooms and a viewing gallery alongside storage

solutions for canal equipment.

The series of charred larch cubic forms face onto a new landscaped public space conceived by Ironside Farrar, which affords views across to The Kelpies sculpture.

AZURE SKY

CALTONGATE

Sheppard Robson Architects have received planning consent from Glasgow City Council to build a 135,000sq/ft office development at the Skypark business park, although construction will not start without a ‘substantial’ pre-let.

Financed by Moorfield Group and Resonance Capital the& £45m Azure Building would be built on top of a landscaped terrace and will take advantage of cheaper land to undercut city centre rents.

Planners at The City of Edinburgh Council have today agreed to grant permission for a £150m redevelopment of the Caltongate, at the heart of the historic Old Town, with work to begin as early as this summer.

Developer Artisan and Allan Murray Architects intend to transform a five acre tract of derelict land to the west of Waverley Station into a new mixed use quarter comprising a mix of leisure, retail, residential and commercial uses and a civic square.

COLDINGHAM BAY

RINGING IN THE CHANGES

Plans to erect a new housing development at Collingham Bay have been given the nod by Scottish Borders Council, paving the way for construction to proceed at the popular beauty spot later this year.

Designed by Sutherland Hussey Architects the scheme involves demolition of an existing derelict nursing home to make way for the construction of two beachfront apartment blocks – alongside a separate scheme for a private three bedroom home on land opposite.

A new healthcare teaching facility at the Elgin campus of Moray College has opened its doors following completion by JM Architects.

The Alexander Graham Bell Centre incorporates a life science building containing conference facilities, research space, mock wards and classrooms as well as a new circulation space which connects the building to the ‘B’ listed Academy building.

Inverclyde Council has officially unveiled one of the biggest school-build projects in Scotland, the £44m Archial Norr designed Port Glasgow Community Campus.

The merged school houses the former Port Glasgow High, St Stephen’s High and Craigmarloch Additional Support Needs (ASN) School all under one roof.

Construction work has commenced on a £200m development adjacent to Haymarket Station which will ultimately play host to commercial accommodation, leisure space, a 165 bed hotel and underground car park.

Commissioned by Interserve and Tiger Developments the first phase of the Richard Murphy designed scheme is scheduled to complete in 2016.

Clyde Gateway have begun marketing their latest office development, a 20,000sq/ft building sandwiched between their recently completed Olympia and Eastgate projects.

Designed by JM Architects, with Wallace Whittle and Woolgar Hunter engineers, the under construction scheme is named after the Latin for white in recognition of its concrete finish.

Glasgow’s development & regeneration Services Department have submitted plans to build a £2.5m early years centre in the grounds of Knightswood Primary School.

The slate and plum hued building will be clad in fibre cement panels and replaces an earlier nursery with improved facilities, play area and on-site parking.

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Q U A R T E R L Y F E B D I G E S T DISTRICT 10

DUAL SCHOOLS

BRIEFS

A £1.7m office development fashioned from 37 disused shipping containers has been officially unveiled at Seabraes Yard on Dundee’s waterfront by Scottish Enterprise.

District 10, conceived by Aim Design, is intended to act as a hub for the creative industries and was delivered by Maxi Construction in collaboration with Fairhurst structural engineers.

Angus Council has announced that construction will take place this April on new secondary schools for Brechin and Forfar as part of a £50m investment delivered through hub East Central Scotland.

Both schools will replace existing dilapidated facilities which are no longer fit for purpose with new designs prepared by JM Architects.

A £60m scheme to deliver 701 student apartments at Beith Street, Glasgow, has won the backing of planners, clearing the way for construction to complete in time for the 2015 academic year.

Prepared by Falconer Chester Hall on behalf of Downing Developments the project consists of two separate ten storey buildings arranged along the banks of the River Kelvin.

INOVO UNVEILED Scottish Enterprise has officially opened its £10m industry engagement building, Inovo, a purpose-built office block which will help support the offshore renewable energy market.

The BDP designed building offers flexible accommodation for new and existing companies.

AEDAS MAKE ROOM

An ageing office block on Glasgow’s West Campbell Street is to undergo an £11m redevelopment to house a new Hampton

by Hilton branded hotel in time for the

Commonwealth Games this summer.

The 88 room Aedas designed hotel is one of 23 new Hilton hotels planned for the UK by 2015.

Plans to build a rooftop extension at the British Golf Museum, St Andrews, have been given the nod by Fife Council.

Enjoying expansive views across West Sands Beach it will sit adjacent to the B-listed Royal and Ancient Golf Club.

Designed by Richard Murphy Architects the scheme will create an 80-seat café and outdoor terrace.

NHS Lanarkshire has begun construction of three new community health centres located in East Kilbride, Wishaw and Kilsyth.

Designed by Reiach & Hall on behalf of Graham Construction the three centres are valued at £19.6m, £23m and £7.8m respectively and will each open their doors in summer 2015.

Scottish Poetry Library architect Malcolm Fraser has called on Creative Scotland to think carefully before agreeing to fund its ‘despoilment’ - following submission of plans by Nicoll Russell Studios for its extension.

The fall out follows a dispute between the architect and the library’s board over how best to accommodate the institutions needs going forward, which led to the architect parting ways with the library.

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Q U A R T E R L Y D I G E S T M A R

OVERARCHING VISION Network Rail has published fresh visualisations of a £120m redevelopment of Glasgow’s Queen Street Station.

Building Design Partnership’s plans outline extension of existing platforms to accommodate nine car trains and the

creation of a new public entrance facing George Square. An upper level pedestrian footbridge will connect to the Buchanan Galleries from both Dundas Street and Cathedral Street, linked by escalators to the main concourse – which will double in size.

BRIEFS BAM Construction has been confirmed as main contractor for a £6.8m museum and art gallery in Dunfermline by Hub East Central Scotland.

Dunfermline Museum & Art Gallery will include a café, offices, children’s library and gallery space which will conjoin a B-listed bank and library with a glazed extension and landscaping when it opens in 2016.

Plans to erect a £3.5m pedestrian footbridge in the Seabraes area of Dundee are set to win the go-ahead when they are discussed by councillors next Monday.

Morgan Sindall is being recommended to win the design and build contract which would connect Perth Road to Riverside Drive over an existing railway line.

Planning permission is already in place for the link, which could start on site as early as this autumn for completion by spring 2015.

SKYE’S THE LIMIT An Isle of Skye community hub has received a major boost after the Big Lottery Fund agreed to stump up £1.2m to help finance the £1.8m build.

Proposed by the Camuscross & Duisdale Initiative and WT Architecture it will incorporate a hall, shop and café on a prominent plot overlooking the Sound of Sleat.

If match funding can be secured it is hoped to open the new hub in 2016/17

TOLLCROSS CARE HOME Collective Architecture have unveiled a £4.2m specialist care home on Tollcross Road, Glasgow, offering support to people recovering from alcohol related brain damage (ARBD) alongside family housing for social rent.

Built for Loretto Housing Association the scheme provides rehabilitation for people discharged from hospital, as a stepping stone toward supported accommodation.

EDI Group has begun a public consultation for a new hotel on a long-standing gap site on Edinburgh’s Market Street, straddling the Old and New Towns.

JM Architects have been brought on board for the development which would entail demolition of an unlisted garage building and creation of a seven storey new-build block.

A planning application will follow conclusion of the three month consultation period.

A sod-cutting ceremony has taken place at the site of Lairdsland Primary School in Kirkintilloch as East Dunbartonshire Council and Hub West Scotland commence delivery of the £7.7m build.

The school has been designed

by Walters and Cohen Architects and features a design that can be modified for delivery elsewhere dependant on local requirements and school rolls.

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Q U A R T E R L Y M A R D I G E S T HEALTHY OPTION

BATTLE HARDENED

BRIEFS

Integrated Healthcare Solutions Lothian, a design team comprising Brookfield Multiplex and HLMAD, have been named as preferred bidder to design, build and maintain a new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by NHS Lothian.

Construction work is expected to start in autumn 2014 for completion by summer 2017.

A new visitor centre built to tell the story of the Battle of Bannockburn has been opened to the public for the first time by the National trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland.

Designed by Reiach & Hall, Sinclair Knight Merz, Turner and Townsend, Ian White Associates and KJ Tait the new centre is built with a simple finish of textured grey brickwork and is centred on a small courtyard.

WHISKY GALORE

MAKING A SCENE

Delivery of the first whisky distillery ever to be built on the Isle of Harris has begun in Tarbert with contractors moving on site to build the £10m home of The Hearach; a new single malt named after the Gaelic for an inhabitant of the island.

Designed by John Coleman Architects it is only the second distillery ever to be built in the Outer Hebrides and will include its own maturation and bottling facilities. The new distillery will open by March 2015.

Young architects are to be given the opportunity to develop ideas for a fresh batch of Scotland’s most arresting beauty spots after the Scottish Government committed a further £500k to its Scenic Routes initiative.

The cash will fund interventions in the Cairngorms and canals adjacent to the A82; incorporating facilities such as public shelters and viewing platforms to stimulate both tourism and the architectural profession.

Clydeport has submitted indicative plans to build a 200 bedroom hotel at Yorkhill Quay at the former berth of the Glenlee Tall Ship.

The plans follow an earlier submission to build a whisky distillery and visitor centre on an adjacent plot which will also see an historic Pump House converted.

Designed by ADF Architects the scheme will fit into the wider Glasgow Harbour master plan and incorporates a setback to preserve existing down river views from the Pump House and will entail infill of an existing dock.

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland have weighed into the debate surrounding the future of Perth City Hall by arguing strongly against its demolition, describing the B-listed building as being of national architectural importance in an 11th hour intervention.

Instead the organisation wants Perth & Kinross Council to allocate £1m as a ‘bounty’ to support re-use of the existing building, just months after the authority opted to pursue plans for a new city square on the site, after throwing out earlier plans to convert the Edwardian venue into an indoor market.

Robertson Property has submitted plans for a speculative office development on the outskirts of Aberdeen, their third such scheme in a year.

The £15m Archial Norr designed property is being marketed as either an HQ property for a single occupier or for multi-use tenants and will offer 62,500sq/ft of space.

BLOOD LETTING A design team comprising Reiach & Hall architects, Interserve and Kajima Partnerships have been awarded the contract to build a new laboratory at Heriot-Watt Research Park, Edinburgh, by the Scottish National Blood

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Transfusion Service (SNBTS).

The £50m research and development centre will consolidate existing facilities and incorporates administrative areas to safeguard the future supply of blood, tissue and cells to hospitals.

A new-build home on the Isle of Tiree has been unveiled by Denizen Works on an exposed grassland site overlooking Duin Bay. House No.7 occupies the site of a ruined B-listed black-house, transforming it into a main home and separate guesthouse conjoined by a utility wing.

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CAPITAL OF CULTURE JOHN LORD

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IT EDGED OUT DUNDEE AND EMBARRASSED ABERDEEN TO CLAIM THE UK CAPITAL OF CULTURE CROWN FOR 2017, BUT WHAT WAS IT ABOUTTHIS FORMER INDUSTRIAL CENTRE WHICH ATTRACTED THE JUDGES? HERE JOHN LORD OF YELLOW BOOK TRAVELS SOUTH AND DISCOVERS A CITY WHOSE FORTUNES MAY FINALLY BE ABOUT TO TURN.

The Deep aquarium strives for the much desired but seldom achieved ‘Bilbao effect’

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CAPITAL OF CULTURE

Left - The Scale Lane Bridge may not lead anywhere but still draws in the crowds Middle - This Drypool Bridge detail highlights Hull’s seafaring prowess Right - One of Hull’s claims to fame is its distinctive cream telephone boxes

The decision to make Hull the UK City of Culture 2017 was a surprise. The smart money was on Dundee, which mounted a confident campaign built around the regeneration of the Tay waterfront and Kengo Kuma’s V&A. Things are happening in Dundee, and maybe that was the problem. The judges’ feedback questioned whether City of Culture status would make as much difference in the city of Discovery as in struggling Hull.

These decisions are almost always impenetrable, especially so in this case because the UK Culture Secretary, Maria Millar – who appears to have no interest in the arts at all – had the final say. But Hull’s bid was a very smart piece of work, masterminded by former Creative Scotland chief executive, Andrew Dixon. While the Dundee bid had a self-congratulatory air, Hull’s pitch was grounded in grassroots engagement and built on a strong city-wide partnership. One of its most striking features – highlighted by the judges - is the way in which the 2017 programme will use and celebrate places in this remarkable but undervalued city. For example, the Looking up festival will select 52 buildings, spaces and landmarks to be featured in week-long “surprise commissions” featuring light, sounds, words, film and live performance. Flags, Wind and Waves by Angus Watt will use hundreds of flags to delineate

the city’s neighbourhoods, boundaries and river frontages.

This theme of working with the city and its communities was sound in principle and tactically astute. Hull has not burdened itself with a massive capital programme, although there will be some investment in venues and other facilities.

What’s promised is a celebration of the city as it is – a singular place with a rich history and built heritage. The challenges facing Hull are well-known: it is at the bottom of almost every available league table of socio-economic performance, and the city’s problems were compounded by the catastrophic floods of 2007 which overwhelmed the drainage system and flooded 8,600 homes and 1,300 businesses. Hull is seen as a struggling city, caught on the wrong side of history and, too often, badly managed.

So it is good to report that a visit to Hull is, in almost every respect, a delight. It is true that there’s nowhere decent to stay, although a new Radisson hotel is promised, eating out isn’t great, and the shopping offer is at best workmanlike, but a couple of days spent in the city will still be hugely rewarding.

You approach, as you must, from the west, beside the Humber, miles wide at this point, and the place (to quote Larkin) “Where sky and Lincolnshire and water meet”. The train passes under the magnificent suspension bridge and then (Larkin

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Hull’s History Centre looks to the future

again) “…the widening river’s slow presence/The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud,/Gathers to the surprise of a large town:/Here domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster/Beside grain-scattered streets, barge-crowded water”.

The streets are no longer grain-scattered and the rivers aren’t barge-crowded. Most of Hull’s maritime trade has shifted to modern docks further downriver, but the presence of the historic port is still felt everywhere. In the 19th century a series

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of linked basins was developed, forming an arc that linked the Humber to the river Hull, encircling the historic Old Town and creating what Larkin (yet again) described as “a terminate and fishy-smelling/Pastoral of ships up streets”. The historic centre is still a magical place, and remarkably intact: the medieval street pattern is more or less complete, with Holy Trinity – one of the great English parish churches – at its heart. Some ancient inns and other early buildings survive, but the glory of the Old Town is its Georgian architecture, lovingly chronicled and beautifully photographed in Ivan and Elisabeth Hall’s 1978 book. Another couple, David and Susan Neave, are the leading authorities on the city’s architecture: their Pevsner City Guide is indispensable.

Somewhere in this tight network of streets you will find The Land of Green Ginger, described by the poet Ian Parks as “…a place where the sky/and the estuary meet;/where all the thin alleys/deceive, double back/and lead to a spot/ where strangeness occurs”. There are handsome brick houses, Victorian banks, arcades and markets and a grand Edwardian Guildhall. The playwright Alan Plater was brought up (though not born) in Hull, where he worked in an architect’s office. He loved this part of the city and wrote about it, rather improbably, > in an essay for the 1962 Port of Hull Journal which celebrated

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CAPITAL OF CULTURE

Wilberforce Health Centre is one of several new additions to make its mark

a place where “commerce, recreation, ships, big business, shopping and civic administration all intermingle”.

The Old Town is separated from the Humber waterfront by a dual carriageway which carries port traffic through the city.

The effects of the road are predictably disastrous and they have had a chilling effect on attempts to revive the atmospheric but decayed former fruit market area, which is slowly evolving into a cultural enclave. Also stranded on the wrong side of the A63 is The Deep, a hugely popular visitor attraction with a frustratingly semi-detached relationship to the city. It won’t be easy, but Hull needs to heal the rift caused by the road: until it does, it will never be the place it might be.

