Urban Realm Summer 2016 - issue 26

VOL6 ISSUE26 SUMMER 2016

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BREXIT HOPES AND FEARS PERTH LANDSCAPE REPORT SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

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01

M

I F TO AN ES

Britain’s departure from the EU is as abrupt as it is shocking but as the dust settles the question on everyone’s lips is where do we go from here? Before news of the result broke we quizzed industry figures for their views in order to pin down their hopes and fears for the future (pg22).

Away from febrile politics the world continues to turn with the return of the Scottish Design Awards (pg 12) throwing up a fresh clutch of award winners. It’s a heady mix of architecture and design and proof that creativity can still thrive in a climate of constitutional uncertainty.

Landscape architecture is thrust back to prominence this issue as we not only deliver our regular industry snapshot (pg 42) but also investigate an innovative renewable energy project at Port Dundas (pg 76) and the launch of Growing Awareness (pg 68), a compilation of essays that deliver a timely reminder of the increasing pressure our environment finds itself under.

Our focus on secondary urban centres continues as we dispatch John Lord and Mark Chalmers to give updates on Berwick (pg 28) and Perth (pg 34) respectively.

Neither location is lacking in difficulties to seek but their differing approaches illustrate that there is still a place for compact centres in an age of globalisation and sprawling mega cities.

Elsewhere we take a look round the newly completed regeneration at Sighthill (pg 62) to see at first hand how new life is being brought to a forgotten Glasgow district.

We also take one last spin around Edinburgh’s doomed St James Centre in the company of photographer Marco Devita (pg 54) to witness the brutal death of a concrete monster.

In or out, this issue we shake things all about.

John Glenday, Editor

SPORTING CHALLENGE FEW BUILDINGS SO APTLY REFLECT THEIR CONTEXT AS CRAIGDON MOUNTAIN SPORTS CENTRE, WHICH REARS UP FROM THE FOOT OF THE PENTLAND HILLS LIKE A FRESH CHALLENGE FOR OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS. Its unique ‘drum’ design is enhanced by vertical Russwood Scotlarch® cladding and stacked window panes, creating a striking addition to the landscape.

The brief for Oberlanders Architects was an exciting one: to design a building with sound eco credentials married to a strong sense of place. The stone wall base course adds thermal mass to the building, while the use of solar panels on the sloped roof offers a sustainable solution to energy generation and consumption.

With its knotty appearance and subtle colour variation, Scotlarch® contributed to the building’s distinctive aesthetic whilst offering the durability to withstand the wet Scottish climate. The material was treated to offer an even finish and ensure that the cladding would age gracefully in its south facing elevation.

Occupying a prime position opposite Hillend, this contemporary retail complex acts as a ‘gateway to Edinburgh’ and the design makes the most of the site’s strong visual connection to the Pentland Hills, exposing stunning panoramic views from all three floors.

Comprising retail sales, ‘front of house’ facilities for Pentland Rangers, staff residences, ski rental/repairs and café areas, the building confidently establishes itself as an ecological hub for exploring the great outdoors.

The building also won the praise of the community for its ‘exciting and innovative design’.

Architect: Oberlanders Architects Main Contractor: Bancon Construction Product: Scotlarch® board on board, vacuum coated Profile: Board on Board Photography: Nigel Rigden

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CONT ENTS QUARTERLY DIGEST 12 SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS 22 BREXIT 28 BERWICK 34 PERTH 42 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 54 ST JAMES CENTRE 56 BRE 62 SIGHTHILL 68 GROWING AWARENESS 76 LAND ART GENERATOR 84 TIMBER DESIGN 90 WOOD FOR GOOD 96 DIRECTORY 97 PRODUCTS 04

Cover image: Rankin, Britain Stronger In Europe

OUR EDITORIAL PANEL INCLUDES: Editor John Glenday Design & Production Amanda Dewar Advertising Manager Katarzyna Uliasz, Media Sales Executive John Hughes Web Manager Aleks Bochniak Mark Chalmers, Architecture writer and photographer

Ian McKee, managing director GLM

Paul Stallan, Director, StallanBrand

David Ross, design director, Keppie

Chris Stewart, director, Collective Architecture

Eugene Mullan, director, Smith Scott Mullan

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06

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

SMART GRID Collective Architecture and Partick Housing Association have drawn up plans for the £8m redevelopment of the former St Peter’s School, Glasgow, to form 60 homes.

The Victorian school will be joined by a linked new build section designed to extend

BRIEFS the grid iron residential neighbourhood, providing a mix of homes for social and mid-market rent as well as supported accommodation.

Work could get underway as early as October.

Hub West Scotland is to press forward with the refurbishment and extension of Bearsden’s A-listed Kilmardinny House.

Mast Architects, Clark Contracts and East Dunbartonshire Council have drawn up a £2.58m plan to overhaul the arts and leisure hub, enabling it to play host to weddings, performances, exhibitions and conferences centred on a new garden pavilion providing flexible floor space.

South Ayrshire Council is pushing on with construction of an £8.2m AHR-designed community campus in Tarbolton following the appointment of Morrison Construction to deliver the project.

When complete in early 2017 the campus will welcome 297 primary pupils and 40 nursery children together with sports, leisure, library facilities and meeting rooms.

All facilities will also be made available for community use.

CULROSS & CULROSSER

HARRIS ACADEMY COMPLETES

Hillcrest Housing Association, working in conjunction with developer Culross, is to deliver 59 affordable homes at Loaning Road, Edinburgh, following submission of a formal planning application.

The JM Architects project offers a mix of tenures within a new build block adjacent to Craigentinny House and will be set back from the road to preserve the seventeenth century manor’s kerb impact.

Holmes Miller have reached practical completion at the £32m Harris Academy ahead of its first intake of pupils this August.

Hosting 1,200 pupils the new secondary provides 15,000sq/m of accommodation arranged around a split level social and assembly space and includes its own swimming pool and sports facilities set amidst retained elements of the B-listed Academy buildings.

BOWLED OVER

HOLYROOD PARK

Developer Noah and contractor CCG have moved on-site with a development of six townhouses at Partickhill Bowling Club designed by Hoskins Architects.

Hillside Gardens Lane will also see an arts and crafts style clubhouse restored.

7N Architects are to transform a former engine shed at St Leonard’s Lane, Edinburgh, into a distillery and visitor centre by 2017.

The £3.6m project would result in the city gaining its first single malt whisky distillery since the last closed its doors in the 1920s.

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No less than 17 Edinburgh schools have been affected by an emergency shutdown prompted by fears that substandard construction techniques employed under public private partnership delivered schools could put pupil safety at risk.

7,000 pupils at 10 primaries, five secondary’s, two additional support needs schools and a nursery have been affected by the emergency closures – all of which are only 10 years old.

A flurry of handwringing over historic PPP/PFI contracts, following the discovery of serious structural defects in four Edinburgh schools has seen Malcolm Fraser of Halliday Fraser Munro Architects call for the public sector to return to its role of leading and commissioning public buildings.

Fraser warns that a disconnect between the public and those delivering buildings on their behalf has resulted in a failure to prioritise the public interest.

07

Q U A R T E R L Y A P R D I G E S T TOP DOLLAR

TAKE HEART

A Page\Park designed languages building at Dollar Academy has been officially opened offering ten additional classrooms with south facing views at the foot of the Ochil Hills.