The Deep, a splendid aquarium designed by Terry Farrell, is the epitome of old-school 1990s iconic architecture, and it is a source of much pride and affection. Its stealth bomber aesthetic is echoed in a more recent project, McDowell + Benedetti’s Scale Lane Bridge.

It’s not my favourite thing: a bit too tricksy and overengineered for a no-nonsense place like Hull, but it’s fun and the pocket park they have created on the left bank of the river is delightful. In fact, just about everything that is new and

worth seeing in Hull has been paid for by the public sector, the EU or the Lottery. One of the nicest things is the Hull History Centre, designed by Pringle Richards Sharratt, which opened in 2010 in the Northern Quarter, another intriguing if somewhat fragmented part of the city. Wright & Wright’s new Hull Truck Theatre is another success, although the company has been through turbulent times since the building opened. The pleasures aren’t confined to the city centre: three great outings would take you to the Humber Bridge, the Leslie Martinplanned University campus and the early 20th century Garden Village.

Hull is an ideal choice for City of Culture. It is a city struggling with daunting, systemic problems but it is far from the woebegone basket case presented in a recent Economist article. The city has a remarkable history, a rich cultural life, creative talent and a tradition of social entrepreneurship. The idea of using the 2017 programme to celebrate and showcase Hull’s rich and stimulating sense of place, its communities and neighbourhoods is very exciting. It won over the judges and it should make Hull’s tenure as City of Culture something quite special.

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JOHN GLENDAY

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COMPLETION OF THE SEONA REID BUILDING MARKS NOT ONLY A NEW PHASE IN THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART’S ESTATES STRATEGY BUT A WAVE OF WIDER FURTHER EDUCATION WORK AROUND THE CITY. THE RESULT IS A NEW GLASS ORNAMENT ON TOP OF THE CITY AND AN INTERIOR SPACE THAT SPEAKS VOLUMES. ALL IMAGES BY MCATEER PHOTOGRAPH.

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Glasgow School of Art’s £50m Reid Building, named in honour of former director, Professor Seona Reid, comes with one of the most challenging briefs in world architecture – to fashion a purpose-built academic building for the school of fine art; incorporating studios, gallery spaces, refectory, workshops and communal spaces for the whole school in the shadow of the ‘A’ listed Mackintosh building. In execution it certainly provides the requisite accommodation but does it augment or detract from Mackintosh’s masterpiece?

Designed by Steven Holl Architects, in association with JM Architects and Arup Engineering, the school immediately makes its presence felt with a striking skin of translucent glass that gives the appearance of a giant Fox’s Glacier mint that has run aground on Garnethill. Explaining the origins of this daring concept Chris McVoy, co-designer of the project alongside Steven Holl said: “We don’t quite know what we’re making but we know what kind of experience we want, then you work out techniques. If you start with only what you know you can do then you never push the envelope and create new experiences.“ This desire for a fresh experience led to the contrasting of the intimidating heavy masonry presence opposite with a structure that serves to draw light in by day and throw it out by night. These soft qualities belie a chunky build however, as it weighs in at around 11,000sq/m, rather more than the Mackintosh’s relatively svelte 9,000sq/m. This discrepancy forced the architects to pack a lot more volume onto a tighter footprint, a twin squeeze that has both forced the build to burrow down into the ground for the workshops and cantilever out to the north from above so you can’t see its structure. “It’s a bigger building but in terms of height from the street it’s no taller than the Mac,” observes McVoy. “That’s why from Sauchiehall Street our building actually seems smaller and why the back of our building is taller than the front; we wanted to make the profile step up as it goes up the hill.”

Governing the dimensions of the build is the golden section ratio, which Holl has always incorporated in his work; from the five, 15m wide studio bays, to the 9.27m double height spaces and 5.73m wide balconies. This approach has produced a building which is ‘complex in section but simple in plan,’ observes McVoy. Simplicity which proved to be a god-send given the tight budget which necessitated leaving much of the structure exposed internally, lending an integrity and toughness to these spaces which belie the soft shelled exterior.

The design process wasn’t entirely free form however and five key themes guiding thinking throughout the build.

Foremost was the desire to construct the building out of studio modules. “This

is where the creative life of the school happens and is the core teaching and working place,” asserts McVoy. Secondly the studios were to be as adaptable as possible with light and generous proportions – an acknowledgement that these qualities more than any other grant The Mackintosh its unparalleled ability to adapt to new media in ways that could never have been foreseen.

Holl once described light as his ‘favourite material’ and so it is not surprising that this attribute should be the third key concept behind the design.

“Top light, clerestory light, side light, north light, direct light and light brought through a cut through the volume - that became an inspiration for us”, recalled McVoy. “In our building the windows in

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Left - Holl has made light work of the interior Right - Three ‘driven voids of light’ mean all is well inside

the north façade are angled to create the maximum exposure of light to the north.”

This contrasts with the flush ‘silent screen’ of glass to the south which draws in light directly.

The fourth point McVoy draws attention to is the so-called ‘circuit of connection’, a vertical circulation route of stepped ramps that doubles as social space, saying: “Architecture more than any other art is built around time; we experience a building not only by looking at it like a painting but by moving through it.” This has proven so successful that few now bother to take the elevator and the building is now so open it forms a single fire compartment – leading to the absurdity of a sprinkler system being installed to satisfy building regulations

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» One of the tings I love about Glasgow

is that the sun comes out for just a few minutes each day. It’s like a pulse. «

despite the interior being predominantly fashioned from concrete and glass. The fifth point raised was a desire to connect the school with the street and the city, a feat accomplished by situating the Windows on the Mac exhibition on the ground floor with its own dedicated public entrance. “It’s a place where the public can see the Mackintosh framed in a way that wasn’t possible before,” notes McVoy. The structural and literal leading light of the build is its ‘driven voids of light’, a trio of whitewashed concrete cylinders >

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The building acts like a giant light store, sucking photons in by day and spewing them out at night

modeled on the west façade library windows of the Mac which suck light in and air out of the building. “I like to think of them as oculi driven into the heart of the building,” McVoy states. The space at the foot of these light wells is inspired by artist James Turrell’s skyspaces, as McVoy observed: “You can sit here for hours and watch the light change, especially at dusk. When you make spaces which hold and channel light it heightens the changes and you become sensitized to all the variations. One of the things I love about Glasgow is the fact that the sun comes out for just a few minutes every day, it’s like a pulse.”

Each 6m wide concrete tube is slanted 12 degrees to the south with the top sliced off vertically to catch the light, a glazed bench here allows anyone so inclined to moon their posterior to the interior. The concrete is heavy as it is a structural support that must carry the weight of the building across its diameter, but it still achieves a weightless

feel owing to the light within and the numerous perforated openings made by slicing rectangular volumes from the concrete, carving abstract shapes from the shadows which carry deceptive depth. Whilst the driven voids are smooth to funnel the maximum light some of the interior concrete has a slatted texture to highlight the play of light and shadow, qualities which subtly shift through each floor as more distant views emerge.

“This is probably the sharpest concrete corner ever constructed,” claimed Holl as he slid his fingers over the razor sharp edge of one such cut-out during a tour. “Because of the precision of the CNC computer milled block outs we had to build custom doors to slot around the driven voids,” the architect continued. These spaces also afford oblique views through to different levels of the building, opening up a multitude of people watching opportunities as people navigate the stairs. McVoy notes: “When

you see a student leave the studio you see them once, then a couple of seconds later again, and then again!” These jaunts through the building are enlivened by a feeling of openness and fun, with the central stair suspended from above to give it the appearance of floating in space.

The voids don’t continue straight down to the foundations but rather have an elbow kink in them at ground level before resuming their descent. This is for structural reasons and also prevents the voids travelling beyond the bounds of the site. By happy coincidence it also marks a formal transition to subsurface areas.

One key design decision taken early on was to retain the existing 1930s built student union, something which was close to Holl’s heart McVoy explained: “When Steven came here he thought this was a fine stone building, so why tear it down? It makes a great turning point and means our building doesn’t >

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Above - Upper level studios benefit from diffuse northerly light Bottom Left - Students have swiftly reclaimed the retained student union as their own space Bottom Right - A simple finish of concrete and paint was necessitated by budget but also provides a robust and dynamic environment

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A first floor refectory, overlooking the Mackintosh, is the beating heart of the campus URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

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JM Architects took a lead role in the renovation of the student union, a toe-hold on history amidst all the modernity

face off against the Mackintosh across the whole width of the block. It also gives the students their own identity; it’s their place where they can do whatever the hell they like.” The student union also marks the intersection of the architecture, design and fine art schools at the junction of Scott Street and Renfrew Street. An observation not lost on Holl who suspended a viewing platform at just this point.

McVoy said: “There’s a moment from November to early January when the Mackintosh casts its shadow on our building and you see its profile. We call it complimentary contrast. It wouldn’t be wise for us to even try to create a stone building here today so we wanted to use a different material which would highlight the intensity of that stone. The matte glass becomes a ‘silent screen’ which highlights the intensity of the Mackintosh building.”

The primary social space is situated

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within the second floor refectory, which opens onto an outdoor terrace and garden inspired by the landscape of a machar. “We get a new connection to the Mackintosh on this level,” observed McVoy, pointing to a newly restored weather vane and top floor setback above the parapet line which were previously hidden from view: “This floor is the same height as the great cubic studios across the street so the two are in dialogue. Here the driven voids are also double height which draws light in, but also recharges them for further down.”

You see the activity of the school as you move through it McVoy said, noting: “What’s exciting to me is one of the students of silversmith and jewelry found mannequins and made a necklace which is also a kind of shirt for it. That’s what we were hoping for, that our building would encourage multi-disciplinary activity.” As the building makes its mark on students so too are students making their mark on

the building, fashioning a colour wheel assembled from ready-made objects sorted by colour and placed at the foot of one skyspace. This adoption of their new home is reflected by some green eyed refugee architecture students, who have spontaneously opted to decamp from their own studios – deemed not fit for purpose by the School in a recent estates review – to take advantage of the workshop spaces for model making and review.

Mackintosh himself would likely approve and though the shift from natural to man-made materials doesn’t accord with the maestros own work it is equivalent in its boldness. As a result it has real presence and means visitors now have not one but two internationally significant buildings to view and admire.

It also bodes well for future phasing with the hope that the school can score a hat-trick in their campus redevelopment strategy.

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COWGATE JOHN GLENDAY

STREE T SCAP ES

The Cowgate fire site has been a gaping hole in the heart of Edinburgh for over a decade URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

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THE NEWEST CORNER OF EDINBURGH’S OLD TOWN HAS BEEN 12 YEAR’S IN THE MAKING, BUT HAS IT BEEN WORTH THE WAIT? URBAN REALM PAID A VISIT TO THE HISTORIC SITE TO FIND OUT IF ITS BELATED LAZARUS RISE FROM THE ASHES DOES JUSTICE TO ROBERT ADAM’S LEGACY - OR IS AN OPPORTUNITY MISSED. Ambitious development plans in Edinburgh rarely run smoothly; from the Scottish Parliament to the trams any move for change can be beset by cost overruns, planning disputes and objections. It shouldn’t be too surprising then that the hopes of a swift Lazarus-like rise from the ashes of a fire-damaged site in Edinburgh’s Cowgate should have gone up in smoke in their turn. Now, following a 12 year test of endurance that might have made even Mo Farrah sweat, this prime chunk of Old Town real estate is reborn - but has it been worth the wait?

Undergoing many guises as a succession of architects and developers picked up the baton on a tortuously circuitous route to fruition it was ultimately ICA Architects and Jansons Property who first crossed the finishing line. Appointed relatively late in the design process, just three months before planning, and caught in a pincer movement between a frugal funding environment and allpowerful heritage lobby ICA were left

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with little room for manoeuvre in their delivery of the £30m scheme, which includes the 259 bed Ibis hotel and retail units fronting South Bridge. It incorporates internal pedestrian links linking South Street and Chambers Street and reinstates the jazz club La Belle Angele and hallowed Fringe venue the Gilded Balloon.

Shorn of some of its more exuberant bells and whistles, such as a giant glass dome, during a lengthy gestation, what has been built is a somewhat anodised mirror image of a Robert Adam tenement. This matches the scale and materiality of its neoclassical neighbour but brings little else new to the table, although it does benefit from a livelier façade further down the Cowgate with some jaunty set-backs and openings which break up the monotony of stone to invite pedestrians to climb up through the site.

If the exteriors are plain then the interiors are invisible, with everything from hotel blinds to desks, benches and wardrobes conforming to >

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the Ibis brand template. Even the artwork is corporate standard issue.

A Sainsbury’s supermarket and Costa Coffee are of course nothing to write home about either. Taking Urban Realm on a guided tour project architect Kerry Acheson explained: “The interior design is an Ibis standard, only the public areas were done by ICA and these are designed more for Edinburgh people with Scottish themes and parts of the city in them.”

The hotel succeeds in marrying new build with historic elements although again not without some glaring compromises to keep the client happy. Thus the existing full-height windows are retained – including one accidentally broken and painstakingly restored – but with a perverse suspended ceiling added as per the Ibis rule book. Acheson noted: “It’s an Ibis standard that the ceilings can’t be too tall, but obviously you do have the taller windows so it’s a compromise

» There was a real opportunity when the fire

happened to create a straight desire line from Chambers Street down to the Cowgate. «

between the two.” High specification windows are a feature throughout the build which has to contend with the worst vibration and noise which South Bridge can present, a job which it accomplishes remarkably well so that even the most insomniac of guests is unlikely to be troubled by the passing of the number 35 bus.

A key planning requirement stipulated that the mass of the hotel be broken up into smaller elements to allow continuous views through to the Royal Mile, a feat accomplished by a fully glazed sky bridge which spans a precipitous drop over a distant Cowgate. The sky bridge doubles as a lofty means of entry and exit as well as providing an arresting

observation deck from which to survey nearby rooftops. Indeed such is the convoluted nature of the site that the front reception is actually on the fourth floor… creating something of a headache for fire fighters responding to 999 calls.. perhaps ominously given the sites history. It’s a steep climb down to the Cowgate and vice versa, even without breathing apparatus.

Asked to comment on the scheme Allan Murray said ‘…this is not something I would be able to do’ but Malcolm Fraser, the first architect to be involved with the scheme following the fire, recalled: “I did work for the eight separate owners of the site with proposals for the Gilded Balloon and La Belle Angele. When it

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Left - A staggered facade enlivens the Cowgate elevation Right - The Cowgate void has been filled with a new canyon of stone

COWGATE TIMELINE Dec 2002 2003 2004/05

Planning brief prepared Site packaged for sale

July 2006

Whiteburn acquires site

Sep 2008

Whiteburn submit planning app

Jul 2009

Alan Murray scheme approved

2010

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Fire decimates site

Jansons take reins

April 2011

ICA appointed by Jansons

Sept 2011

ICA submit revised plans on behalf of LaSalle

Dec 2011

Approval granted

Oct 2012

Work begins work on site

Feb 2014

Development completes

burnt my concern, as often happens in Edinburgh, was that each of the owners would get a separate lawyer and use up the equity of the site in fighting each other over ownership. I spent two years getting all the owners round a table and agreeing on how to work together, which was quite challenging as some were pukka and institutional, while others were slightly shady nightclub owners. There was a natural distrust amongst them.”

Commenting on the delivered scheme Fraser added: “The fantastic multi-layered site is a dream for any architect. The mix of uses is great and I give credit to the developer for getting all these uses on site - but its elevations are disappointing.”

Outlining a missed opportunity Fraser continued: “We’d proposed demolishing the curved corner building on Chambers Street to expose one of the existing gables > and that would have recovered the

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footprint of Adam Square. You would then have got a public space opening up the close, building a new hotel to that end of Chambers Street quite a bit higher to compensate for the space lost. There was a real opportunity when the fire happened to create a straight desire line from Chambers Street down to the Cowgate.”