The Westwater building is naturally ventilated via chimneys and sits under a canted roof and rises above a ground floor covered gallery which is protected from the elements by a glazed cantilevered walkway, which also allows light into lower classrooms.

Hearts football club have released the first impressions of a planned main grandstand at Tynecastle stadium which would add an additional 3,000 seats to take capacity up to 20,000.

The column free design will include two big screens and entertainment suites with the three existing stands also given a makeover; including improved toilet and kiosk facilities.

Design work is being undertaken

by James Clydesdale & Associates for completion by the 2017/18 season.

IN GOOD STEAD Elder & Cannon Architects have drawn up plans to convert and extend a farm steading in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, to form eight homes on behalf of Andrew Bell and Bankell Developments.

Historic buildings at Bankell Farm will be converted together with insertion of new build elements formed within the footprint of agricultural sheds.

BLINDER Work to deliver a new Centre for the Scottish War Blinded on the outskirts of Paisley has got underway, offering day care, activities, workshops, training and social opportunities for members.

Built in tandem with a new Royal Blind care home to the north, the Page\Park design has been inspired by the sweep of a military aircraft and will include a bowling green, gardens and a pergola.

BRIEFS Perth & Kinross Council has filed separate planning applications for the complete rebuild of Tulloch and Kinross primaries as part of a ÂŁ23m modernisation drive.

Both will be demolished and rebuilt to designs specified by Norr Architects with work set to get underway simultaneously in October.

Aberdeen City Council is seeking to progress delivery of 369 affordable homes on the site of the former Summerhill Education Centre at Lang Stracht, a key route into the city from the west.

A design team including Hypostyle and Norr have been appointed to help deliver the project which will take the form of brick clad blocks stepping in height up to four storeys with projecting features and roof terraces.

Recessed balconies and regularly spaced windows are used to create long straight frontages to surrounding streets and internal courtyards.

ISA, formerly known as Ian Springford Architects, have completed their move to a ÂŁ125k head office at Blenheim Place, Edinburgh, after stripping out a former pet shop to create new desk space.

The strip out enabled the practice to insert new stairs, toilets and fitted furniture within the prominent ground floor space to accommodate 20 staff.

South Lanarkshire Council has lent its approval to an out of town campus for the University of the West of Scotland, to be sited within Hamilton International Technology Park.

UWS Lanarkshire will see three blocks of student housing built offering 500 spaces, together with conversion of three existing buildings for academic use and sport facilities, connecting to the existing UWS Eco Campus by a landscaped woodland walkway and 1,500 space car park.

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

IN THE ZONE

BRIEFS Glasgow School of Art and BDP are to ‘imaginatively’ refurbish Stow College to allow the School of Fine Art to be brought together in one building for the first time in 50 years.

Contractors are expected to move on-site this summer for the school to move into their new home by autumn 2017.

Zone Architects have secured planning permission on appeal to the Scottish government for the construction of five terraced houses within Edinburgh’s Trinity conservation area.

Replacing a rundown garage, the £2.5m

scheme will see retaining walls and drainage rebuilt to accommodate the new homes on a tight sloping site off Lower Granton Road when construction begins in 2017.

Councillors had initially turned the scheme down over traffic fears.

PAR FOR THE COURSE

STAGGERING

An £80m Jack Nicklaus backed development of the Ury Estate, Aberdeenshire, to create new housing and convert the historic Ury House to form a five-star hotel and clubhouse has won the backing of planners.

Masterminded by the FM Group and William Cowie Partnership work to renovate the crumbling mansion is already well underway with a roof now in place for the first time in at least 50 years. Built in 1855 to designs by John Baird Ury House had its roof removed in 1959 to avoid taxes.

Richard Murphy Architects have submitted plans on behalf of AMA to build 16 flats on the site of an existing villa at Kinnear Road, Edinburgh, by developing a substantial garden plot.

Utilising changes in level to its advantage the proposed scheme will include a semibasement car park with a three storey smooth ashlar stone façade above presenting itself to Kinnear Road as an ‘understated’ response to the more flamboyant staggered southerly elevation and ‘transition’ between neighbouring properties.

SAW TOOTH

DEMOLITION MISSION

A £26m development of 189 affordable homes centred on Fraser Avenue, Inverkeithing, has secured planning permission in principle – including the demolition of 236 existing properties.

Drawn up by 7N Architects on behalf of Kingdom Housing Association the scheme will take its cue from existing homes on the estate and will include a range of shops, a village green and play park whilst also improving pedestrian connectivity through the area.

Site clearance is expected to get underway from September with phased completion expected through to 2021.

Dem Master has felled the final tower block in a quartet of towers which once stood at Norfolk Court in Glasgow’s Gorbals, clearing the way for the construction of 201 homes by New Gorbals Housing Association.

The Sunday morning blowdown of the 24 storey building saw the 1970’s landmark, which once contained 276 flats, reduced to rubble within seconds allowing a £24m regeneration project to proceed.

New Gorbals Housing Association chair Raymond Shannon said: “Every tenant affected by demolition in Gorbals since 2002 has been rehoused here - if that is what they wished - and over 80% chose to remain.

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Yulian Manev has emerged as the unanimous choice for the Alexander Thomson Scholarship 2016 following a Glasgow Institute of Architects administered competition to produce an A5 drawing themed on ‘detail’.

Manev’s entry, titled ‘Foundations’, was one of 70 to be received by the organisers, earning its author a £1,200 top prize.

An expansion of the St Columba’s independent school, Inverclyde, is on track for completion this September with the conversion of two villas to form 13 classrooms.

Including a new library, pastoral care suite, common rooms and social space the new school is being delivered by Thomas Johnstone to designs by Burnet Bell and Page\Park.

Glasgow City Council has appointed MVRDV and AustinSmith:Lord to lead regeneration of the Broomielaw, Blythswood, St Enoch and Central areas of the city.

The quartet of initiatives aim to unlock economic, cultural and social improvements for the city through improvements to urban structure, targeting issues such as vacant buildings, under-utilised plots, changes in retail patterns, city centre living, public open space, safety and traffic.

Asset managers Quadrant Estates have obtained planning consent for a series of Keppie penned alterations to Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Centre, to provide enhanced retail and restaurant space.

09

Q U A R T E R L Y M A Y D I G E S T BELLE OF THE GOLF BALL

SCREEN ICON

A £1.5m clubhouse has opened its doors to golfers in Ayr, South Lanarkshire, as the centrepiece of the Belleisle Championship course.

Belleisle Clubhouse was delivered by 3B Construction and ARPL Architects on behalf of South Ayrshire Council and offers a range of facilities including changing rooms, a shop, club rooms, lounge and golf simulator.

Aberdeen’s Capitol cinema has been given a second lease of life as 72,600sq/ft of office accommodation following a £30m redevelopment by Keppie Design, M&G and Knight Property Group. Original features from the art deco venue have been incorporated into the build including a canopy entrance and inner vestibule doors, art deco light fittings and clocks, pilasters and motifs.

RAINBOW WARRIOR

BRE have launched the final phase of their Ravenscraig innovation park, a thermally efficient closed panel timber frame build system manufactured by Scotframe which minimises energy usage and waste.

The Curriculum House demonstration home is being built with participation from architectural technology students at New College Lanarkshire as a ‘live’ educational initiative.

BRIEFS Morgan McDonnell Architects have tabled proposals to convert and extend a former hotel on Ettrick Road, Merchiston, to form ten flats. This work will entail the demolition of later extensions to allow new build elements faced with sandstone and brass with deep set balconies and full height glazing, additions which are intended to augment the architectural character of the district.