A condition of planning was that an access gate to the internal pedestrian route be locked between 11pm and 7am with Acheson conceding that the Cowgate is ‘not very pleasant at night.’ Cognisant of this fact the hotel’s duty manager was also decidedly unenthusiastic at the prospect of strangers milling around in the dead of night. Within this space are a number of artworks peppering a central square which will house an outdoor café/bar space in the summer. Gazing at a dramatic chunk of twisted metal, a collaborative sculpture designed by four young artists; Jim Shepherd, Dominic McHenery, Angus Ogilvie and Tom Brown, Acheson said: “It’s based on the old arches which were down on Cowgate. The angles are based on the views into the site and the arches which used to be here.”

Connecting spaces are given solidity by extensive use of stone such as granite and Caithness blocks, another planning requirement, which provides a durability that will doubtless come in handy when the teeming hordes of Festival-goers descend upon its steps. Sadly the whole space is overlooked by the distinctly unloved rear-end of a University of Edinburgh building over which the team have no control.

Happiness at having completed the marathon build was tinged with sadness following the death of the developer’s son, Alexander Janson, who passed away suddenly during the build and whose name the new building now takes. Building a city is a marathon not a sprint but in the global race for wealth of which we are

The east elevation fronts the busy throughfare of South Bridge

participants (willing or not) the glacial pace of progress on key schemes such as this casts doubt on Edinburgh’s ability to up its game in the face of an increasingly dynamic global economy.

If the Cowgate serves to focus minds on breaking the planning logjam and stifling architectural straightjacket for future builds then it may have been worth these long years of waiting.

Otherwise it simply fills a space, and leaves you feeling somewhat unfulfilled for that.

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An interior courtyard will be used as an events space during the Festival

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MODEL PRACTICES DAVID PAGE & CHRIS STEWART

SOC I AL WOR K E RS

Page / Park When we set up our architecture office in 1981, it was a different world. Drawing boards, angle-poises, tracing paper, masking tape and dyeline prints were the tools of our trade. Outside the office, community architecture had become mainstream, adapting to the new agenda of saving the backcloth of our cites rather than renewing and rebuilding them from scratch.

It was an exciting time reconciling lessons of modernity with this new understanding of context and continuity. Practice had changed, of course there were the old large scale practices carrying on the mega hospital and university infrastructure projects like Robert Mathew Johnson Marshall, but, for the most part, it was about new ways of working, evening meetings with communities, measuring up flats to be renovated and low key ambitions of the hope of new build housing amidst the worthy restorations.

For many, how we practiced had to adapt, the architect had become less aloof, started to listen and accept the criticisms of the previous generation’s production. Looking back, society’s angst at the time focussed on the apparent failings of the architecture profession. It was an easy fall guy, self-inflicted for the most part by riding the politically and economically driven bandwagon of post-war mass building. Compared to now, architects rather than bankers took the wrath of a society struggling with unfulfilled promises and disappointment with the outcome of the heroic building programmes.

So two things came together that perhaps shaped the nature of our profession, the first was that demand for humility from our generation, the second the blasting apart of professionalism, by cutting away the bedrock of practice.

The idea of lineage of endeavour, gentle evolution of tutelege, practice and partnership embedded in the cycle of evolving practices, so the city could have an architect like James Salmon, who then partnered Gillespie, became Gillespie Kidd then Gillespie Kidd and Coia. That gentle evolution lasted 100 years > URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

y

Ci t

WHEN PAGE\PARK FIRST MENTIONED TRANSFERRING TO EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP THEIR ACCOUNTANTS GAVE THEM ONE OPTION - SELL UP. UNDETERRED THEY OPTED TO EMBRACE A PATH FIRST MARKED OUT BY COLLECTIVE ARCHITECTURE SEVEN YEARS AGO - BUT IS IT A MODEL FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW? DAVID PAGE AND CHRIS STEWART DISCUSS THEIR EXPERIENCES OF THE PROCESS.

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apping Thinking Tables 33

Con ser va tio

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MODEL PRACTICES

35

Page\Park recognise that success requires a team effort

before it was broken on the back of this new world.

Professional practice fragmented, it took perhaps 30 years but where before an all round solidity prevailed, now new and more specific skills were valued; project management, interior design, space planning, theatre design, construction management. In the broader context of building budgets, these were, for the most part, not funded by increases in the fees but in thin-slicing off from the budgets of the coordinating designers. Technological progress helped ease the situation with increased efficiency but in general architects were asked to do more for less.

We were left with the big question, how to argue for cohesion and unity in a world of fragmentation. Our answer was two fold - first, join the fragmenters, break up our practice into smaller bits, of job types and methods allowing us to increase our expertise in these areas but crucially in parallel create strategies to re-cohere these fragments into the unified whole we call architecture. The result being individual pockets of in depth knowledge but bound together with a common ambition of unified expression.

At the scale of the individual, the sense of responsibility changed. The individual was responsible for the development and articulation of a piece of the jigsaw for which there was no additional payment. Expecting that responsibility to be accepted without reward became untenable. How do we ask our architects and support to do more for less? It took us a long time

but the conclusion was one taken by Arups more than fifty years ago, Assist Architects in Glasgow and more recently Collective Architecture, that the reward has to be ownership of the output and a sharing of any benefit.

And so the Employee Owned Business emerged as our aspirational model.

Why did it take us so long for the Employee Owned model to emerge? Perhaps the best answer is that we needed to rebuild the engine of our practice first, take apart, how we practiced, organised ourselves, related to each other and the outside world. That was a painful journey but a journey where we received much help.

The first was from a company called Shirlaws and in particular an architect we admired and had worked with previously, Robin Thíng who had retired to play the role of business coach in that company. It was some journey, two years of regular meetings of about fifteen to twenty of us where we discovered whilst we knew how to be architects, we had no idea of running a business beyond intuition. Robin didn’t give us the answer, he introduced the technical aspects of business, the relationships between the parts and the tools, which could be used to interconnect these parts.

Indirectly Robin gave us the means by which we could break down our business into the fragments. We called them Centres of Gravity (CoG) because the word implied the interdependence of each of these parts. We needed a way to break it down but >

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MODEL PRACTICES

also put it all back together again as architecture.

In the creation of that business model, Robin made us aware that we needed to explore the idea of succession in our thinking.

Knowing how you mean to go on is critical to an understanding of what works today. Not much point having a car if you have no destination.

The idea of rewarding the initiative of all in the office emerged through this long process. The challenge was to find a way of legally and financially making the transfer from the traditional and now obsolete partnership model to this new ownership structure in a world where the historic model of investing in a partnership, was not feasible for architects struggling to make ends meet. In that respect our conventional support at the time; the accountants, lawyers and bank did not understand. There was only one model in their eyes and that was to sell, sell, sell.

A fortunate meeting with Brian Veitch, chairman of Arups Scotland and friend of the practice, helped things fall into place.

He is an ambassador for Collective Co+Operative Development Scotland, a wing of Scottish Enterprise promoting home and employee ownership of indigenous businesses. Through Brian we were introduced to Glen Dott who provided some supportive business funding and most importantly introduced us to a parallel universe of business support, legal and financial advice for those wanting to explore the employee owned business model. Key amongst these was Ewan Hall of Baxendale, experts in this sort of transition and because we had spent years devolving responsibility in the office he enabled us in a year to pass through the complex legal, taxation and administrative hurdles to become last December, employee owned.

So, three months in it is still too early to assess what has been achieved. What we can say with certainty is we have a renewed determination to arrive at a consensus about our vision of a reassembled architectural praxis.

We have created a mental map of our new business setting, at its simplest it is a series of concentric and overlapping round tables. Everybody sits around the outside of our big table and are free to join any of the inner tables like arts & culture, technologies, or business activities. Each table is distinct but being generally concentric within our abstract solar system there is an implicit overlap and influence.

If the round tables are about discussion of the generalities of practice, then we depict our actual projects, buildings, plans and studies, as wedge shaped workbenches cutting through our circular model in the manner of spokes of our wheel. The beauty of this mental work-bench is that, whilst focused on a particular project, it intersects with all the discussion tables and thereby is influenced by these lateral thinking groups.

Time will tell if our model is the right one. However like a good building, if designed well it will flex and adapt to changing circumstance without compromising the concept. That is to bring architecture back together, built on the understanding of the parts as a representation of all who contribute.

URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

Collective Architecture - Seven Years On May Day is an important date in many a socialist calendar, and for Collective Architecture this first day of summer will mark seven years from making the leap to a formal working method.

Coincidently our very first step was taken a further ten years back, on 01.05.1997, a date shared with Tony Blair and New Labour’s famous victory. Since then Prime Ministers have come, gone, and will hopefully continue to disappear - whilst for Collective Architecture things can only get better.

Formed to pursue themes of participation and sustainability in architecture, we have always worked in a collaborative manner. Having personally functioned in many different types of architectural machine over the last thirty years, I have found the opportunity for individual expression and authorship of idea to be our most important possessions.

Ensuring these opportunities are offered to all naturally creates the ideal business model where clients are assured of a committed architect; unique design develops to reflect our clients’ needs; and with the correct credit acknowledged to the individual all can be satisfied and much can be achieved.

We are passionate about an alternative way to practice architecture and wish to avoid the wellworn master/servant model continually endured by our profession.

The move to communal ownership should have been a simple one, our aim was to give everyone equal ownership, equal opportunity and the chance to help each other in our common goal. Capital gains tax and the endless bewilderment of lawyers, accountants and bank managers became obstacles

Collective’s loft incorporates space for play as well as work

that led us to adopt the Employee Owned Trust. It is a delight to see others follow a similar path, each solution will be special and good advice is available from Co-operative Development Scotland. Page\Park are a huge part of Scottish architecture, and we wish them every success. Our own route has not always been smooth, we are over our honeymoon and dare I say the seven year itch, but what we have learnt is that it is crucial not to keep still.

The recession has dug deep but our aspirations have remained high. We are one of the few Scottish practices to grow over the last few years and it is a matter of pride that we have stuck together without a single redundancy. Collective Architecture are currently working extensively across the UK with projects in Newcastle, Solihull Whitehaven, Preston, Aberdeen, Lothian, Stranraer and the West of Scotland. We are also enjoying working with the brilliant Martin Boyce on a new public square in Lyon. Diversification has been an important aim.

Historically Collective Architecture are associated with urban regeneration and continue to love working closely with communities, Housing Associations and Local Authorities. Now public buildings form the majority of our workload and we are enjoying the challenge of libraries, business units, community centres, galleries, sports projects, artist studios, lighting Installations and a variety of creative interventions to name but a few. Collective Architecture has become a sturdy platform for all our wonderfully talented and (in the main) young individuals, working as a whole to progress as one.

As we emerge from the recession, our hard work and camaraderie will pay dividends. Now is the perfect opportunity for Collective Architecture to look to the future and see how we can improve. There is much debate in our lunchtime office meetings where we discuss a variety of issues ranging from resource to quality. While individual expression is important, it is equally important that we maintain high standards and the quality of our work is essential. We all participate in reviews of all our work and through self criticism we self police. Individuals are encouraged to research issues which are relevant to their work and wider society, these ideas are shared through short presentations. A variety of smaller groups consider important office business such as finance, public relations, bids and importantly office structure. We shall shape what is to come.

Collective Architecture have grown up together, shared the pains and are looking forward to a bright future. We applaud Page\Park for following their own journey, delight in the young architectural practices who make kind reference to our practice and string together a number of well known quotations to encourage others to follow: ‘Every journey begins with the first step’ - Confucius. ‘You never fail until you stop trying’ - Einstein.

‘Everything you can imagine is real’ - Picasso and of course ‘Nothing will work unless you do’ - Maya Angelou.

For more information on the employee owned trust please contact Sarah Deas at Co-operative Development Scotland, via their helpline 0141 951-3055 or their website at http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/microsites/cooperative-development-scotland/about-us/cds-team

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INTEGRATED SOLAR PV COULD THIS BE THE FUTURE OF NEW HOUSE BUILD DESIGN IN SCOTLAND? Barratt Homes, one of the UK’s largest house builders believe so, as they have specified Solarcentury’s fully integrated C21e solar tiles on a number of their sites across the UK, including their Evolution and Devona Gate developments in Aberdeen and Dyce. Barratt Regional Director for Scotland Doug McLeod said: “Unlike retrofitted bolt-on systems, integrated PV can be worked seamlessly into our build programme and maintain the benefits of the NHBC new home warranty. The subtlety of the design appeals to our customers and on more sensitive sites helps aid the planning process. And of course ultimately it represents a significant progression towards the practical delivery of the 2015 stepped change in carbon reduction.”

Systems like Solarcentury’s C21e solar tiles and slates integrate seamlessly with new and existing roofs, providing a more subtle and elegant contrast to conventional on-top roof systems.

Perth based developer Stephen are also strong advocates of fully integrated systems. Stephen’s Commercial Manager John McCormack said “We opted to use PV tiles on our new development in Kinnesswood to meet our obligation under the 2010 Building Regulations as we considered that this solution would pass a greater benefit on to our clients. We also determined that opting for fully integrated PV tiles would provide the most aesthetically pleasing solution”.

A further key benefit of integrated PV systems is the way it is fixed to the roof. “It is critical that the installation of solar systems does not impact the integrity of the roof in fulfilling its main function of protecting building occupiers and their homes from the elements” said John Forster, Chairman of roofing and PV installation specialists Forster. “There has become a growing unease surrounding the fixings of many solar PV systems,

the impact this has on weather tightness and the life expectancy of the roof”.

However as from this month (March) the Feedin-Tariff (the UK Government’s financial incentive to stimulate demand in solar PV) is only available for solar mounting systems that meet the new rigorous demands of MCS 012. The additional performance criteria relate to the resistance to wind uplift, fire performance and weathertightness. “The mounting of the solar panels on or in the roof shall not decrease the weather performance of the declared roof types” as stated in MCS 012, Issue 1.1. The certification is welcomed as it means that solar systems are now tested to the same industry standards as the roofing products they are designed to work with.

Jan Muller, Director of Engineering at Solarcentury, comments: “We’ve always believed that consumers would be better protected if solar products met the same standard as roofing products. The introduction of this requirement is something that we feel is long overdue.”

“We need to shift our thinking from believing PV is just something that we bolt on top of roofs to something that is actually part of the fabric of the roof” added John Forster. “Integrated products delivered by installers providing a fully integrated (roofing and PV) service represents the future of PV for new home building” added Doug McLeod. With almost 25 years experience of providing roofing services to the Scottish volume housebuild market, and currently providing roofs for almost 1 in 5 of all new houses, Forster are perfectly positioned to help make this happen. Forster have provided this fully integrated service for Barratt and Stephen’s recent new developments and almost a third of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes Village for City Legacy developer Mactaggart and Mickel.

For more information on Forster’s integrated offering visit www.forsterenergy.co.uk/integratedPVservice, contact us via marketing@forstergroup.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @ForsterEnergy.

For more information on Solarcentury’s C21e visit www.solarcentury.com/uk/c21e/

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LES HOWSON

PANE L IT’S AN ENERGY SOURCE WE SEE PRECIOUS LITTLE OF BUT THE SUN STILL OFFERS LIMITLESS POTENTIAL FOR THOSE WILLING TO HARNESS ITS ENERGY LADEN RAYS. HERE ARCHITECT LES HOWSON EXPLORES SOME OF THE DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES PRESENTED BY RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THIS ILLUMINATING SECTOR.

TAL K The sun bathes us in more energy than we could ever need but now we can harness it on a scale which can make a significant difference to the carbon footprint of each and everyone of us. This is an exciting challenge for architects and a new journey many Scottish architects have already embarked upon.

In 2009, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems estimated that the total power needs of the human race by the year 2020 will be approximately 20 trillion terawatts. The energy potential from the landmass of the Earth is estimated at 120,000 trillion terawatts, making the sun the only unlimited source of energy for the Earth.