Page\Park have tabled proposals for the conversion and extension of Old Carntyne Church, Shettleston, to form accommodation for the elderly.

Part of an existing sheltered housing complex owned by Shettleston Housing Association the 19 flat scheme will involve creation of a new build element on the site of the former church hall, demolished in 2014.

Lynsay Bell Architecture has put forward an infill housing project of six homes in Morningside, Edinburgh, on behalf of Thistle Property Group. Replacing an existing garage on Jordan Lane the scheme will be finished in buff ashlar natural stone with natural finish timber cladding used for the ground floor. Timber fins and slatted panels are also introduced over windows and to form boundary treatments.

Simpson & Brown Architects have filed plans to augment an existing chapel on Edinburgh’s Rodney Street with new extensions on behalf of Bellevue Chapel Evangelical Church.

Working with an architectural language of stone buttresses the extension will feature areas of narrow glazing around a relocated entrance on a vacant plot to the side of the chapel.

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

STABLE LIFE Fletcher Joseph Architects have brushed up their mixed use proposal for Edinburgh’s King’s Stables Road, to accommodate a 111 per cent increase in housing.

The revised plans show removal of upper floors shown in a prior proposal to allow insertion of ‘dynamic roof elements’

BRIEFS which have been conceived in response to the surrounding context and as a tool to break down the overall massing when viewed from street level to provide 59 homes, a 650sq/m arts facility, 92 bed hotel and 167 rooms of student accommodation and ground floor retail.

EMA Architects are to refurbish and extend the C-listed Balshagray Public School in Broomhill, Glasgow, on behalf of Kelvin Properties to form 73 homes.

Situated on a prominent site to the north of the Clydeside Expressway the scheme will entail demolition of a swimming pool and janitor’s cottage to allow formation of a six storey sandstone clad block of 28 flats.

Morrison Construction have been appointed to deliver the Halliday Fraser Munro designed Moray Sports Centre, adjacent to the Linkwood distillery on the outskirts of Elgin.

Phase one of the project will deliver a new gym, badminton courts, sports hall, studios, café and soft play area with further phases expected to include an indoor tennis hall, athletics facilities, gymnasium and martial arts hall.

BATH TIME

COUNTESSWELLS

A former bathhouse in Glasgow’s Govanhill, operating as a community hub since 2013, is to reopen as a swimming pool and wellness centre by late 2018 after securing grant funding for the necessary conservation work.

Govanhill Baths Community Trust has commissioned Hall Black Douglas, together with Alistair Coey conservation architects, to restore the Edwardian building whilst simultaneously adding a suite of new services to the public.

Stewart Milne Group has launched the first phase of their Countesswells development on the outskirts of Aberdeen, comprising 200 homes which aim to set ‘new standards of urban design in the north-east of Scotland.’

Construction work is set to get underway later this year on the 15 year project, which will ultimately deliver some 3,000 homes, a secondary school, two primaries, healthcare facilities, business units, retail and leisure uses.

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Alan Dunlop has closed his Glasgow studio after withdrawing from his sole project in the city, a children’s home in Maryhill.

Instead Dunlop will focus on his Liverpool office in addition to positions as visiting professor at both Liverpool University’s School of Architecture and the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Aberdeen.

The University of Glasgow has applied for permission in principle for a redevelopment of the former Western Infirmary site to create a range of teaching and research spaces, retail, offices, flats, restaurants and hotels.

Drafted by 7N Architects, Simpson & Brown, Aecom, Arup and LUC the £775m fiveyear plan envisages focussing development around a public space connecting Byres Road to Kelvingrove Park.

In contrast to the ‘urban’ edges to the north a ‘feathered’ edge to the south will see ‘fingers’ of landscaping extend from the park into the heart of the campus.

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

KEPPIE WOE

Barton Willmore has got the ball rolling on Edinburgh’s 21st Century Homes Small Sites initiative with the submission of plans for a clutch of affordable and mid-market rent properties.

Calder Gardens in Sighthill will provide 37 new homes and West Pilton Grove will provide an additional 29, both of which will adopt ‘stripped back’ architecture and brick.

In a surprise move Keppie are to close studios in Aberdeen, Perth & Manchester and consult on the future of 25 staff after posting a £528k pre-tax loss to 31 July 2015.

Blaming delay’s to a number of projects the practice is to withdraw from what had been a key target market in Manchester, whilst focussing work north of the border on its Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness studios.

The practice has also closed its Belfast studio.

GARDENER’S WORLD

BOROUGHMUIR

Edinburgh councillors have given their approval to a ‘Garden District’ of 1,320 homes, a primary school, neighbourhood hub and park along the New Burn corridor, with final sign off resting with the Scottish government.

Situated close to Gogarburn and Edinburgh Park the EMA designed scheme is being built by Murray Estates on greenbelt land sandwiched between the city bypass and Gogar Station Road.

Edinburgh’s B-listed Boroughmuir High School is set to be transformed into new housing by CALA under a proposal drawn up

by Michael Laird Architects.

Concept designs show a newly formed open courtyard with 87 mezzanine apartments slotted into the large classroom spaces alongside an additional 28 affordable homes within a separate annexe and new build.

BRIEFS

APARTMENT THERAPY Loretto Housing Association and Collective Architecture have put together plans for the creation of 42 homes for social rent in Pollokshaws.

Arranged across two separate blocks the brick fronted scheme will be ‘cranked’ to follow the curvature of the street, maintaining the four storey building line along Shawbridge Street whilst respecting the spires of the former Pollokshaws United Free Church.

Prospect North, part of the Scottish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, has made its mark by inviting festival-goers to don surreal unicorn, moose and polar bear masks.

Each animal head hides a set of virtual reality goggles which transport the wearer to the past, present and future of the Highlands from the clearances through to today’s inward migration and possible repopulation.

The site of the former A-listed Paton’s Mill, Johnstone, is set to play host to a range of commercial uses following the submission of a proposal of application notice by @Sipp Pension Trustees.

Gutted by fire in 2009 and subsequently demolished the site is subject to a Stallan Brand master plan as part of a strategic plan for land bounded by the High Street and Black Cart river.

NHS Fife has taken possession of an Oberlanders designed £3.7m intensive psychiatric care unit (IPCU) at Stratheden Hospital following completion of work by Graham Construction.

Designed to provide a therapeutic and relaxing environment for people experiencing acute mental illness the specialist facility offers eight en-suite single rooms, space for therapeutic and rehabilitative activities, communal lounge and meeting room.

Glasgow City Council planners have given their consent to the demolition and façade retention of B-listed 137-143 Trongate to facilitate construction of 69 studio apartments. Designed by Stallan Brand the scheme will make use of Jura limestone and grey brick.

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SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

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City of Glasgow College earned its creators; Michael Laird and Reiach & Hall, the architecture grand prix

GO I NG GONG THE SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS HAVE BEEN HONOURING EXCELLENCE IN ARCHITECTURE SINCE 1998 AND THE 2016 CROP 69 ENTRIES ILLUSTRATE HOW FAR THE PROFESSION HAS TRAVELLED OVER THOSE YEARS. PROJECTS LEADING THE CHARGE THIS YEAR INCLUDE A POP-UP GALLERY, RIVERFRONT COLLEGE AND A STRIKING SCHOOL.