The sun is a utopian fuel, limitless, ubiquitous and clean. >

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This Scottish pyramid does the Pharaohs proud by dragging sun worship into the 21st Century

In addition, someday soon, the world’s coal, gas and oil will run out – just as we are on the threshold of achieving independence. In Scotland we face an estimated maximum of 25 years of fossils fuel remaining and deep land based gas extraction is still in its infancy. On the renewable side, land-based wind power has almost reached saturation point and wave power potential has yet to be further developed. So it looks like solar power will become the focus of attention in 2014.

Whilst solar farms are due to take over from wind farms as a major source of input to the national grid, most experts predict it is likely that solar power generation associated with buildings, in conjunction with improved cladding technology and other green measures, which will predominate in time as we seek a zero carbon footprint as standard in our buildings. Over recent years the leaders in solar energy production using photovoltaic (PV) panels have been Spain and the US as well as (surprisingly) parts of Northern Europe, where the climatic conditions are no better than in Scotland.

According to the Solar Trade Association the UK receives as much as 60% of the solar energy which is URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

received on the equator. This can be compared to the yearly output of 1,000 power stations. It is often argued that solar technologies can only be used within the summer months, this is untrue. In fact, the UK has a large number of clear spring, autumn and winter days, where the Sun’s radiation can be harnessed, meaning that solar technologies can contribute to energy consumption for the whole year.

House builders are increasingly using integrated Solar Thermal and PV products such as solar tiles and collectors as building materials in their own right. For new housing developments, both Solar Thermal and PV are considered to be practical and cost-effective low carbon renewable energy solutions. Solar Thermal systems are also increasingly being used in commercial and industrial situations as well as the traditional domestic market.

PV`s can be used cost-effectively for commercial cladding and office building facades where it displaces conventional prestige products. In domestic properties they have of course become increasingly popular since the pioneering houses of the 1960s. The real driver for more solar energy production at this particular time, at a commercial level, are the feed in tariffs and the possibility

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UV light emanating from the sun can be used to filter water, as here at Three Glens House

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of selling power to the national Whilst there will undoubtedly be a surge in the number grid, hence the surge in building and scale of solar farms we could, in 10 or 20 years time, solar farms by communities. At have reached saturation point. a domestic level, it is a mixture of the governments `green deal` policy and the general public`s desire for lower home those who choose this clean and simple form of energy energy bills, with the significant contribution solar can make mean that the search for zero carbon buildings is now often to self sufficiency, that drives take up. unattainable without the inclusion of solar energy capture.

Whilst there will undoubtedly be a surge in the number In short, the need for climate proof and resilient buildings and scale of solar farms in Scotland, as elsewhere in the UK, have all contributed to the recent rise in the number of solar we could in 10 to 20 years time have reached saturation installations on buildings. point as has been the case with wind farms.There may Solar PV applications are the easiest form of renewable simply not be sufficient environmentally acceptable sites energy to integrate into the fabric of a building. However, available close to the grid and to urban settlements whilst solar panel installations get all the attention there are although shared utilisation of wind farm land, already grid many other ways to benefit from the sun`s thermal energy. connected, for ground mounted solar panels could extend These boil down to three broad technology categories: that demand for solar sites. As available land runs out for Passive Solar Design where solar energy is absorbed large scale solar installations, it will be the buildings that directly into a building to reduce energy needed for space become the focus of attention for siting solar. This will heating. Conversion of the sun’s radiation into electricity provide more project opportunities for architects. through PV panels to help meet the demand for electricity The advancement of PV technology, falling costs of and integrating a collector and boiler system to heat water. solar panel installations and the incentives available for The future in solar applications lies partly in the >

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This Fife housing project by the Forster Group integrates solar PV directly, eliminating ugly bolt-ons

direction of greater use made possible by recent innovations in solar materials and the emergence of new ones. In the UK, Oxford PV has pioneered the development of perovskite thin-film solar cells, which can be printed directly onto glass to produce a transparent, coloured coating, providing architects and designers with a new aesthetic choice not to mention another performance PV solution.

Spheral Solar Power has produced a flexible building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) material made from silicon beads bonded to aluminium foil. This has opened up possibilities in building design for a variety of shapes, styles and colours of wall and roof. The spherical cells can be used to either reflect light from or transmit light into buildings.

Nano technology seems likely to be a growth area and the construction industry has much to gain from this emerging technology. Solutions in the offing range from materials with better insulating properties, to solar cells that power your house more economically.

Nanotechnology building materials currently on the market include lightweight high performing insulating material thinner than conventional insulation and nano photonic material that radiates heat back into space as URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

infrared radiation, cooling a building without having to use electricity to run air conditioning.

A new type of architecture has been emerging in recent years incorporating the whole range of solar energy capturing applications. Many of these have emanated from Scottish architects with buildings incorporating solar technology in quite significant ways. Amongst these are a fully integrated solar PV installation, Fife, by the Forster Group Ltd, Three Glens House by Mark Waghorn Architects and a proposal for an ECO village by Professor Susan Roaf, professor of the School of Built Environmental, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh.

Calling for more examples such as these Anne Marie Fuller, chairperson of the Scottish Solar Energy Group, said: “Solar is an under exploited resource in Scotland.

The thinking to date has been that there isn’t much point installing solar in Scotland because Scotland doesn’t have the same resource as say the likes of Spain, Northern Africa, Australia or the US etc. and that because Scotland has a high proportion of the wind and marine resource for Europe that we should concentrate on these technologies instead.

“However, people forget that the global resource for solar is massive compared to the wind and marine resource

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Howson ‘s conversion of this former water works requires custom PV panels to fit its conical roof

and so even though we have a smaller portion of this resource than other countries the resource we do receive is still very favourable. In fact solar should be thought of as complementary to wind and marine as they rely on contrasting weather conditions for generation.

“The question of whether independence will make a difference to the development of solar in Scotland is an interesting one and can be viewed a number of ways. To date official documentation from the Scottish Government hasn’t paid much notice to solar and it isn’t really mentioned in the Scottish Renewables Roadmap document. By contrast Westminster seems to have woken up to the potential of solar and Greg Barker has been particularly involved in promoting UK solar interests. That said, if the Scottish Government can be convinced of the potential for solar in Scotland then solar may stand a better chance of development under independence as there will be an increased chance of developing more suitable solar policies for Scotland.”

Looking to the future Grant Withers, director of business development at The Forster Group, a leading design and build contractors in the field of solar PV, sees the solar market continuing to expand: “Product innovation

will continue and accelerate in terms of performance and efficiency as manufacturers focus on out-performing competition on non-price factors. Stepped changes in carbon reduction targets will drive an increased level of PV on new homes and PV on commercial roof space will increase, as businesses seek to minimise grid power consumption and become energy providers rather than consumers. Aesthetics will also play a greater role as ‘ugly PV’ becomes less acceptable and the likes of integrated and thin film systems become more affordable as demand grows.”

Integrated solar energy applications now need to be an automatic part of architects thinking, in order to enhance the architectural and technical quality of their buildings. The use of Solar pv for electrical power and domestic hot water will still need to be complemented by solar thermal heating improved thermal insulation and more efficient energy consuming systems.

The design possibilities opening up as new materials are developed, are immense and this can only be further stimulating to Scottish architects. The future of design with improving solar related technologies is thus an exciting prospect.

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DERELICT GLASGOW JOE SHALDON

ROAD

TO

With a vast range of buildings, Glasgow, like other similar post-industrial cities from Manchester to Rotterdam exhibits regeneration alongside remnants of former glories. Hollowed out by de-population Glasgow is a city suffering ongoing major social deprivation. Formerly a City of Culture and latterly City of Architecture and Design, mention of the historic built environment is entirely omitted from the 100-point 2012 election pledges of its current administration.

This cityscape is one I have constantly observed and photographed since arriving in the city some 25 years ago to study architecture at the Mackintosh School. These in-use architectural photographs were published online and amongst them were the occasional out-of-use buildings. Re-training as a building surveyor drew my focus onto the vacant and derelict buildings exclusively. This led to my establishing the Derelict Glasgow website in 2010 and channelling increasingly more time into this ongoing study.

This was never an exercise in urban exploration. Rather it is a study in urban isolation - how and why the city possesses so many out-of-use buildings. These range from new-builds through post-war concrete to Victoriana and stretches back to farmhouses from over 150 years ago. Questions arose: what are the drivers, what is the legislation, simply put, what are the myriad of issues which create and allow this visible decline to progress relatively unchecked. Are solutions to be found in other cities? A series of interviews followed with building professionals from commercial, public, planning and heritage backgrounds which deepened my understanding, alongside regular site visits.

RU I N

FLUSH FROM THE SUCCESS OF THE RECENT DERELICT GLASGOW EXHIBITION AT THE LIGHTHOUSE JOE SHALDON SETS OUT HIS STALL FOR SALVAGING THE CITY’S ENDANGERED BUILDINGS. WITH TOWER BLOCKS BECOMING AN ENDANGERED SPECIES AND TENEMENT OWNERS STRUGGLING WITH MAINTENANCE THE ISSUE OF WHAT TO DO WITH OUR BUILT FABRIC IS AS PRESSING NOW AS IT’S EVER BEEN.

Glasgow is still renowned for its post-war clearances and failed re-invention as a futurist modern paradise, something which differentiates it from its eastern capital counterpart Edinburgh. Regeneration cycles continue. The failed wisdom of the 1960s has been supplanted by the current which seeks to redress previous sins. Planners are perhaps emboldened by the legacy of such past bold manoeuvres. Any errors can surely never be as maligned as the influence the infamous Bruce plan had upon their forebears. Yet, dealing with the old school estates, the ‘buildings at risk’, enforcing non-statutory legislation, and matching local policy to governmental guidance are priorities for a valiant few behind the castle walls.

The current erosion of the city’s architecture of note runs counter to the heritage phenomenon of the 1970s-1990s. Then, the blackened city, stripped of its industrial cloak, re-emerged in shades of golden yellow and pale pinkish red revealing an unrealised splendour. Glaswegians recognised that they lived in one of the finest architectural cities in Europe and this instilled a pride and change previously unimaginable. However, this heritage movement seems to have stalled, forced back into its tweed-lined box. Is it destined to become a mere footnote in architectural history? Brushed aside? Today it seems to have become the preserve of the enthusiast rather than the wider populace and policymakers.

Journeying across the city, vacant and derelict buildings are to be found from the very centre to far flung impoverished areas. Like many other cities, vacancy and dereliction has become a familiar part of the urban fabric. It is easy to ignore these architectural beggars on our streets. Pause. Look up, >

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Shaldon believes the neglect of so many buildings is the height of stupidity

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A green building in the literal sense, stalled development sites have mushroomed in recent years

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Metal bashing these days is chiefly undertaken by the demolition industry

and think. One may lament their predicament briefly, before averting one’s eyes and once more surrendering to the constant charge of life.

For myself, not averting my eyes has instead become the habit. Decaying buildings reveal themselves as they decline, creating a window into their construction techniques, and also their history, social and physical. This often reveals a single building is in fact a continuum of many life cycles. Repairs, refurbishments and extensions suggest its path is not yet spent.

My own reason for undertaking this study was a personal passion and a desire to record, document and understand.

Whilst photographing these buildings, it became clear many were listed and of architectural note. Once lynchpins of their neighbourhoods, many, through neglect, now do the opposite. Written off as unviable due to isolation, technological redundancy, de-population and rampant decay, they are sealed and left to rot. In isolation, this may be seen as a mere financial loss to the owner. However this is anything but the case. Allowing the unchecked rotting of these isolated assets creates blight, diminishes local property values (by up to 18% as indicated by some studies), undermines investment and depresses neighbourhoods. Locals feel disenfranchised and a democratic deficit can be seen to be taking place. The more

impoverished districts inevitably face these problems in greater isolation than their wealthier counterparts.

Many believe listing provides preservation. This is a commonly held misconception. Listing provides status, recognition and protection in terms of monitoring and controlling changes to a listed building. As a tool to prevent loss it is largely toothless as evidenced citywide. Buildings legally require no equivalent of an MOT, buildings insurance or maintenance cycle. Listing demands no such increased demands upon owners of buildings regarded as remarkable.

Storm or fire damage, bankruptcy leading to toxic assets, unsatisfactory resolution of dilapidations can also render a building untenentable. Thus the blight on the neighbourhood begins. This article just begins to touch upon the vast complexities of the issues surrounding this whole subject.

The Derelict Glasgow project has now taken an unexpected turn in the exposure it has gained. The engagement with social media has led to increasing influence from the community.

The website page views exceed 10,000 per month, social media followers number 3000+. This has created community engagement, funded a book publication, and led to an exhibition supported by A+DS at The Lighthouse. This support indicates the erosion of our built environment is of great >

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These sandstone tenements have been turned into gabion walls at the Athletes Village

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Left - The decayed splendour of Springburn Winter Gardens Above - Glasgow’s rich architectural legacy is both an asset and a liability

concern to a wider public. The web statistics show the followers are overwhelmingly populated by the young, not the tweed clad traditionalists that cynics may expect. These younger citizens do not have direct memories, but can see the value in a city which looks forward and celebrates its past.

The issues of VAT inequalities, zero-incentivisation, sutainability, embodied energy and blight are amongst major concerns. Current reports indicate over 80% of buildings standing today will still be with us 40 years hence. With a large old building stock, failure to act to reinvigorate the maintenance and care necessary bodes ill for future generations. Such action may allow many of the current buildings at risk to be swept up in this new wave, rather than being lost. Furthermore, it will prevent others joining them. For now, hope exists with the chronically under-resourced Preservation Trusts who gift a lucky few a new life cycle.

Recognising the value of retaining Glasgow as a city with a rich architectural tapestry is perhaps therefore deserving more attention than currently given. This is never to be thought of as at odds with new build and modernity, but rather in conjunction with. New life cycles provide the opportunity for radical fusions of new and old. Addressing the citywide decay in a more positive manner offers opportunites, sustainability, carbon

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neutrality, job creation and skillsets exportable to other cities.

For communities it links them with their histories, helping to assure their futures.

Finally to those who becry recession, it should be remembered saving the Merchant City, refurbishing the tenements, initiating façade retention and the wholesale sandstone cleaning began during times of extraordinary financial difficulty. At that time the UK was under the impositions of the IMF. Recession today demands radical reinvention, creativity and community led action. Much funding is in reality, for instance heritage lottery, relatively recession proof.

Engaging debate, local and national public sector co-operation and private sector involvement is vital. These buildings should be regarded as assets, presenting an opportunity, rather than a problem.

Derelict Glasgow is an award-winning non-profit, self-funded independent project with no ties to any public or private bodies. The project seeks to record and document Glasgow’s vacant and derelict buildings of all ages, and provide a forum for debate raising the profile of these ‘buildings at risk’. It is a solo project with all recording, photography, design and research undertaken by the founder: Joe Shaldon.

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CECIL BALMOND JOHN GLENDAY

S UL P TURE WOR KS STAR OF CALEDONIA DESIGNER CECIL BALMOND HAS FOUND HIMSELF AT THE HEART OF THE DEBATE AROUND THE NATURE OF SCOTTISH IDENTITY AS THE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM LOOMS. FOLLOWING PUBLICATION OF HIS NEW BOOK, CROSSOVER, URBAN REALM CAUGHT UP WITH THE SRI LANKAN/BRITISH DESIGNER TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS. ALL PHOTOGRAPHY TAKEN FROM CROSSOVER, PUBLISHED BY PRESTEL.

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IMAGE TAKEN FROM CROSSOVER BY CECIL BALMOND © ALEX FRADKIN

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CECIL BALMOND

IMAGE TAKEN FROM CROSSOVER BY CECIL BALMOND © ALEX FRADKIN

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Top - The roots of design aren’t always black and white Above - Balmond must himself wrestle with identity owing to his Sri Lankan and British identity Right - Balmond’s Danzer is modelled on mathematical fractals

Amidst the on-going debate about national identity and Scotland’s place in the world it is perhaps ironic that it should fall to British/Sri Lankan designer Cecil Balmond to symbolise the nation in a single set piece. The Star of Caledonia forms one of more than a dozen case studies featured in ‘Crossover’, a visual study of the creative process from the earliest hand drawn jottings through the ‘tipping point’ - ‘Crossover’ - to the finished product. It documents a wide range of work from The Orbit at London’s Olympic Park to the Central China Television Headquarters in Beijing through a sequence of Balmond’s thoughts, notes and ideas.