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GO I NG

City of Glasgow College dominated the SDA’s this yearwith the architecture grand prix capping a haul of seven trophies won by Michael Laird and Reiach & Hall Architects, with the judges commenting: “This building faced a challenging brief yet was executed with quiet elegance, rigour and attention to detail thus producing a timeless civic building that will enhance Glasgow’s culture.” What’s more next yearpromises more to come with completion of the far larger Cathedral Street campus.

Joining both design teams on the winner’s podium were Here +Now C.IC. which picked up Jestico + Whiles board director Heinz Richardson’s chairman’s award for architecture and Page\Park who were named architecture practice

of the year – courtesy of their consistent delivery of ‘sensitive and mature’ work which ‘shows timeless elegance concern and attention to detail’.

Richardson said: “This project initiated by a small not for profit design studio does much to capture the imagination and zeitgeist of real issues at the heart of regeneration.

How people use and engage with spaces is critical to the understanding of the transformative impact of design. Curating an installation and online record of personal and moving reflections of places and memories in a way that encourages engagement and participation in local places is worthy of special recognition. A beautiful and highly relevant project.”

A full list of winners follow:

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SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

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City of Glasgow College has hit new heights with its Riverside Campus

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SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

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01 - There was light at the end of the tunnel for Here + Now CIC after they picked up a chairman’s award for architecture 02 - Lairdsland Academy earned Walters & Cohen an education award 03 - This contemporary extension to a suburban house earned Capital A Architecture a low cost award for projects costing less than £200k 04 - Reiach & Hall Architects won again with their NHS Lanarkshire health centres 05 - Mark Kilkenny won a nod for their delivery of the Bloomfield House office refurbishment

© ALEX HEWITT

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SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

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Š ANDREW LEE

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06 - Page\Park Architects impressed with their modern languages building for Dollar Academy 07 - The Levels Cafe at the University of Edinburgh earned its creators an interior design award 08 - Austin-Smith:Lord received an award for their Helensburgh public realm work 09 - The University of Dundee and LJR+H chartered architects were called to the winners podium on behalf of The Zinc House

We are delighted to have been awarded Practice of the Year Award at the Scottish Design Awards 2016. Looking ahead, this looks set to be an exciting year for the practice with a number of significant Glasgow projects completing including Glasgow Caledonian University Heart of the Campus, the Kelvin Hall Page \Park are delighted to have won the Practice of the Year Award 2016 redevelopment, Phase 1 and the Scottish Power Headquarters.

2016 is an exciting year for the practice, with a number of major Glasgow projects completing this year, including: Glasgow Caledonian University

Our recently completed Westwater Building at Dollar Academy also picked Heart of the Campus, the Kelvin Hall redevelopment, Phase 1 and the up the Best Education Building Award. This modest pavilion teaching building Scottish Power Headquarters. nestles into the site at the foot of the Ochil Hills alongside the impressive principle school building, designed by William Henry Playfair.

Page \Park are also delighted to have won the Best Education Building Award 2016 for West Water Building, at Dollar Academy.

This new building, for modern languages and economics, sits elegantly in www.pagepark.co.uk @pagepark the grounds of the Playfair designed main school building. 0141 553 5440 Page \ Park Architects 20 James Morrison Street, Glasgow, G1 5PE, United Kingdom

URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

t: 0141 553 5440

http://pagepark.co.uk http://twitter.com/pagepark

© MARK O’CONNOR

© KEITH HUNTER

© ALEX HEWITT

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SCOTTISH DESIGN AWARDS

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© NIGEL RIGDEN

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10 - Rankinfraser’s work for the garden of Maggie’s Lanarkshire was rewarded 11 - Though not yet built Rutherford Burnside House grabbed a proposed building honour for GRAS 12- Brown & Brown were acknolwledged for Portsoy Boatbuilding Centre in the leisure category 13 - GRAS doubled up after being called back to recieve an award for re-use of a listed building with Lamb’s House 14 - Reiach & Hall are on the right track with Oriam, a national sports training ground, which earned them an award in the future building category

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BREXIT JOHN GLENDAY

A NARROW VOTE FOR BRITAIN TO EXIT THE EU SENT SHOCKWAVES THROUGH THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR AS BUSINESS GRAPPLES WITH THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES AND A FRESH BOUT OF CONSTITUTIONAL UNCERTAINTY. WITH MANY RELIANT ON SOURCING STAFF, INVESTMENT AND MATERIALS FROM THE CONTINENT THE WORRY IS THAT ALL MAY STALL AMIDST THE CURRENT CONFUSION.

RE F ERENDONE

After all the sound and fury of an often intemperate campaign half of Britain awoke on the morning of 24 June to learn the news that their vote to carry Britain out of the EU had carried the day. The other half of the population awaking in stunned disbelief at the narrow vote for Britain to exit the EU by 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent.

Amongst those nervously contemplating the potential consequences few are as apprehensive as Britain’s embattled construction sector, still struggling to shake off the effects of recession. Faced with a skills shortage, a dependence on inward investment and reliance on cheap imported materials the prospect of an exit was met with a combination of both hope and fear.

Adding to the general uncertainty and confusion is that despite a slim UK-wide majority for Leave many nations and regions of the UK voted Remain, notably Scotland which voted 62 to 38 per cent in favour of staying in the EU, sparking concerns of a prolonged period of constitutional chaos.

Over the following pages we present the views of leading industry figures on what the impact of Brexit might be and in what direction the country must now look as it seeks to rebuild relationships.

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BREXIT

Peter Wilson, Timber Design Initiatives: “Brexit will completely stymie entries by British starchitects to all those competition projects in Europe that they’ve been doing pretty well in up until now. Will we see Chipperfield et al relocating completely to offices in Europe?

“From a personal perspective, I couldn’t have done the work I’d been involved in over the past several years had it not been for substantial European funding - for which there was, and is, no equivalent in the UK. Brexit will hit University funding very hard since a very substantial proportion of their research funds come from Europe, with whatever UK research funding as exists already increasingly pointed to what are known as the Russell Group of universities (aka the elite - traditional ones like Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford and St Andrews.”

Willie Miller, WMUD: “BREXIT is easy and difficult at the same time. The benefits to the UK flowing from EU membership over the years have been enormous but it is not the great idea that it once was. The EU needs reform but the UK government seems unwilling to participate in that and Scotland is many steps removed from having any influence.

It’s hard to be passionate about it, but my desire is and has always been to be part of Europe.

“I have no time for or sympathy with the ‘leave’ folk. The debate is framed by England, by the internal wranglings of the Conservative Party and by a bunch of people like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove using immigration and sovereignty as key arguments. These are the ‘leave bad guys’ - but equally, for the most part, the ‘remain’ folk are also just as bad. It feels so strange to be in the same camp as the ‘remain bad guys’ and the new Project Fear that is being rolled out - just like during the Scottish Referendum.

“So as some commentators have said, this is a question of holding my nose and voting remain, knowing that this will probably change nothing as long as the UK Government distances itself from influencing EU policy and as long as Scotland has little or no say in the EU’s future. Of course there are other ways of being part of Europe and these may become more important ...”

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Malcolm Fraser, director, HFM: “Having fielded questions for years about “business and investment uncertainty caused by the threat of Scottish independence” here is chaos unleashed. I’m no fan of the EU - I think it’s a racket, run on behalf of the elite. But I think a withdrawn Britain will be that and more, and I don’t believe that full “independence” is possible or desirable. Interdependence should be the goal, balancing the need for a nation’s independent action and responsibility with wider, collective, appropriate agreements on trade, climate change, justice etc. As a Scot, we might just limp out the end of the chaos with some of that; but I still rage at the rigid, neoliberal deathstar that the EU has made of itself. And I feel heartbroken for the caring, social democratic Britain that little England continues to turn away from.”

Top Left - It remains to be seen whether the Leave gamble will pay off Above - Some see Britain headed for sunlit uplands but others see storms ahead

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BREXIT

Paul Stallan: “I feel more strongly about being part of Europe than I do about being part of the UK. I feel strongly that we should remain part of the European Union. Together with our European partners we are more able to champion a fairer more equitable world. To quote from a distinguished client of ours the Noble laureate Wole Soyinka who has written extensively about the catastrophic partitioning of Africa he states that ‘The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism’. Europe is our critical friend. Whether it is the movement of people, resources, commodities we have responsibility to participate rather than turn our back. If we are confident in our own national affairs and priorities we have nothing to fear from being a member state and much to contribute.”

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Chris Stewart, director, Collective Architecture: “As with all marriages there are niggles, being part of something bigger can blind you to the truth, you can’t see the woods for the trees.

Stop a while, forget about butter mountains, the shape of bananas and refugee statistics. Think about the rich culture of our continent and how after two devastating world wars we have got together with the idea of a free Europe. A continent with no barriers, with freedom of thought, freedom of movement and with one currency. Now think about the alternative, the world of Katie Hopkins, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. A world of walls, barriers and a sense of superiority from which a new order will prosper at the expense of others. Architecture will follow the order of the day, construct walls, remove barriers, build palaces, and improve affordable housing. What might change once the votes are counted, better work here, less work there, will it make any difference. Our profession is sliding downwards and although I will vote to remain which I hope we do, if we do not then may that be the catalyst for a bigger change.”

Alan Dunlop, visiting professor, Scott Sutherland School & Liverpool School of Architecture: “I will vote to leave and frankly the majority of colleagues and friends I’ve spoken to intend to do the same. I’m truly disappointed however that both the leave and remain groups have again led with “project fear” and that the principle issue for those voting to leave is immigration and I do not wish to be associated at all with that. Immigration has never been an issue for me, in fact I believe and it has been proven that people coming into the country from Europe and overseas contribute much more than they take. Instead it is the massive bureaucracy that the EU has become and that un-elected officials that we cannot remove are making decisions that have a direct consequence on our lives.

That’s anti-democratic and why I’m voting to leave.”

Top Left - The UK has taken a big leap toward an uncertain future Left - With the resignation of David Cameron will Boris Johnson be installed as Prime Minister?

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BERWICK-UPON-TWEED JOHN LORD

IT IS ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE AND COMPLETE HISTORIC TOWNS IN BRITAIN AND A CULTURAL HOTSPOT - SO WHY IS THE LOCAL COMMUNITY SO DIVIDED AND UNHAPPY? JOHN LORD REPORTS FROM BERWICK -UPON-TWEED.

Whether or not you have been to Berwick-upon-Tweed, you will almost certainly have seen it. Trains travelling between Edinburgh and Newcastle on the East Coast Main Line cross the 1850 Royal Border Bridge, a magnificent 28-arch viaduct which overlooks the town. The view from the bridge – the tidal lower reaches of the great river; the red roofs of Berwick climbing the steep slopes on the north bank; the harbour, and the satellite towns of Tweedmouth and Spittal lining the south shore – is justly famous. It is a perennial complaint in Berwick that too few of the people who admire the spectacular view get off the train to have a closer look. But some do, and many of them get hooked on what Pevsner called “one of the most exciting towns in England”.

For much of its colourful early history Berwick was contested territory, before English rule was firmly established in 1482. The elaborate system of defences constructed in the Elizabethan era contains and defines the character of the town’s historic core. Conflict flared up again during the Civil > URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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The flow of history hasn’t always been kind to Berwick-upon-Tweed

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BERWICK-UPON-TWEED

War and the 18th century Jacobite rebellions and Berwick remained a garrison town until 1964. These layers of history are reflected in a built environment which, despite some inevitable depredations is remarkably intact. The defensive ramparts are complete and the Barracks, based on a design by Hawksmoor, still dominate the north end of the town although the buildings are underused. The rare Cromwellian Holy Trinity church and the 18th century Town Hall are other notable buildings, but it is the townscape of Berwick that really excites: densely packed streets on a steep promontory site, contained by the walls and embraced by the Tweed estuary and the North Sea. There are streets of handsome Georgian houses, ice houses for the salmon trade, a working port, bridges, lanes and tunnels.

Following the Act of Union, a royal charter granted Berwick-upon-Tweed special constitutional status, which was not rescinded until 1835. But, as Menuge and Dewar point out, political independence had the effect of excluding Berwick from the administration of Northumberland and Berwickshire: the town’s status as a centre for civic, commercial and cultural life suffered as a result and this was reflected in decades, indeed centuries, of relative demographic and economic decline. Despite its romantic past, Berwick in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a workaday place: a small port, a

market town and a centre of rural industry. Tweedmouth and Spittal developed as industrial suburbs on the south bank of the river. Tweed Dock opened in 1875, while Spittal Point was home to a selection of malodorous industries: a gasworks, a vitriol manufactory and four chemical manure works. All this within a few hundred yards of Spittal New Town which, after a short career as a spa, developed into a modest suburb and a small resort.

By the 1970s the historic heart of Berwick was in a state of decay, reflecting a fragile economy and a static population.

Suburban expansion continued and demand for homes within the walled town diminished. By the end of the 20th century out-of-town supermarkets were capturing trade from the high street, resulting in store closures and a move downmarket into value retail even before internet shopping began to bite. These trends can be observed almost everywhere, and they are certainly not unique to Berwick. But they are felt particularly keenly by people living in a town a long way from any other settlement of significant scale. There is a keen sense that something important has been lost and that quality of life is being diminished. Some claims about the extent of deprivation in modern Berwick are exaggerated, but there are pockets of poverty and the local economy is based on low-skill, low-wage

Left - Berwick Quayside remains remarkably untramelled by the ravages of the 21st century

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Right - Although the odd egregious blip does slip through

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jobs. Relatively wealthy retirees, long distance commuters and visitors shore up the local income base.

Anyone visiting Berwick today cannot help but notice its ragged edges. Prominent buildings are inadequately maintained and, in some cases, at risk; some streets wear an air of neglect. But, overall, a great deal has changed for the better and, for all the challenges it faces, the town is in visibly better heart than it was a generation ago. Successive English Heritage/Historic England grant schemes have restored dozens of key buildings in the conservation area, with work now under way on the near-derelict Cowe Buildings. The Berwick-upon-Tweed Preservation Trust’s restoration of the Dewar’s Lane Gallery to create a youth hostel and a gallery has been a brilliant success. Berwick Workspace, an awardwinning design by Malcolm Fraser Architects, opened in 2008 and a smart new office building by Ryder Architects is on site in Walkergate. As market confidence slowly recovers a number of small residential developments have been inserted into gap sites in the old town.