Within this collection the structural gymnastics showcased at Gretna is perhaps the richest in symbolism and, intentionally or not, the most political. Its conception has been a painstaking process guided by Balmond at every stage. Outlining the spark behind this process Balmond said: “At first I come up with some kind of dynamic idea and shape for a site. I’m quite abstract in the way I work, deliberately so. Over the years I’ve learnt not to jump and be figurative straight away.

“At Gretna I was one of three shortlisted in an open competition and had to present three ideas to the jury, one based on Highland dancing, a figurative representation of the Thistle and a more abstract idea which ended up winning.”

Balmond’s approach when fleshing out these broad-brush ideas is to question the design at every stage. “Is it heavy and dense, or perforated? What are the features I want from it?” >

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CECIL BALMOND

Balmond said. These questions lead to some sketching by hand before it’s rationalised on the computer to some extent, allowing the process of realisation and testing to begin.

In the case of Gretna the proposal was born of a questioning of what it means to be Scottish. Balmond added: “The piece has some sort of semblance of that identity but it’s also a metaphor for power, wind and energy. I tried to switch off my ideas of Scotland in a literal sense and think of the people I’d met there. I suddenly got the idea that the brains of Scotland had contributed something special to our modern world.”

Amongst the grey matter singled out by Balmond were John Logie Baird, inventor of the television, Alexander Fleming, the biologist who discovered penicillin, Alexander Graham Bell, who developed the first telephone andJames Clerk Maxwell, the physicist who first proposed the idea of electromagnetism.

“I thought I’d go for the abstract idea of brain power and the enlightenment so I first sketched a star with power and then I thought of Maxwell a little more and realised that electricity and magnetism, as he postulated them, were at right angles to each other in wave form. I then thought of the border as being perforated, it is not one hard line but rather a boundary that can be crossed in many ways. A local farmer takes a short journey across it while a businessman takes a much long journey. So the idea grew on me that the border is perforated, like a series of waves overlapping each other and if I can create an art object that has waveforms in it I can site them at right angles to create a kind of metaphor for Maxwell’s invention, making it a piece of discovery.”

When pressed as to whether he sees himself as an engineer or an architect Balmond is unequivocal. “I see myself as a designer, a designer of anything really from books, to architecture and structures. I haven’t done any structural engineering for 20 years - that was done by my company Arup. but I understand the principles of structure and I think that helps a lot in going beyond normal architecture training. It’s only in the last five or seven years that I’ve entered the art scene and become involved with public sculpture. It’s about organisational principles, structure is one of them, architecture is another and music a third. For me it’s more a general way of showing rhythm and dynamics in a piece of work whether that be a book as in Crossover or in principles of organisation and contemporary ideas of flux as opposed to the classical idea of the frame as a border. “ In that sense the Scottish project was ideal for Balmond, who relished the opportunity to grapple with something as intangible as a border with associated opportunities to make a significant statement on the landscape, something Britain as a whole has gotten rather good at in recent years as witnessed by the aforementioned Orbit and even Andy Scott’s recently unveiled Kelpies at Grangemouth. Acknowledging this backdrop Balmond noted: “it began with Antony Gormley and the Angel of the North. It’s not easy; there are a lot of bad examples in the world, but I think Britain’s done well. I was

IMAGE TAKEN FROM CROSSOVER BY CECIL BALMOND © ALEX FRADKIN

talking to Ian Rankin and he was very supportive of this project as being a progressive one for the real Scotland, rather than the picture postcard Scotland. I think Scotland is a very progressive country. “ Balmond believes that much more can be done to push the design agenda in this country, noting that much of his work is now international. In America for example many states have adopted the so-called 1 per cent rule; whereby a portion of the costs of major developments are diverted toward funding public art. These opportunities have helped persuade Balmond to be more active across the pond, including entering a competition to design a sculpture at Folsom Prison, immortalised in a live album by Johnny Cash. “We don’t have the same rules in Britain but it does help artists,” observes

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The first installation of H_edge in New York

Balmond.

By its very nature sculpture is the most public of the arts, freed from the confines of the art gallery and placed in prominent locations, sculpture is in your face and inevitably every one has an opinion about it. With The Orbit those opinions were heavily divided but Balmond doesn’t see his role as that of pleasing the maximum number of people. Nor does he try to shock and outrage like much modern art. “You shouldn’t try to please people, nor should you try to shock them,” Balmond says. “I think they’re both very simplistic positions. You should do what is right to activate that site. You should have an idea and know why you’re doing it but then you should do it true to its own integral values. Some will like it and some won’t but it provokes debate around the work. If you

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deliberately try to shock people or please people the work is of limited value, it dies out after you’ve shocked everyone. “ With such a broad based background Balmond is well placed to marry the best of the many disciplines at his command and he is not afraid to push the envelope to avoid being typecast like some of his contemporaries. This is evidenced by the rich body of work presented in Crossover, much of which will be familiar to knowledgeable readers but all of which come with a narrative which paints their delivery in a new light. It is a concept which demands a fresh approach and in Crossover Balmond delivers it.

Crossover by Cecil Balmond, published by Prestel, is available now priced £40.

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A DOUBLE HELPING OF ECOPHON SOLUTIONS HIGH SPECIFICATION FREE-HANGING UNITS AND CEILING SYSTEMS AT CRAIGMARLOCH SCHOOL ARE MUSIC TO THE EARS FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. Saint-Gobain Ecophon has built up a strong track record in meeting the needs of buildings in the education sector. Their expertise was called on when a shared campus was created for two of Inverclyde’s secondary schools, together with two local Additional Support Needs (ASN) schools, which have merged to form Craigmarloch School.

This £47 million project, which opened its doors in December 2013, provides a shared home for Port Glasgow High and St Stephen’s High. Each school has its own pupil entrances and general teaching areas, as well as distinctive three storey social spaces, which connect to a shared social and dining hub. The hub, or Agora, gives access to Craigmarloch School, which has its own specialist acoustic needs.

Shared facilities include an art, music, science, ICT and technology block. There’s also a shared sports block and shared drama and performing arts area linked to the assembly hall. And that’s to mention just some of the facilities.

Architects Archial Norr have a strong track record for creating spaces that enrich the experiences of teaching staff and their students. They have been specifying Ecophon products for 30 years.

Associate architect Brian O’Donnell says why: “I have specified Ecophon over the years, because they have always offered a large selection of innovative, robust and functional products, backed up by an excellent Technical Support team.”

Ecophon’s area sales manager for West Scotland, Bill Cunningham, explains how getting the acoustics right was critical: “In such as huge educational establishment as Port Glasgow Community Campus, sound absorption classification A was essential to improve room acoustics.

“In a teaching and learning environment where concentration – and sometimes a level of speech privacy – are required, an articulation class of at least 180 was also necessary.”

Ecophon products were chosen because of their proven durability and excellent whole life cost.

Brian O’Donnell comments on the end results: “The Community Campus has exceeded our expectations in every respect and the feedback from the client and local community has been fantastic. The ceilings throughout the Campus are varied and dramatic and they have contributed hugely in producing the best sound reverberation results that we have managed to achieve in a school project.”

Saint-Gobain Ecophon, Old Brick Kiln, Ramsdell, Tadley, Hampshire Area Sales Manager Scotland, West – Bill Cunningham Mobile: 07771 565390 Tel: 01256 850989 Email: bill.cunningham@ecophon.co.uk Web: www.ecophon.co.uk

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20/03/2014 15:13

UNION STREET

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JOHN GLENDAY

ABERDEEN’S UNION STREET MAY BE IN DIRE SHAPE BUT ONE MAN THINKS HE HAS THE SOLUTION TO REVERSE THE THOROUGHFARE’S SPIRALLING FORTUNES. STEPPING INTO THE VOID CREATED

BY THE CITY’S FAILED PLANNING SYSTEM JOHN HALLIDAY TAKES MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS WITH A LOFTY VISION FOR A GLAZED ‘UMBRELLA,’ BUT DOES IT DELIVER? WE GIVE OUR VERDICT.

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Halliday hopes to raise the roof with his latest proposal

Aberdeen’s Union Street may celebrate the union between Britain and Ireland but there has been precious little unity in the city over more recent years, particularly in regard to what form its public spaces should take. Undeterred John Halliday of Halliday Fraser Munro has stepped into the acrimonious breach left by Sir Ian Wood’s abandoned Union Terrace Gardens scheme to table a Grands Projets of his own.

Halliday’s ambition is to revitalise the Granite City by constructing an ‘umbrella over Union Street’, a giant dynamically illuminated canopy composed of a translucent covering that would bring the outdoors indoors along much of the thoroughfares length. Situated between Market Street and Bridge Street this pedestrian way would connect the city’s main railway station with four existing malls - Bon Accord, St Nicholas, Trinity and Union Square – becoming a fifth shopping centre for the city in its own right.

It would entail relocating the station entrance to a new civic square overlooking Union Terrace Gardens and diverting traffic through unspecified alternative routes, thus creating a more pedestrian friendly environment. Although the purely personal proposition remains uncosted Halliday insists it is no mere ‘pipe dream’ but is rather ‘practical and possible’ to achieve.

Speaking to Urban Realm Halliday said: “I’m not an

Aberdonian, I’m from Loanhead originally, I just studied up here and stayed ever since. That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this, I got a free education and I’m genuinely just trying to give something back to people.” His time in the city has given Halliday plenty of opportunity to muse on its current failings, having first identified the need to move the station entrance more than 15 years ago.

Hammering home the need for action Halliday observed: “My wife was shopping today, she phoned me up from Union Street when the sales assistant said ‘oh Mrs Halliday, it’s awful wet out there. The sooner they put that bloomin’ canopy up the better.’ Of course she didn’t say who she was but it’s a no-brainer.” To illustrate his point Halliday likens his vision to that of another dreamer, more than half a century ago. “I remember President Kennedy when he stood up in 1961 and said ‘we’re going to land a man on the Moon before the end of this decade’. Kennedy didn’t know how much it was going to cost, he didn’t know how to build the rocket but what he did know was we have to do it because the Russians are ahead in the space race. So he said it and then walked out the room and left it up to everybody. And what did they do? They did it on the 21st July 1969. Just look at all the good things (such as nonstick pans) that have come from that.”

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Aberdeen has had an unhappy recent history as far as public spaces go

Shorn of the backing of a global superpower Halliday may find his umbrella pretensions limited to the fold-up variety, particularly given the inevitable torrent of scepticism with which such grand visions are invariably met. To counter this the architect points to the success of existing indoor shopping precincts, observing: “They’ve been very, very successful and people have voted with their feet and shop there and why wouldn’t you on a day like today up here when you’ve got heavy rainfall.” What’s more by increasing footfall along the spine of Union Street Halliday confidently predicts spill over benefits to Belmont Street and Castlegate, down at heal locales which have been hit particularly hard by the march of the covered mall.

“I’m trying to create a fifth indoor shopping centre, I stress indoor, called Union Street,” proclaims Halliday. “What you’ve got to do is have a vision, say what kind of city do we want to live in? What kind of Union Street do you want? What kind of inner city?”

Asked what the scheme would mean for already traffic choked streets Halliday answered: “You’ve got to handle traffic but it’ll find its way using creative transport engineers and a formal route will be devised. I don’t believe in bringing in road engineer’s right at the beginning, because it stumps all the flair

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and imagination. We should say this is what we the people have decided. This is the atmosphere we’d like; now you make it happen. We accept that there will be a downside elsewhere in reorganising things but the upside is far greater. Don’t let perfection get in the road of excellence.”

No commentary on Aberdeen would be complete without reference to the generally abject standard of development there, despite (or perhaps because of) its enormous oil wealth.

Professing incomprehension as to why the city is struggling to pull its weight in design terms, despite being awash in petropounds Halliday said he was ‘totally, totally’ flummoxed as to why this should be so in his adopted city: “It’s a big puzzle, it’s not through a lack of individual abilities and flair. Is it the patronage, the mechanism? Look at the wonderful Victorian buildings put up by the big ship builders and tea planters in Glasgow. Magnificent buildings but they were patrons of the arts. Sir Ian has tried to become a patron and look what happened to him, it doesn’t help philanthropy does it?”

Does Halliday fear his scheme will vanish down the swanny just as Wood’s has done? “Of course I thought twice about it, it doesn’t do my business any good putting my head above the parapet, I’m just trying to encourage other people to do the same. It does actually take courage but I believed it was my >

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Halliday’s proposals would give Union Street a lift

duty to do it. I’m an architect, I’ve been given a free education I’ve been very successful in Scotland, I just wanted to put something back. I’m a great believer in citizenship and real democracy. Real democracy isn’t putting a paper in the ballot box, it’s about taking action. Everybody’s got an idea to offer.

“Everybody has self-interest, I love entrepreneurship, I lecture in it, but you’ve got to get past greed and stop thinking only of yourself. Instead of just talking about community I think you’ve got to take action. It’s my duty to explain what connectivity means and try to explain to people through the media how you can link places together to create a more pleasant pedestrian environment.”

Mindful that the contorted linguistics architects are prone to indulge in can be off putting to the wider public Halliday has enlisted his housemaid to give him some lessons in plain English, reasoning that if he can communicate his ideas intelligibly there then his call to action in the pages of the Press & Journal and before the cameras of STV will be better received and understood: “First thing tomorrow morning I’m going to spend half an hour talking to my house cleaner” observed Halliday. “She’s a lovely lassie, a good girl. She’s nae dumb, but she wouldn’t understand what connectivity means.

She wouldn’t understand what the council would do and how the mechanisms would happen.”

Coming in the wake of Aberdeen’s embarrassingly poor bid to host UK City of Culture 2017, which saw it beaten by the likes of Dundee, Leicester, Hull and Swansea amid concerns that the city’s cultural programme ‘lacks depth’, the city is more in need of a pick-me-up than ever before (see our report on page 74).

But recent history suggests this latest scheme has little hope of ever being realised. Ever optimistic Halliday countered: “I think the council will certainly embrace the major parts of it, to me it’s a no-brainer. The feedback is coming back to the residents of Aberdeen and the council, it’s for the councillors and our council to pick this up and project manage it. They’re our representatives. This is just an idea, it’s workable, it’s doable, it’s a present of an idea and it’s for the council to take ownership of it.”

Commendable as Halliday’s enthusiasm is it takes more than the vision of one man, however passionate, to turn things around; particular in a city where changing course is as slow and ponderous as turning around one of the many oil tankers from which it earns its wealth. Shoppers may need little persuasion of the benefits of a covered street whilst retailers and restaurant owners will no doubt welcome increased footfall. What is in doubt is whether, with a near bankrupt council, these people will be prepared to dip into their pockets to make this vision a reality.

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Union Street hasn’t shared in the wider economic uplift which Aberdeen has enjoyed

The Last Word There is something odd about Aberdeen - Scotland’s Oil Capital and also, allegedly, Scotland’s Capital of Philistinism. As Owen Hatherley put it back in October 2011, “in the thirtyfive years since Aberdeen has been The Oil Capital of Europe, the city has not seen a single worthwhile building in the city centre. Not one. Over a quarter-century of parsimony and mediocrity has been wealth’s bequest to the city.” It isn’t just the buildings though - it’s the entire public realm.

Why is Aberdeen such fertile ground for the sort of Fountainhead behaviour of Trump, Sir Ian Wood and their architects? Only a distinctly feudal mind-set would believe that this way of working was remotely acceptable in the 21st Century. Has the public sector really left such a gaping hole in the civic life of the city, in its aspirations and ambitions for the future that the private sector feels compelled to produce a series of ill-considered vanity toy-town projects to fill the void? It asks more questions than it answers. Is this a utopian proposal? Is it a provocation? Is it a cynical promo for the designer and his firm or is it a public spirited gesture –

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like Union Terrace Gardens?