Berwick’s cultural life is thriving too. The Maltings is a remarkably successful arts centre which offers an annual programme of 500 events, workshops and screenings and sells more than 60,000 tickets every year, evidence of strong

customer loyalty in a town of 12,000 people and its rural hinterland. The annual Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival is preparing for its 12th edition in September, with a unique mix of feature films, commissions and video art installations in historic sites around the town centre; it has established an international reputation. Berwick Visual Arts organises a year-round programme of exhibitions and events. The town is also home to some distinguished artists, designers and makers. The brilliant Berwick Food & Beer Festival which, like the film festival, is entirely the creation of entrepreneurial locals is another annual fixture. In response to these and other developments there are signs that a new economy is emerging: the main street, Marygate, continues to struggle, but Bridge Street offers an interesting mix of speciality shopping and food. Attempts to establish a high-value visitor economy based on Berwick’s history have proved problematic, with businesses struggling to cross the threshold of viability, but positive progress is being made.

All this should be cause for, at the very least, qualified celebration, but the feelgood factor is notable by its absence.

Berwick is a remarkable place where extraordinary people are making great things happen, but it is also complicated, difficult and sometimes dysfunctional. The town’s long struggle to >

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BERWICK-UPON-TWEED

Some new builds do make a positive contribution to the streetscape, as here on the Main Street

find a sustainable economic role has been made more difficult by a spectacular breakdown in local governance. Infighting, personal acrimony and endless conspiracy theories have plagued the Town Council for years. 2015 was a particular annus horribilis: the County Council pulled the plug on funding for the town’s Portas Pilot following a police investigation into fraud allegations; a town councillor received a police caution after admitting daubing obscenities on a political rival’s business premises; and the County Council’s Standards Committee found that another town councillor had, among other things, bullied the Town Clerk. There are many more lurid stories and the turmoil has provided plenty of entertainment for locals and endless copy for the Berwick Advertiser, but in truth the effects are anything but amusing. Local politics are conducted in an atmosphere so toxic that good people with a huge amount to contribute have been driven out of public service, understandably unwilling to expose themselves and their families to the bile and intimidation. A corrosive nihilism prevails: every decision is problematic and everyone’s motives are suspect.

Apart from the impact on the lives of those most directly affected, it’s hard to gauge how much impact all this sound and fury has had on regeneration efforts in Berwick. Things still get done, with or without the support of the town council, URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

but how many opportunities have been lost or delayed unnecessarily? Northumberland has been a single tier local authority since 2009 when the underperforming Berwick Borough Council was wound up, and the Town Council has few powers and limited influence. With some justification people in Berwick feel remote from the local and regional seats of power, but the relentlessly negative tone of public debate is not doing the town any favours. It’s also been the default position for far too long, giving the town a reputation as a place where it’s hard to get things done. This meant that Berwick missed out on funding opportunities in a time of relative plenty and it has been paying the price in the age of austerity.

Artists, entrepreneurs and developers continue to be excited by the opportunities that Berwick presents, but economic and market conditions remain challenging. At the risk of stating the obvious, local representatives need to abandon their oppositional posture and start to make a positive contribution towards a strategy for the future, drawing on the knowledge and creative ideas generated by a series of excellent and unjustly neglected studies and reports commissioned in the past decade. Work on a Neighbourhood Plan, long discussed and much delayed, resumed earlier this year. It could be a good place to rediscover the virtues of civility and rational debate.

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Above - Berwick Workspace, a modern business incubation space Below - Residential infill on Mount Road, Tweedmouth

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PERTH

MARK CHALMERS

THE RECENT CLOSURE OF PERTH OF MCEWENS DEPARTMENT STORE HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE CHALLENGES THE CITY FACES. WILL THE UPPER TAY CROSSING, CITY DEAL BID, THIMBLEROW DEVELOPMENT AND OTHER PROJECTS BE ENOUGH TO PUT THIS CLOSURE, NOT TO MENTION THE CITY HALLS FIASCO, BEHIND IT? MARK CHALMERS INVESTIGATES.

C I TY S I CKER? McEwens of Perth, the city’s oldest department store, went into administration a few weeks ago. For several generations it provided retail therapy for Perthshire farmers’ wives and the city’s well-heeled. No longer.

Out of curiosity, I went along to the Closing Down sale. I joined the queue on a drizzly March morning and shuffled along as the doorman let in a dozen folk at a time. There was no pushing or shoving: Perth is too genteel for that.

Whilst standing around, I got chatting to a local lady – and soon the conversation turned to the Perth City Halls. The halls stand on nearby St John’s Place, and I wondered why public opinion was so strongly in favour of retaining the redundant buildings. Her answer was simple; people feel attached to them because that’s where they did their courting.

The Main City Hall and Lesser City Hall sit within a NeoBaroque pile, and were built just before the Great War. They’ve lain, more or less abandoned, since the new concert hall at Horsecross opened in 2005. Hackles were raised when plans were put forward to demolish them, and a campaign to Save the City Halls began. Historic Scotland rejected demolition in 2012, then Simpson & Brown drew up conversion proposals the following year.

Today, Perth & Kinross Council appear no closer to deciding their fate, and the City Halls have become Perth’s equivalent > to Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen, or Dundee’s Central URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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The demise of Perth of McEwens has hit the city hard

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PERTH

Left - The Perth City Halls will they/won’t they demolition fiasco has brought civic dithering to the fore Right - Thimblerow is a great regeneration hope

Waterfront ten years ago: a civic shame, a failure of democracy or a wasted opportunity, depending on your outlook.

Half an hour later, we finally made it through McEwens’ plate glass doors. All the “bargains” had gone, so I exited the store in search of lunch. At this point, factors outwith my control took a hand. Raised voices came into focus from a nearby pub, and suddenly a door burst open. Four young duellists in St Johnstone colours spilled out onto the street, and a right melée ensued.

I quickly headed up Paul Street, past the City Mills and towards Thimblerow: a large car park which was once slum housing. The tenements were demolished in the 1960’s and Thimblerow has been a gap site ever since. In fact, although the site has been earmarked for development over the past 20 years, work was never initiated. Until now.

Expresso Properties intend that the new Thimblerow will provide the larger retail floorplates which Perth is apparently lacking. At first glance, the Holmes Miller-designed scheme in the newly-designated Mill Quarter seems like a classic mixeduse development with restaurants and bars, speciality shops, a cinema, gym, student housing and a multi-storey car park.

However, the thing which sets Thimblerow apart is its status as the first project promoted by the Scottish Cities URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

Alliance. The city council provided the site, it was marketed through the Alliance, and and Expresso were selected as development partner. The project has a high political profile – it can’t afford to fail.

A couple of streets away from Thimblerow, the redevelopment of Perth Theatre has just begun. Horsecross Arts – which runs both Perth Theatre and Perth Concert Hall – commissioned Richard Murphy Architects to revamp the Edwardian theatre. Demolition men are currently clearing away old workshops and rehearsal rooms at the rear of the building, and soon construction will begin on a new entrance facing Mill Street.

With that, the theatre’s aspect will turn through 180 degrees and it will look towards the new Premier Inn in Pullar’s Dyeworks, and Perth Concert Hall at Horsecross. Along with the city’s Museum and Art Gallery, these buildings form the core of the Cultural Quarter.

A new Perth City Plan was published recently: according to Perth & Kinross Council’s planners, the city centre now consists of a Mill Quarter, Cultural Quarter, the retail core and the Inches beyond them. Perth’s shape has certainly changed, perhaps the plan acknowledges that. Popular wisdom is that the traditional high street is dead, killed by the internet and retail parks. In

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Perth’s case that means St Catherine’s Retail Park, five minutes away.

City centres will only survive, it’s said, if they become social areas with speciality shops, pubs, cinemas, and cafés.

It’s been suggested that Perth’s boutique shops, in areas like Princes Street, need to be nurtured and would benefit from being grouped together, in what’s known in retail terms as “special accessibility”. That approach is common to both the Thimblerow project and tentative plans to rescue the City Halls.

If the Halls are retained, perhaps they will become a shopping arcade along the lines of La Boqueria in Barcelona or Boston’s Faneuil Hall – although the death of McEwens does nothing to convince us that more city centre retail space is required. On the other hand, if the Halls are demolished, they may make way for a civic square and market place. From leftfield, there came a proposal to turn the City Halls into a museum, to boost Perth’s bid to become a future City of Culture.

The CIty Halls have become a favourite cause for local worthies, and the pet subject of letter writers to the local newspapers. The débacle has run for several years and may last for several more: at its root is the council’s failure, long before Horsecross was commissioned, to work out what to do with the

City Halls afterwards. A decade after the Concert Hall opened, as one contributor to the papers put it, “We should throw away our hard hats and put on our visionary bunnets.”

As the lady in the McEwens queue made clear, buildings have a sentimental power – and just like her, I have my own reasons to feel close to Perth. My ties are with the city’s edges, the land which sat beyond Perth proper, and that’s where huge, shattering changes are coming.

Traditionally, Perth’s edges were strongly defined. It was hemmed to the east by the steep bank of the Tay, to the south by an escarpment with the Earn beyond it, and to the north by the Almond. One of my father’s uncles has a farm called Windyedge out beyond the Broxden roundabout; a great uncle had Newton of Huntingtower farm. With its name so redolent of John Buchan’s novel, the latter was swallowed up by a housing estate and the city’s crematorium.

Now the farmland which lies beyond it at Ruthvenfield has been earmarked by the Pilkington Trust for the Almond Valley Village: a mixed use development with 1500 houses, a primary school and community facilities. An outline application was refused at the start of May, but the same sitting of the Planning committee approved Bertha Park. Bertha Park, located across the River Almond from Inveralmond industrial estate, is even >

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PERTH

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Left - Despite recent depredations Perth maintains good bones Top Right - Perth has come under pressure from growing housing demand Bottom Right - Perth is in line to benefit from long awaited improvements to the A9

larger, a £1 billion development with woodland, community facilities and employment land – plus 3000 new homes.

For generations, the Tay, Earn and Almond were physical and psychological barriers, but now they’re about to be breached by the Cross Tay Link Road and a new Almond crossing: enabling works which will open up the land at Bertha Park and Ruthvenfield. Those developments will be supplemented by Oudenarde to the south on the former Bridge of Earn hospital site, plus Scone North and Balgarvie to the north-east of the city.

Both Bertha Park and Ruthvenfield are effectively new towns and with them, Perth has taken over the claim to be “Scotland’s fastest-growing city” from Inverness. In fact, Perth will be a very different shape in ten or fifteen years’ time. Perth & Kinross Council have allocated Almond Valley Village, Bertha Park and Perth West in the local development plan as strategic development areas which together could provide over 5,000 homes, and that follows on from a prediction that the area’s population may grow by 25 per cent in the next twenty years.

Adding an extra 10,000 people to a city the size of Perth is radical: it would be a big deal even in a city the size of Edinburgh or Glasgow. What’s surprising is that almost all these schemes lie on greenfield land which needs to be unlocked by

major new roads.

The strange thing is that there isn’t a lack of brownfield land, most of it closer to the city centre. The railway marshalling yards at Tulloch – “Perth New Yard”, from which the tracks have been lifted and the Space Age control tower demolished – is a vast site zoned for housing. Its owner, DB Schenker Rail promotes it as such, although it may lie fallow for a few more years, just like the Perth Mart site on Crieff Road. Black Angus cattle were once auctioned off in the Mart’s world-famous Perth Bull Sales, but Sainsbury’s drew back from building a huge supermarket here in 2014, after the mart moved south to Stirling.

In some respects, Perth is a microcosm of how development works in Scotland. The local authority and its arms-length bodies promote city centre schemes like the City Halls, Thimblerow and the Theatre. Greenfield development at Bertha Park, Ruthvenfield, Balgarvie and Oudenarde is put forward by housing developers working with local landowners.

Commercial firms like DB Schenker and Sainsburys have an interest in revitalising dead land in the inner city and suburbs.

The relative scale of public sector and commercial developments is typical, too, as are the high stakes involved.

In fact, the representations made to the Scottish Government >

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PERTH

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Richard Murphy Architects have been commissioned to revamp Perth’s Edwardian theatre

reporter are fascinating – if you like that kind of thing – as Stewart Milne Homes, M. & S.M. Bullough, Zurich Assurance, Springfield Properties, The Pilkington Trust, John Dewar Lamberkin Trust and their rivals vie with each other to get their schemes adopted.

A fourth factor is that Perth is large enough to have a roll of indigenous companies with corporate headquarters in the city – including General Accident (now Aviva), Stagecoach and Scottish & Southern. However, the city is most associated with the surest wealth-generator of them all – whisky.

The Gloags, Bells and Dewars are both whisky dynasties and patrons of architecture. The Dewar’s Centre with its ice rink is a well-known act of philanthropy. Arthur Bell founded the Gannochy Trust, which has contributed to countless projects over the decades from Doo’cot Park to the city’s water treatment works on the Sleepless Inch. Best known

are the Bell’s Sports Centre with its giant glulam dome, Bell’s Cherrybank Gardens and the AK Bell Library on York Place.

The Edrington Group, with brands like The Famous Grouse and Macallan, recently announced they would move from their HQ at Walnut Grove which was purpose-designed by Parr Architects only a decade ago. Edrington sponsored the giant steel grouse which squats in the middle of the Broxden roundabout. While the grouse will presumably stay put, the site at Walnut Grove will become something else, perhaps tied into a new Park & Ride facility.

Perth may eventually solve the riddle of the City Halls, find a new use for McEwens, develop its various Quarters and shape-shift to provide thousands more homes. However, it’s whisky money which gave the city its civic flourishes and it’s a good bet that Perth will call on its philanthropists again, because they’re the only ones wearing visionary bunnets.

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

AMIDST THE ONSET OF SUMMER URBAN REALM DISHES THE DIRT ONCE MORE ON LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, A FIELD WHICH HAS GROWN TO COVER EXCITING NEW GROUND IN RECENT YEARS. OVER A SERIES OF INTERVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES WE OUTLINE THE CURRENT LIE OF THE LAND. Many in the landscape profession have a spring in their step as summer approaches

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Q&A Rolf Roscher, Director, erz What has been your key project of the past 12 months?

There have been quite a few, a diverse range of projects, interesting in different ways. It is hard to choose one in particular. We are just completing delivery of Barrowfield Park in the east end of Glasgow, Newcraigs Hospital Campus in Inverness and the first phase of Royal Edinburgh Hospital is underway. The Possil Health Centre ‘urban gym wall’ is an interesting public realm intervention. We have also carried out a couple of strategic ‘Integrated Green Infra-structure’ studies covering different parts of Greater Glasgow. Obviously we are excited that Kilmahew / St Peter’s is now moving forward as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Bellahouston Park. It was also good to be shortlisted as one of the final 3 teams for the Land Art Generator Initiative Glasgow competition: a great team and an exciting proposal.