The proposal itself is straight out of My Big Bumper Fun Book of UK Urban Design. The big idea, covering over the shopping street, is the sort of thing that is suggested for town centres at public meetings all over Scotland these days. These are never serious propositions and neither is this idea for Union Street - it’s essentially a distraction. It doesn’t tackle issues of market failure, the privatisation of public space, the traffic-dominated environment of the city centre and the rest. The concept is predicated on the belief that privatised indoor space is good and that public space is inherently risky and unpleasant.

References to safety, anti-social behaviour and inclement weather all reinforce the view that the public domain is hostile and hazardous. To counter the nameless terrors of the outdoors – sky, roofs and towers, landscape, sunshine – we are invited to enter an anodyne, infantilised world “bright”, “modern”, “supervised” and, inevitably, “vibrant” – where “mood lighting” is better than nature. It is an infinitely depressing vision.

The malaise of Union Street is

largely a self-inflicted wound. Handwringing over the inevitable and predictable effects of decisions that have been made, and then repeated over decades is a defining feature of the current debate about the future of the high street. Aberdeen City Council is currently engaged in the process of commissioning an ambitious city centre masterplan. The City Council may be thinking big but this is rarely as worthwhile as thinking hard. Masterplans rarely deliver.

There are many more constructive alternatives. The City needs to enter the 21st Century. It needs to treat iconic gestures with a dose of scepticism, to care for the incredible assets it has instead of covering them over or burying them and to have the confidence to generate its own ideas rather than being derailed by the daft notions of others.

Willie Miller WMUD

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#DesignPopUp Visit Milliken at the Glasgow Design Pop Up and see Nordic Stories, a collection of modular carpet designs inspired by the landscape, folklore and design culture of the Nordics.

Open: 4th – 28th March Monday – Friday 11am – 5pm

49 Cochrane Street, Glasgow G1 1HP www.designpopup.com

Contact: Joyce Main 07836 580134 joyce.main@milliken.com

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DESIGN POP-UP

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JOHN GLENDAY

A MONTH LONG DESIGN POP-UP HELD AT GLASGOW’S ITALIAN CENTRE HAS SEEN SEVEN SUPPLIERS SHOWCASE THEIR HOTTEST PRODUCTS TO AN EXPECTANT ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN COMMUNITY. URBAN REALM DROPPED IN ON THE LAUNCH TO SEE WHAT THE ALADDINS CAVE WITHIN HAD TO OFFER. IMAGES BY MACK PHOTOGRAPHY.

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21/03/2014 12:53

15TH ANNIVERSARY

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Previous Page - The future looks bright for Artemides LED lights Above - Milliken invite visitors to walk this way

In a sign of new-found confidence in the construction sector a group of eight design industry firms have grouped together to stage a collaborative month long Design Pop Up in Glasgow’s Italian Centre to showcase their latest wares to a resurgent architecture and design community. In an effort to get a handle on the latest interior design trends Urban Realm chatted to the main exhibitors at the launch to see just what is on offer.

Leaving the likes of London and Paris behind for the Commonwealth Games host city Allgood, Artemide, Bute Fabrics, Domus Tiles, Mapei, Milliken, Shadbolt and Steelcase Solutions have all taken up residence in Page\Park’s former studio until 28 March. During this time a range of eye catching products will be on display; from a ginormous 3 x 1.2m ‘Magnum tile’ from Domus that’s just 6mm thick, to the latest low-energy LED lighting technology from Artemide This eclectic range is bolstered by a selection of sustainably sourced Shadbolt Doors, hi-tech office furniture from Steelcase and a selection of products from Milliken that will leave you floored. Representing the latter Alison Kitchingman, director of marketing & design at the flooring specialists, said: “Our latest collection ‘Nordic Stories’ draws inspiration from the landscape, folklore and culture of the Nordic countries. Channelling the contemporary Nordic design scene, the collection’s colour

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palette draws on exciting developments in Scandinavian architecture, art and design.“ Milliken is out in force at the Design Pop-Up because they believe that enabling designers and architects to set foot on their products directly, to experience their texture and quality, is essential: “So many of the big design events are Londoncentric and we’re happy to have this opportunity to share our latest collection with the A&D community here in Glasgow,” Kitchingham explained.

With the shackles of recession slowly being slipped Kitchingham is newly optimistic about the market going forwards, saying: “We have an impressive pipeline of new product introductions for 2014 and 2015 and we are forecasting strong growth in for our European business. We have certainly noticed an increasingly positive market for our products in the UK. The Design Pop-up exhibition here in Glasgow enables us to focus much more on the Scottish market, where we see even greater potential for Milliken moving forwards.”

A fellow exhibitor in the temporary showroom is Chris McGlennon, founder of Stratis, who has juggled representation of not one but two manufacturers; Domus Tiles and Shadbolt Doors, in Scotland for 15 years. In that time there have been few major projects to have slipped his attention; from the >

21/03/2014 12:54

PLANNING A MOVE, A REFURBISHMENT OR A COMPLETELY NEW INTERIOR DESIGN FOR YOUR WORKPLACE? Whatever’s going on in your business, we’re here to offer advice, develop and put in place a scheme that will transform the way your space works for you.

We know that a business is more than just its premises. But your workspace is your most important tool for focusing, collaborating, socialising, learning and living your brand -after all, it’s the place where your people make great things happen.

Steelcase Solutions, the experts in workplace interiors.

Workplace consultancy and interior design Refurbishment Furniture specification and procurement Technology solutions Project management Facilities and Day2 services Sustainable solutions

Steelcase Solutions, 119-121 West Regent Street, Glasgow, G2 2SD Tel: +44 (0)141 225 5170 Email: info@steelcase-solutions.co.uk Web: www.steelcase-solutions.co.uk

Proud to be part of the DESIGN POPS UP Glasgow gallery exhibition

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Above - In addition to product showcases a range of CPD course are offered Top Right - Some stands invite you to take a seat Botton Right - Shadbolt are keen for visitors to step through their door

Commonwealth Pool at Tollcross, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and EICC Atria building to the Riverside Museum and Glasgow Subway. If you open a door here or pass a tiled wall there, chances are McGlennon has had a hand in specifying it.

Outlining how he came to be involved with the manufacturers McGlennon told Urban Realm: “Neither of these two companies had representation in the country before I got on board. I spend 90 per cent of my time with, or going to see, architects to specify doors and tiles.” This job necessitates understanding a dizzying array of qualities in tiles alone; from slip resistance, durability and cleanliness to aesthetic considerations such as the tactile feel of the tiles.

Donning his Shadbolt hat McGlennon proceeded to outline some of the sustainability strides made by the Essex-based family firm, which has been in business for over 100 years. In that time it has weathered the waxing and waning of demand for tropical hardwoods as awareness of deforestation has risen. “In the sixties people were specifying Ebony, Lacewood, Aframosia and all the other tropical hardwoods that were subsequently blacklisted,” recounted McGlennon. “What they’ve done now is state that for every one tree you take down they will plant 50 trees. Everything approved by the Forestry Stewardship Council can be traced back through a chain of

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custody to where the tree was cut down.”

This has freed up McGlennon to match client requirements more precisely; be that a light or dark wood, texture or high fire rating.

For Scott Murray of Artemide, a mere 50 year old lighting firm, the future looks bright, particularly with the advent of LED technology. “Wherever you go people are aware of LED. Even IKEA, after 2015, will not be selling any bulb other than an LED lamp,” he observed. Amongst some of the current batch of projects Murray is most proud of is Charlotte Square, where some out-sized lighting pendants were installed in a converted Robert Adam tenement, and the Technology and Innovation Centre, Glasgow.

Murray concluded: “We don’t often get the chance to display in Glasgow, it’s normally a London, so we’re very excited. Glasgow responds to design and there are a lot of good architects here.” These thoughts found echo with Andrea Barbieri, UK managing director of Artemide, who added: “At Artemide we are strongly committed to a holistic approach based on the principles of sustainability and energy efficiency, in order to improve our users’ quality of life and their relationship with the environment.

“Most importantly we focus on the extreme innovation

>

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Architects are being encouraged to get up close and personal with a new wave of products

and quality of our products, made in the European Union and featuring the most technologically advanced LEDs and energysaving light sources.”

Commenting on the rationale behind Artimede’s attendance at the Design Pop-Up Barbieri said: “We believe the innovative features of our products are better perceived when seen and tested. At Artemide we have seen a positive trend in the last few years and we are fairly optimistic about the growth of our market shares. We definitely see a growing design culture in the UK. “ Last but not least Faye Ellis, marketing manager at Steelcase Solutions, explained how optimism has risen in tandem with a mini office boom: “In Scotland in particular, there has been a notable increase in sales, especially in cities such as Glasgow and Aberdeen, and this is largely the result of new office developments in these areas,” explained Ellis. “Our most popular products have been ones which facilitate collaboration and communication between employees, which demonstrates the innovative nature of these new establishments.”

Steelcase’s presence at the fair sees it showcases its products in the most natural and interactive way possible with its showroom designed to be a welcoming space for architects and designers in need of inspiring places to work. Ellis added:

“Before we invest in a new product we ensure that it fulfills an identified need and will facilitate and echo the gestures of the modern world of work. By observing people at work and identifying their mannerisms and needs we are able to offer a product which will not only create a beautiful and cutting edge office design, but will facilitate workers in an innovative way.

“In a world where technology is changing the way in which people work, Steelcase Solutions is well positioned to provide businesses with solutions which will enable them to remain efficient. The research we do identifies needs hitherto unthought-of and allows us to offer products which are ergonomically and aesthetically sound and allows managers the best use of the work space while maintaining the wellbeing of their workers.”

There really is no substitute to hands on demonstration to communicate a product as intuitively as possible, even more so in today’s digital-centric world. It is heartening therefore that this handful of designers should take the initiative and tap into the growing potential that exists beyond the M25 belt. This is one public gallery that actively encourages you to touch.

Double S Events is the creator and organiser of Design Pop-Up: http://www.designpopup.com

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FLOOD RESILIENT PROPERTY IN WATERLOGGED BRITAIN IT NEVER RAINS BUT IT POURS, POSING A WATERY DILEMMA FOR A GROWING NUMBER OF PEOPLE RESIDING ON OUR FLOOD PLAINS. HERE BRE GIVE THE PROBLEM SOME WELLY. The winter of 2013 – 14 has shown the vulnerability of substantial areas of the UK to flooding, with substantial impact and insurance losses being experienced.

Although the most dramatic issues were experience in the South of England, in fact flooding affected many parts of the UK, including areas of Scotland. The management of flooding and especially impacts on buildings has been addressed through the developing Flood Resilience Technology sector. Although this is a slow process with millions of properties known to be at risk.

However, there are still thousands of properties being built in flood risk areas each year. As a result Defra has funded the design of demonstration projects for the flood resilience of new buildings. BRE in association with architects Baca and flood technology company Aquobex are designing such a property.

The Flood Resilient Property (FRP) project represents a major step forward in the area of flood resilience in this country. The project will develop a detailed climate resilient design for low-rise properties that is designed to cope with the type of flooding that accounts for over 95% of flood events.

The overall aim of the project is to produce a property design for the construction of low rise housing, commercial property and industrial units in flood risk areas. The design is intended to show through a demonstration building at the BRE Innovation Park that new buildings can withstand the worst effects of flooding. The demonstration design will be open source, allowing designers, developers, contractors and clients to readily adopt flood resilience within their work within flood risk areas.

The project has the following objectives: • To develop a fully costed (capital and whole life) FRP design.

• To create a full specification for the FRP. • To produce a set of design drawings that will form a template for future development.

• To devise a forward plan for development of the FRP at the BRE Innovation Park at Watford.

• To undertake stakeholder engagement workshops to build a team for the phase 2 development.

The detailed (and costed) design will go forward to construction on the BRE Innovation Park (BRE IP). The IP offers a route to market as it will demonstrate and showcase a cutting edge design formed from innovative technologies, including resistance and resilience measures. The focus will be on technologies which are automatic and/or passive. In line with the other sustainable properties on the IP, it is aimed to produce a design for the FRP which meets high sustainability standards.

The current rate of development in flood risk areas (outside of the highest risk areas) is around 10,000 properties per annum. The potential for the FRP is to create a market of 1,000 properties per annum within a period of 5 to 10 years. It is recognised that in an era of ‘deregulation’ that the market development will be based upon demand from clients, tenants and insurers as opposed to building regulation. Although, the FRP will allow a means for developers to comply with any planning conditions placed on a new development.

The resilience measures to be used will address the lower ground walls and the ground floor. It will also address apertures including doors and services.

It will use leading edge technologies, materials and approaches to develop whole building resilience solutions.

Dr Stephen Garvin Construction Director

Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 0RZ Tel: 01355 576200 Fax: 01355 576210 Email: eastkilbride@bre.co.uk

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PHOTOGRAPHY

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SNAP CHAT ALWAYS THERE BUT NEVER SEEN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE THE GHOSTS OF THE PROFESSION, UNNOTICED AND UNDERVALUED. TO REDRESS THE BALANCE URBAN REALM INVITED FOUR LEADING PROPONENTS OF THE CRAFT TO STEP OUT FROM BEHIND THE LENS TO GIVE THEIR PERSPECTIVE ON WHAT MAKES THE PERFECT IMAGE.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

They are the unsung professionals who have the final say on any design, spending hours on site after the design team have headed home and yet architectural photographers aren’t always accorded the respect that their work demands. Bearing this in mind Urban Realm invited some leading lights in the field to step out from behind the lens to offer their perspectives on the importance of photography in shaping perception and communicating design. With their work often viewed more frequently than the subject itself and cameras ever more entwined in our daily lives, the temptation to simply point and shoot during a break in the clouds is all too real… and is one of the biggest mistakes a practice can make.

Andrew Lee is a photographer more painfully aware of these misconceptions than most, telling urban Realm: “I’m surprised that someone will spend three or four years on a project and take away nothing from it. Only the client and a few end users will know about it and in the case of private housing it might just be one person. It would be like a film director showing their new release to a friend in the living room, why would you not want to reach a wider audience with your achievements as a stepping stone to your next project?”

Comprehensive coverage in a journal might feature (at most) 12 photographs, on a website maybe six or eight and in a magazine article just one or two and it is through this vanishingly small window that practices must showcase their wares to the wider world. Lee observed: “In a magazine or journal people might read the text but they’ll certainly look at the picture. Architecture doesn’t translate into words, especially the words that most architects use which tend to be aimed at other architects. There is something less mediated about the graphic image, it allows the viewer to make up their own mind.”

Adding his voice to the mix photographer Tom Manley added: “Having worked in practice for a decade, changing career to pursue a passion in photography has been an interesting process. The challenge is to bring together elements of space, light and time – to break a building down to its primary qualities. A practices work, and reputation is experienced through these images as much as by the people who live and work in its buildings. Digital media and blogs bring this work to a wider audience, and hence the importance of images that offer fresh and striking perspectives has never been greater.”

Fellow photographer Neale Smith, who liaises regularly with Lee and Manley, advocates collaboration with the architect at the earliest stage to achieve the best results, ideally including a site meeting to pick up on any details which need to be highlighted, allowing him to concentrate on the technical aspects. “At this point it’s good to feed my own experience and technical knowledge to them and make suggestions based on what they want and what I know is technically possible,” advises Smith. “Technicalities aside, the dressing of an interior is also extremely important, more often than not you spend as much time moving furniture and other objects around as you > URBAN REALM SPRING 2014 URBANREALM.COM

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Andrew Lee’s favoured style is the single point perspectiive, as seen here at The Bridge

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PHOTOGRAPHY

Tom Manley

Andrew Lee

Keith Hunter

Neale Smith

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Left - Wexford County Council Headquarters by Robin Lee Architecture Right - Lee describes the single-point perspective as the most analytical and objective

do composing and lighting the scene.”

Vehicles may be the bane of urbanists but they are a particular irritant to architectural photographers who must somehow find a way to prevent the omnipresent metal lumps from ruining their shots. “I have found myself offering to pay irate motorists to move obstructing vehicles’ remarked Manley, who must also contend with street furniture, bin stores and neglected landscaping. But where do you draw the line between an honest reflection of reality and a dishonest enhancement? “I’ll use digital manipulation to overcome limitations of the camera such as exposure, especially when you’ve got contrast between the indoors and outdoors. I’ll also use it to remove things that shouldn’t be there; so if I’m told something will be snagged then I feel justified in airbrushing that out. Similarly if something is scuffed through wear and tear, I’ll airbrush that out too - but I’m careful to avoid anything which affects the design and execution.”

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Does this mean that the camera lies? Lee answered: “The camera always lies! A camera taking a very raw photograph, a very naive photograph, is lying. It’s making the building look worse than it is. I’m ‘lying’ if you want to put it that way, by making it look better than if you just turned up - but there’s a greater truth in my photograph in that I’m describing the intent and the execution. By retouching a fire extinguisher or some signage I’m removing distractions to allow the viewer to appreciate the design. I’ll never make a building look worse than it is, I’ll always make it look better. At the end of the day we’re interested in seeing things at their best, it would be like photographing a car on a smartphone for an advert. It is all about selling, it’s selling ideas. No-one is selling the building apart from a developer but architects are selling their vision, their principles and their ideas about what makes a good building. “ Picking up on this theme when asked whether CGI’s are >

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This lookout tower at Lindisfarne by Icosis gives as much reason to look in as out

now approaching photo-realism Keith Hunter replied: “The camera views the world impartially, it is the photographer who dictates how the image created should be perceived, which can, if desired, give a distorted view of the subject. It could nearly be switched around to say are photographs starting to look like CGI creations? The visual industry – photography, film and TV - are all pushing technology that shows everything brighter, sharper, more colourful than we see in real life so the boundaries are becoming more blurred. There are definitely instances where you have to look hard to distinguish whether it is a ‘real’ photograph or CGI render.”

Commenting on how viewing a building through photography (as opposed to being there) affects perceptions Hunter continued: “Depending on how the photographer has captured the building you can either have a very distorted or accurate representation of a building. One of the common problems which can occur when comparing a photograph to an actual visit to a building is the impression of size. The nature of photographing a building tends to need the use of a wide angle lens to record it as a whole which will inevitably exaggerate the perspective, making it look much bigger and sometimes more impressive than if you were viewing it with your own eyes. On the other hand you can use the choice of lens and composition to concentrate on a certain design aspect of a building which

may not be easily noticed if present.”

But isn’t there an argument that a more realistic portrayal should represent the typical conditions in which a building will find itself, in other words dull and drizzly: “We’re talking about selling. There are problems with rain, it will stain the building. It will create reflections where there aren’t normally any and you’ve got no sense of depth because of the flat light.

It’s also technically hard to do, I can’t set my camera up in rain.

The weather becomes the issue which is why I don’t want to photograph in the snow or with a Christmas tree or an Easter Egg in shot. When you a see a photograph in rain it becomes more particular, it becomes more about the moment. In ideal conditions you can create a timeless image - an illusion that this is the way the building always looks.

“There are reasons for using sunny conditions, you get direct sunlight which delineates place so you see 3 dimensions, when you’ve got direct light you see those planes. I don’t think it’s bad to show something at its best; it would be like going to have your portrait taken and deliberately going first thing in the morning without having washed or shaved. As an individual you have a thousand different looks but it would be perverse to show your worst view.”

This is an approach which Smith finds favour with, saying: “My view is that photography is an intrinsic part of architecture, >

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Twilight shots see Tom camping out, waiting for a precise moment and layering images together

» I don’t think it’s bad to show something at its

best, it would be like going to have your portrait taken without having washed or shaved. «

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» It’s worth considering how a building will appear in

photographs and not spread your budget too thinly. Your project will be defined by three or four photographs.«

it’s the longest valued way of recording a building two dimensionally, with the exception of more recent trends moving towards video and 3D renderings - the latter of which is rare for a photographer to offer.“ Smith adds: “I quite often use lighting to enhance, separate and highlight furniture in a room, to give the two dimensional space a three dimensional feel. One frame can quite often consist of 50 shots or more, it takes skill and time to put them together in a way that looks credible. The idea of blasting out 50 awful images in less than a day is just not on the radar. I think it is important to keep it as subtle as possible though, over enhance it and people might end up being disappointed when they visit the building. It’s a balancing act between producing great images to keep your clients coming back and not overcooking it to the point the space becomes unrecognisable in real life.”

There are very few architects, even with their own buildings, who will spend a full day interacting with the building and seeing how it changes throughout the day whilst getting objective feedback in the way that I do. If your goal is to use this project for your portfolio or to lead to your next project then it’s worth considering how the building will appear in photographs.

One example would be not to spread your budget too thinly over a building as at the end of the day your project is going to be defined by three or four photographs. Why build 15 slightly different features when you could have three or four elements with real visual impact?”

“Medium-sized practices in Scotland spend less on photography than they do on toner”, laments Lee, noting that any fool with a phone can produce something called a ‘photograph’ but fewer of us would have the confidence to

create a building. Contrasting the photography profession with architecture Lee observes that there is healthy competition in the sector, which has so far avoided the sort of back-stabbing and behind the scenes bitching which is sometimes seen in the architecture community.

Having straddled both worlds Manley added: “Architecture photography is by its nature a slow, considered process and design teams can be unaware of the time and the procedures involved in getting the required results, which include making sure a building is ready for photographing. Photos tell a story and this can be overlooked in imagery fuelled by design competitions, that often judge buildings on aesthetics alone. I think there’s a case to capture the wider context of a building, and the user’s interactions with surrounding environment.

“Architecture and photography should influence each other.

By taking time to look closely at a building project, a process of familiarisation will occur. Comments by local residents or passers-by often aid my understanding of a building, and suggest how to photograph it well. Attention to detail in postproduction is where the majority of a photographers work is done, often with more time spent editing than on site shooting!

Generally you want to limit retouching so as to best recreate how you perceived the place and moment when the shutter was released.”

In contrast to a photograph, photography itself doesn’t stand still, requiring a constantly evolving approach to ensure that the wider world - beyond the immediate client team, is kept in the picture. So the next time you spend a few moments looking at a photograph, think of the many hours of investment it represents.

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Description Commercial Strip Advert – Services

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Failure to employ a professional photographer can be a grave error

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FASHION CHRIS STEWART

CHRIS STEWART OF COLLECTIVE ARCHITECTURE EXAMINES THE OVERLAPPING TRENDS FOUND IN ARCHITECTURE AND FASHION, TRACKING THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN TANDEM FROM THE 1960S AND 70S THROUGHT TO THE PRESENT DAY TO ANSWER ONE OF LIFES GREAT CONUNDRUMS...

FLARED OR STRAIGHT TROUSERS?

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The Parish Art Museum ‘s simple vernacular has been well received

“There is hope in honest error; none in the icy perfections of the mere stylist” Charles Rennie Mackintosh The conversion from flares to straight legs was an inevitable rite of passage of any teenager living in the late seventies.

A young architect of the eighties would later be put under a similar trial and forced to drop the ever widening overhang for the slim pickings of a facade which merges with the roof. This classical revival better known as Postmodernism came to as abrupt an end as the flare, leaving me fascinated by how the width of a trouser leg or length of a jutting roof could expand to enormous proportions then overnight shrink back to the absolute minimum.

Today skinny jeans rule the High Street while a modernist revival dominates the architectural world. During the worst recession in living memory it is monolithic form making which concentrates our minds; while the conservative classical breakdown into multiple parts - tops, bottoms and shoulder pads - are the language of the boom. Whether market trend garnishes a free thinking bull or a conservative bear there is a link between architecture and the extremes of fashion. The time span of the different media mixes up exactly how they align, for example the heady mix of Glam Rock and Brutalism is never easy to explain. Stanley Kubrick’s film version of Anthony Burgess’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ where dapper droogs cavort amongst the severe brutalist backdrop of Thamesmead South Housing Estate, part explains how these unlikely ingredients manage to blend. The Brutalist environment, out of fashion

for the last 30 years, recently found new street cred from the Skateboarder and Parkour Scene, to be swiftly adopted by many a young architectural student.

Burgess’ droogs don white tights with matching codpieces, reminiscent of the Elizabethans which is as far back as I would care to take this metaphor. Who knows whether stylistically Shakespeare would look better in Levis 501s or Oxford Bags but the 1600s were a Golden era, part of the greatest classical revival of all time, the Renaissance. Next on the scene was graceful Georgian elegance, an era easy to categorise; beautifully refined, proportioned, and pared back - the original straight-leg. Dressed up in muted green, the distressed blue world of Jane Austen could easily have ridden a Vespa scooter, while proud Mr Darcy’s sharp pronged coat designed for the horse, might make a splendid misty lensed drainpipe stride into a Christopher Wren folly. No doubt to do battle with a Bennet beauty easily mistaken for Twiggy.

If the Georgians were the first straight-leg hipsters then the prosperous Victorians were the first hippies. Some may find it hard to imagine Victoria and Albert turning on, tuning in and dropping out however I speak of the exaggerated enormous flares of the Osmonds or the Carpenters.

Once a cutting edge has been blunted, the establishment accepts and adopts, and in this case the oversized flare became the exaggerated symbol of hip conservatism. Could the same be said of Violet le Duc’s fantastic visionary structural protrusions, picked out by the prim and proper John Ruskin to preach revolution to the Arts & Crafts movement? It

>

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The Psula Rega Museum by Eduardo De Moura

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Herzog de Meuron’s Parish Art Museum employs a pronounced overhang

was here that Morris, Web and Rossetti discovered nature, beauty, asymmetry and an alternative approach to the staunch classicism and the straight laced composition of the Raphaelite. Now properly recognised as the fore runners of the environmental movement the thinking of these early naturalists inspired a nation up to the First World War. Having slipped into the more familiar 20th Century, it would be worth pausing to consider the root of bellbottoms, boot cut, straight legs and skinny jeans. Form did follow function before being subjected to the fashion world; bellbottoms were a result of the navy’s need for sailors to remove shoes quickly; the boot cut stems from the need to give room to the spur; straight legs are essentially an economical use of cloth; while skinny jeans seem a rebellious over emphasis of the drainpipe eventually finding an established home as the dreaded jegging. Similar reasons of form and function should be the raison d’être for the shape of the eaves; climate can demand an overhang either as shelter from the wet or the sun, here in Scotland flares should probably be our national dress. Not so, the skew and parapet feature prominently in our architectural identity, I recently quizzed the magnificent TOG studio at SEDA’s Young Green Drinks where I was informed that the straight-leg was the favoured deck out in Tiree to prevent the roof being blown off.

A recent trip to Portugal, battered by the same North Atlantic swell, showed some similar Celtic connections. Elsewhere flares have been adopted, such as the elaborately stepping Chinese Dougong or those thrifty American craftsmen sheltering cattle underneath out-stretched extended roofs. Please bear these

thoughts in mind as we now pull on the 20th century.

Flappers immediately shimmy into mind, a true straightleg of the age, a product of the prosperity of the roaring twenties, fueled by a feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity and a break with tradition. Art Deco was the getup of the flapper; stylish, brash and they kick started straight-leg domination for the next few decades, mirroring the rise of modern architecture with its simple straight lines. These truly modern ladies also heralded a stronger link with rebellion, perhaps not always with the blessing of their older sisters the suffragettes; the Flappers love of jazz, expression and individuality inspired the early hipster. Hipster roots developed quickly from the Hepcat 30s, Teddy 40s, Beat 50s, Mods 60s right up to today’s Williamsburg and Meta Nerd. Modernism strutted a similar catwalk from Bauhaus 30s, Internationalist 40s, Expressionist 50s, Neo Formalist 60s leading up to the current Neo Classical revival with dash of Fascismo.

After all this straight leg mastery the fashion world was rocked from the Summer of Love (1967) to the late 1970s by the hippie; architecture stepped along with Archigram and Brutalist severity.

Punk brought death to the hippie, at the same time Team 4 gave birth to High Tech or to use its Sunday name Structural Expressionism. Joints, parts and ‘hangy out’ bits are expressed to the extreme by High Tech so that one can misunderstand how their buildings are constructed or used, a bit like Vivienne Westwood’s bra worn on the outside. All of this heralded the arrival of ‘the architectural super era of the flare’ in the form of Post Modernist excess. Elsewhere we

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The fashion-conscious team at Collective have made their own pilgrimage to DeMoura’s masterpiece

were treated to the New Romanticism of Steve Strange, Adam Ant and Janet Street Porter. Tops were expressed, bottoms widened and midriffs exposed, all in a dazzling array of blobby colours. Postmodernist design was treated to a major V&A retrospective last year, but remains deeply unpopular. A style too easily copied, we have been left with some dreadful buildings, numerous gimmicky corkscrews and Terry Farrell egg cups.

It is hard to imagine Spandau Ballet or Robert Venturi as shocking but rebellion plays a large part in fashion. Norman Mailer’s foul rant which was ‘The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster’ published in the summer of hate 1957 (please support a summer of No Hate 2014 at Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games) is typical of the conservative reaction to all that is new. Other costumes which caused offence include the Zoot Suit which provoked riots in 1943 or Sagging where low hung pants inspired by prison safety measures caused serious comment from President Obama. How many young feisty deconstructionist paintings did it take for the establishment to adorn the extravagant flair of Zaha Hadid, now these can be made to order. What does cause some genuine offence is the robe of the standard architect, we either favour unimaginative black, or crave identity like a scarlet clad Mike Davies. Our most introvert of architects proved to be the most humbling of genius, Antonio Gaudi was unrecognisable in his hobo rags as he lay in a Barcelona morgue, run over by a tram as he stepped back to admire the Sagrida Familia.

The Arts are constantly entwined, it was a crying shame to read ‘Fats all Folks’ as FAT (Fashion, Architecture and Taste)

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announced that they were retiring to concentrate on solo work. More hid than hip, through choice they swam against the tide like a long haired hippy pogoing at a Clash concert.

What next? The overhanging box seems the first sign that today’s straight-leg has run its course as exponents of the merged facade and roof are getting a little bored, preferring to stack these for greater effect. In the fashion world last week Kate Moss announced the return of the flare and Milan Fashion Week was awash with wide bottoms - dare I also say the recession is over? Leaders of major architectural fashion houses such as Herzog de Meuron have joined the call, their recently completed Parish Art Museum (2013) has more than a nod to the overhang; inspired by the simple vernacular, local construction methods and readily accessible building materials. It is a joy to see reason and light being the source of architectural inspiration.

To reflect on Mackintosh’s famous quotation, it is an easy path to mimic the garb of the Fashionista, much more difficult to search properly for what our communities truly want. For those who enjoyed Gillies MacKinnon’s award winning film Small Faces tracking Glasgow gangs, please never forget the expansive tartan hemline of a futureless Bay City Roller fan living in a Basil Spence Brutalist shit hole; more Shang a Lang than Shangri-La. Petition against the Ugandan anti gay bill here; https:// secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/ Lord_Robert_Smith_Dont_ invite_Ugandan_politicians_to_the_Commonwealth_ games/ ?copy

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MINECRAFT JOHN GLENDAY

IT’S ALREADY TAKEN THE VIDEOGAME WORLD BY STORM BUT NOW MINECRAFT IS INCREASINGLY MAKING ITS PRESENCE FELT IN THE ARCHITECTURAL COMMUNITY. WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE IMPLICATIONS FOR A NEW GENERATION OF ARCHITECTS WHO ARE EMBRACING THE JOY OF BUILDING IN WAYS WHICH WOULDN’T HAVE SEEMED POSSIBLE JUST A FEW YEARS AGO. IMAGES BY MOJANG / 4J STUDIOS.

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It’s hip to be square in the fantasy world of Minecraft

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Construction of Dundee’s new V&A museum hasn’t even begun but that isn’t hampering a select band of video gamers from experiencing the showpiece attraction before a single brick has been laid. These pre-emptive views have been made possible by artists working for Dundee videogame firm 4J Studios, which has just published an architecture inspired ‘texture pack’ for the console version of hit video game Minecraft that has made possible a painstaking digital depiction of the city’s soon-to-be built V&A museum.

Taking Kengo Kuma’s design and translating it into the virtual world the low-definition copy is a far-cry from glossy architectural renderings of official releases, more closely resembling a giant Lego set than reality, but this hasn’t deterred millions of gamers from entering its simplistic worlds to flex their own creative muscles as David Keningale, lead artist at 4J Studios, explained to Urban Realm: “Minecraft is already inspiring a new generation of architects, the texture pack has a cleaner look to the low-resolution pixel art – and deliberately so. It’s more photographic using modern textures and is less fantasy and more realistic.”

Despite the primitive appearance of the graphics Keningale points out that a lot of people are drawn to the minimalist aesthetic, saying: “If you look at the PC version,

where texture packs are already available, people love to go to town building these things. Despite the simplicity of the look, underneath it’s actually a very, very complex game where the ease of building presents no boundaries. All ages can get involved and let their imagination run riot.”

Proving that the title has become more than just a game however Mojang, original creator of the hit PC version, have undertaken projects with UN Habitat in Africa where villagers made use of the siftware to collaborate on the design and structure of their villages. Block by Block enables people from 300 locations around the world to take virtual tours of their local environments, helping them to inform consultations on how regeneration funds should be allocated.

Another innovative use is the transfer of real-world OS map data. “It’s quite incredible because you can look at your area and see the topography,” remarks Keningale of the resulting sprawl of pixels. More than a mere curiosity it holds enormous potential in education, most obviously geography, by giving students a fun means of studying important landscape features.

Keningale added: “It’s architecture on so many fronts, it really is and can be used for planning at a very simplistic level – or as complex as you like. Everything from massive

Left - Kengo Kuma’s V&A Museum was a natural fit for the block building platform Right - Dundee’s waterfront points the way ahead

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skyscrapers to an entire Game of Thrones realm have been created by people working in teams over the internet. It’s about building things together not just building your own thing. We build relatively small worlds compared to the general public, as we can only afford to dedicate so much work to that side of things. The public are putting in 100s and 100s of hours for their projects.”

4J Studios track record includes a brick-by-brick reconstruction of Edinburgh Castle from the ground up, a deceptively simple task which ended up growing arms and legs as Keningale recalled; “It doesn’t sound like a lot of work in a game like Minecraft but it actually took one person seven days”… and this was with the advantage of a team of coders who were on hand to assist. Mindful of the time dilating properties of the software Keningale brought in a summer student to try her hand at recreating the Forth Rail Bridge the following year, an undertaking which took a fortnight to accomplish.

To promote the latest city architecture pack however it was decided that something more modern was required, which is where Dundee’s putative waterfront V&A museum came in. “We started doing this architectural style city pack this year and decided, no, we need to do something now

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and we’d been waiting to do the V&A building for a while,” explained Keningale: “The building looks quite blocky so it looks good, we had two guys on it for two weeks and they’ve built half the waterfront already – and are still going.

“We’ve omitted the bridge simply because we started building at the edge of the world and didn’t plan on covering such a large area”, noted Keningale. “We’ve now started to build the City Quay end because that’s where our offices are based, it just keeps going and becomes a little hobby project!

We will only stop once we’ve got enough for what we need for promotional purposes for our next pack. It’s definitely one of those projects when if you’ve got a spare half hour you’ll just get in there and build a bit more.”

Explaining the intrinsic appeal the title has for all ages and abilities Keningale said: “That’s the beauty of Minecraft, you just start building. With Edinburgh Castle for example we could spin round on Google Earth and work out what went where because although my memory of the castle is reasonably good it’s not as good as an aerial photograph. The V&A’s not been built yet but there is a fly through that we’ve used for reference. When you’re building from scratch most people just start building and see how things develop. They’ll knock down huge sections of it and rebuild it the way they >

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Above - Players the world over have not been shy in stepping Forth with their own custom designs Below - Ordnance Survey have got in on the action with a representation of the entire UK landmass, as here at Ben Nevis

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want it. It’s reasonably quick to work with but can be quite laborious when you’re putting in a 200m long row, 10 storeys high. But it’s fun and that’s what drives people to do it, it’s a brilliant game to just pick up and say, ‘you know what? I fancy doing that.’”

Traditionally the entry bar for such software has been unattainably high but Minecraft has served to lower it to such an extent that almost can now take part. Keningale remarked: “I’ve got kids who are Lego fanatics and they are limited by the amount of Lego they have and the laboriousness of putting it altogether. As a result Minecraft for them has just been an absolute dream. You’re not restricted by gravity or engineering so you can come up with amazing worlds.

Hardcore users are equally well catered for as Mojang are relaxed about people modifying the game with customised code, producing various plug-ins for everything from

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photographic renders to CAD packages allowing a real flourishing of experimentation brought about by a world shorn of engineering constraints. “I think it can be regarded as an art form,” said Keningale. “It is more technical and very, very accessible so lots of people can contribute in ways that they wouldn’t have thought possible. It really does open the world to everyone to play with. People have created very natural looking blocks of land that you plug together and I think they will be popular, there’s no denying it, but the simplicity of Minecraft forces you to use your imagination a little bit more.”

The bricks and mortar V&A will begin construction this August but it is the Minecraft version which may do more to inspire a new generation of budding architects just as Lego and Meccano did before them, unleashing the inner architect in us all.

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DIRECTORY LISTING ACOUSTIC CONSULTANTS RMP - acoustic consultants Contact: Richard MacKenzie Tel: 0845 062 0000 Email: rmp@napier.ac.uk Website: www.rmp.biz ARCHITECTS Anderson Bell + Christie Contact: Bruce Bebner Tel: 0141 339 1515 Email: brucebrebner@ andersonbellchristie.com Web: www.andersonbellchristie.com

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

ERZ Architects Tel: 0141 552 0888 Contact: Rolf Rosher Email: info@erzstudio.co.uk Web: www.erzstudio.co.uk

rankinfraser Contact: Chris Rankin Tel: 0131 226 7071 Email: mail@rankinfraser.com Web: www.rankinfraser.com LIFTS STANNAH Tel: 0141 882 9946 Contact: Graham Barr Email: liftservices@stannah.co.uk Web: www.stannahlifts.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY NEALE SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY Tel: 7919000448 Email: mail@nealesmith.com Web: www.nealesmith.com Tom Manley Photography Tel: 07729 202402 Email: info@tommanleyphotography.com Web: www.tommanleyphotography.com SPECIALIST SUPPLIER OF SUSTAINABLE TIMBER Russwood Tel: 01540 673648 Email: mail@russwood.co.uk Web: www.russwood.co.uk SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BRE Scotland Tel: 01355 576200 Contact: Laura Birrell Email: birrelll@bre.co.uk Web: www.bre.co.uk TILING Porcelain Plus Tel: 01236 728436 Contact: Moira Pollock Email: moira@porcelainplus.co.uk Web: www.porcelainplus.co.uk TREE SURVEYORS Tree Consultancy Group Tel: 01721 760268 Email: mail@treeconsultancygroup.com Web: www.treeconsultancygroup.com WORKPLACE INTERIORS Steelcase Solutions Tel: 0141 225 5170 Fax: 0141 225 5171 Email: scotland@steelcase-solutions.co.uk Web: www.steelcase-solutions.co.uk 119-121 West, Regent Street Glasgow G2 2SD

LDA Design Tel: (0)141 222 9780 Contact: Kristin Taylor Email: kirstin.taylor@lda-design.co.uk Web: www.lda-design.co.uk

A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE STREETS IS ON THE STREETS To advertise contact Kasia Uliasz on 0141 356 5333 or email kasia@urbanrealm.com

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WHO RULES?!

SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS TICKETS ARE ON SALE JOIN US TO FIND OUT WHO WILL COLLECT THE AWARDS - WILL IT BE YOU? Drinks Reception, 3 course meal, Entertainment, Awards Show, Dancing & Networking Dress Code: Black Tie | Time and Date: 7pm 5th June | Venue: Radisson Blu, Glasgow

WWW.SCOTTISHDESIGNAWARDS.COM/BOOK Organised by:

Supported by:

recommendedagencies.com

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PRODUCTS

TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCT OR COMPANY IN THIS SECTION CONTACT KASIA ULIASZ ON 0141 559 6082 BENCHMARK KARRIER UNVEILS NEW SCHOOL IN WALES BENCHMARK are pleased to announce their involvement in Ysgol Bro Alun Welsh Medium School Wrexham, where their Karrier range has helped the school achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. The single storey building has been designed using a range of colours, textures and finishes to give the pupils a smart and inspiring space to learn in.

Web: www.kingspanpanels.co.uk

DTE RAISES THE BAR IN HEALTH AND SAFETY Donaldson Timber Engineering Ltd (DTE) has launched SafeStep, a new scaffold system designed to minimise risk when fixing ridge bracing on tall roof trusses.

Developed in conjunction with TRAD safety systems, SafeStep is a reusable metal cross bar which provides a safe method for installing roof ridge stability bracing on trusses over 2.5m in height.

DEVI INTRODUCES “POLAR WHITE” INTO THE DEVIREG™ TOUCH RANGE DEVI is introducing a Polar White colour to the DEVIreg™ Touch thermostat range to match perfectly with white tiles and bathroom furniture or kitchens. The new colour will be offered in parallel with the existing Pure White and Pure Black versions. DEVIreg™ Touch is the most intuitive and energy saving thermostat on the market today.

The touchscreen is intuitive for both installers and users.

Tel: 01234 320 260 Email: sales@devi.co.uk Web: www.devi.co.uk

DUSTCONTROL LAUNCH NEW DUST EXTRACTION RANGE FOR WOOD FLOOR GRINDING Dustcontrol, have introduced two new models to its dust extraction range for wood floor grinding.

The DC F60 is placed between the grinder and the vacuum to take the load off the filters and capture the majority of material. The DC 1800 eco XL has been purpose built for wood floor grinders, and can take care of large amounts of dust thanks to its 60-litre container.

Twitter: @DonaldsonsTE Web: www.donaldsontimberengineering.co.uk/

Tel: 01327 858001 Email: sales@dustcontrol.co.uk Web: www.dustcontroluk.co.uk

GRACE & GLORY SHOWCASE EARLY SPRING PRODUCTS AND BESTSELLERS

KINGSPAN INSULATION EXPANDS ONLINE OFFERING

Grace & Glory, the online interiors boutique, is showcasing its selection of bestsellers and new products for spring 2014. The online boutique stocks wonderful items for the modern period home including traditional architectural hardware, lighting, timeless homewares and accessories. The current range – viewable at www.graceandgloryhome. co.uk - includes a selection of items that are both practical and stylish, including top quality architectural hardware and beautiful, inspirational lighting.

A new series of resources has been launched on www. kingspaninsulation.co.uk to provide simple access to the latest product and industry information through a variety of media including a blog, twitter feeds, and dedicated microsites. This includes a dedicated microsite covering the topic of Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIPs), providing information on how high levels of thermal efficiency can still be achieved with minimal thickness.

Tel: 01271 370095 Email: julia@graceandgloryhome.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1544 387 384 Web: www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk

NEIL SAMPSON ANNOUNCED AS CHAIRMAN OF THE DHF’S ‘POWERED GATE GROUP’

CONSTRUCTION RECESSION ENDS FOR PROFESSIONAL CONCRETE PUMPING

Green Gate Access Systems are delighted to announce that their managing director, Neil Sampson, has been selected as chairman of the Door and Hardware Federation’s ‘Powered Gate Group’. The Powered Gate Group was formed in 2009 in response to requests from the Health and Safety Executive to develop higher standards of safety for automated gates.

The recent recession in the construction industry has ended for Pochins Concrete Pumping (now Professional Concrete Pumping), which was forced into a distressed sale in July 2012. The rebranded company will increase the size of its mobile fleet by 25%+ by August 2014 in addition to a £5.2 million plant growth strategy.

Tel: 08456 800269 Web: www.greengateaccess.co.uk

Tel: 01926 495425 or 07969 253147 Email: helensalisbury@btconnect.com

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ROMAN ACHIEVE ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS

RVC GETS THE KINGSPAN TREATMENT

Leading UK shower manufacturer and designer, Roman, is once again firmly demonstrating their commitment to caring for the environment following an audit conducted by BSI. This showed a reduction of energy consumption by 9%, saving £7000 per annum and a reduction in general waste by 60%, which in turn will save £5500 per annum in landfill and collection charges.

The Royal Veterinary College’s (RVC) Hertfordshire Campus has been further enhanced with the construction of a RIBA Award winning Student Village featuring over 6500 m2 of Kingspan Insulation Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board.

The RVC Student Village provides 191 en-suite bedrooms separated across five separate blocks along with a restaurant and meeting rooms.

Tel: 0845 050 7611 Email: brochures@roman-showers.com Web: www.roman-showers.com

Tel: +44 (0) 1544 387 384 Web: www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk

KINGSPAN OPTIM-R SOLVES PROBLEM AREAS

VIVIX® EXTERIOR FAÇADE PANELS THROUGH RAIN OR SHINE

Kingspan Insulation has published a series of four application brochures.

The innovative Kingspan OPTIM-R range of systems, which can be downloaded from www.optim-r.co.uk, demonstrate how to deal with difficult areas such as balconies and terraces, dormers, rainscreen and external wall applications. Kingspan OPTIM-R panels use vacuum technology, enabling them to deliver an aged thermal conductivity of just 0.007 W/m∙K.

VIVIX® exterior façade panels have been used for the refurbishment of tram stop railings in Helsinki.

Ulla-Kirsti Junttila, Senior Adviser for urban planning and design at SITO Oy chose VIVIX panels in Ocean Grey for their inherent strength and weather resistance, as well as the choice of colours offered.

Tel: +44 (0) 1544 387 384 Email: literature@kingspaninsulation.co.uk Web: www.optim-r.co.uk

ENFORCING CURRENT LEGISLATION CRITICAL TO DRIVING THE ADOPTION OF SUDS Marshalls asks why local authorities are not enforcing existing Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems legislation.

There are possibilities which exist to minimise the risk of inland flooding– through the installation of SuDS such as swales, rain gardens, green roofs and permeable paving. Legislation already exists to ensure that these practices are followed in both the building of new developments and the renovation of existing landscapes – but are rarely enforced.

Web: www.marshalls.co.uk

Web: www.formica.com

SCHOOL GETS ARTY WITH KINGSPAN TEK® AND UNIDEK® Pupils at the John Warner School in Hertfordshire are benefiting from top class arts facilities thanks to a new extension constructed using the Kingspan TEK® Building System and Kingspan Unidek Aero® Roofing System. The products delivered the required thermal performance with a reduced thickness compared with traditional construction methods, ensuring that teaching space was maximised within the extension.

Tel: +44 (0) 1544 387 384 Email: literature@kingspantek.co.uk Web: www.kingspantek.co.uk

TO ADVERTISE IN URBAN REALM PLEASE CONTACT KASIA ULIASZ ON 0141 356 5333 OR EMAIL KASIA@URBANREALM.COM

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a total solution for architectural glazing

• atriums • rooflights • shuffle glazing

• facades • balustrade • framed glazing

• canopies • conservatories • structural glazing

• partitions • walk on floors • frameless glazing

The team at Glazing Innovations specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of bespoke architectural glazing and pride themselves on their ability to develop aesthetically pleasing structures, which are both internally and externally sympathetic with the overall architectural design.

Tel: 01842 816080 sales@glazinginnovations.co.uk www.glazinginnovations.co.uk URB_202x270+3_2014-03-18.indd 1 UR-single page.indd 1

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