How will the importance of landscape change in a world battling food security, climate change and sustainability?

The importance of landscape arguably doesn’t change (it has always been pivotal). However, the political and economic imperatives driving decision making are changing. As a result, the skills of the landscape architect appear to be increasingly important in the unfolding 21st century. This includes the ability to design spaces for people, to work with natural and cultural processes and to take a systems based approach to master planning and strategy.

What is the most satisfying aspect of your job?

Certainly I find one of the most thrilling things is to have imagined a place in your head, to have anticipated a spatial experience and then to physically experience it.

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Susan Irwine, Associate and Landscape Architect, Gillespies What has been your key project of the past 12 months?

Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow We have been working on the designs for a new public realm for The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. The new £842 million hospital facility, formerly known as the South Glasgow University Hospital, started taking patients in April 2015. The grounds – which are currently still under construction – will provide a high quality green campus setting for the new and existing buildings, available not only to hospital visitors but also to local residents.

The transport hub provides combined bus and taxi drop-off facilities alongside new multi-storey car parks, which are situated in close proximity and connected to the main arrival plaza via granite paved and tree-lined footways.

Two new parks have been designed in conjunction with the SUDs requirements for the site. The Children’s Park – which incorporates bespoke, themed play equipment – is built over an underground cell storage arrangement whilst the Central Park is set around a large open, water and wetland feature. Both parks provide areas to play and relax, comprising a series of hard and soft, formal and informal designed landscaped areas, including; woodland planting, orchard, ornamental shrub, herbaceous planting and wildflower meadows, bringing a variety of landscape habitats into an urban setting.

How do we create more diverse habitats in urban areas?

All landscape projects have an opportunity to create a diverse range of habitats in urban areas, even if the available space is small. The key, particularly in small spaces, is not to have a mono-culture design response, whether that be with plants or surface finishes. With planting, it can be too easy to select evergreen, robust and trusted plant species, but with the right combination of plants it is possible to achieve year round visual interest as well as providing micro areas of suitable habitats for wildlife.

Trees and shrubs with colourful and / or interesting bark qualities are an alternative to evergreen species, planted in association with spring, summer, autumn or winter perennials or a combination of these will provide year round interest, as well as food sources for insects, URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

which in turn support birds. Deciduous species have the added advantage of denoting the seasons of the year.

Surface finishes need not simply be flags or sets.

When designed in conjunction with the planting, pebbles, gravel and shell mulches are all ideal materials for creating micro habitats for wildlife.

If the ground area is limited, think vertically.

What is the most satisfying aspect of your job?

Having an influence on the environment that I live in is hugely rewarding. I enjoy the creativity of the design process and watching the transformation of spaces and places unfold. Projects that provide the greatest opportunity to improve both people’s lives and that of wildlife is particularly satisfying. Cunningar Loop, Dalmanock, is an excellent example of this. We have transformed 15 hectares of previously derelict land into an urban park that provides local residents with a muchneeded recreation facility, but has also been designed with nature in mind. A substantial amount of existing hawthorn and willow scrub has been retained to ensure a framework to the new park and supplemented with new woodland and ornamental tree species to broaden the range of habitats as well as giving visitors the opportunity to experience trees with different and unusual forms and habits.

The core of the park – the Activity Zone – provides a range of exciting bespoke-designed play and natural play facilities, whilst the perimeter of the park has wildlife in mind incorporating new native woodland edge planting and small water features. A new boardwalk allows public access through a substantial part of this area, enjoying the quiet of the River Clyde location but without interfering with wildlife habitats.

During the course of the construction process the increase in wildlife variety has been substantial, from organisms in the soil, to an increase in bird varieties and improved habitats for otters, badgers, deers and foxes.

This project is an excellent example of the coexistence of people and wildlife encompassed by the urban environment.

Fraser Halliday Landscape Architect HarrisonStevens Limited How will the importance of landscape change in a world battling food security, climate change and

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sustainability?

Whilst landscape architecture possesses an intelligent The combination of social design toolkit, we stil have a fair secht to gain a more media, word of mouth and appropriate role in discourse on the built environment an increased global urgency, has seen the field of landscape architecture gain momentum each year. Internationally, What has been your key project of the past 12 months? it is earning a critical reputation for contributing to After graduating in 2015, I have had the opportunity meaningful urban transformation. This is because our within HarrisonStevens to learn directly from Inverness profession is at the forefront of sustainable, resilient and Campus as well as from our annual European study tour. In adaptable urban thinking with an opportunity to mediate particular, this experience has informed and developed my between current research and its robust implementation work towards restructuring public space at University of Unfortunately in Scotland, whilst Landscape Edinburgh’s King’s Buildings Campus.

Architecture possesses an intelligent design toolkit, we Fundamentally, the design reshapes the previously continually have a sair fecht to gain a more appropriate ad hoc structure of the campus into a rational, high role on the discourse over the built environment. We need quality environment that responds to topography, aspect, to coordinate our aspiration into a cohesive contextual viewpoints and flexible external programme. In doing strategy, get the right people around the table and so, the campus will become a lively external destination overcome constraining procurement barriers. populated with new squares, courtyards and public parkland for the local community.

How can landscape architects increase their infl uence?

Strategically, the campus location situated directly Firstly, a combination of professionalism, proven between city and green belt is an important urban deliverability and competent technical knowledge will threshold. Therefore, underpinning the scheme are engender respect amongst colleagues in the construction multilayered networks that manage rain water and industry. Secondly, this must be compounded with vocal establish habitats whilst simultaneously providing a range and inspirational Landscape Architects driving intelligent of cycle and walking routes. proposals.

Martin Tabor, One of our major challenges is translating aspirational Director of Landscape Architecture landscape concepts and myriad availability of research LUC into legible objectives for deliverable schemes that both public and client understand its worth. In my mind, What has been your key project of the past 12 months? even in an increasingly dynamic and complex cityscape, My key project over the last 12 months has been the I still believe the theoretical foundation of influential University of Glasgow Infrastructure Design in relation design was carved by two landmark Scottish Landscape to the new £multi-million masterplan for the Gilmorehill Architects: Patrick Geddes and Ian McHarg. It was Campus and former Western Infirmary site. LUC is Geddes’s ‘conservative surgery’ that identified deliverable supporting Arup in Infrastructure Design for what must and essential tactical changes and interventions, while be one the most significant and exciting development McHarg’s strategic planning encourages designers to projects in Scotland at the present time. LUC’s role is think across boundaries and connect solutions to wider primarily in the design and delivery of public realm for environmental systems and networks. both the ‘new’ campus on the former Western Infirmary In practice, combining critical facets of their thinking site and the old campus on Gilmorehill and Hillhead. into a well-balanced approach offers buildable solutions This involves the design of extensive public realm, to typically restricted plot-by-plot development and green infrastructure and landscapes to create new civic, challenging budgets. In doing so, we create both value academic and community spaces and linkages with and urgency. Without it each project would simply the surrounding areas. The project also provides the become piece meal, or as Raoul Bunschoten described: opportunity to enhance the landscape setting of the urban flotsam.

Gilbert Scott complex on Gilmorehill. This constitutes a challenging, multi-dimensional urban design project which >

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will transform a significant area of Glasgow’s West End whilst providing enormous benefits for the University and the local community. The scope and aspirations for the project make it a wonderful opportunity. Proximity to our office also makes the project extra special as we will experience the changes first hand over years to come.

How can landscape architects increase their infl uence?

There is a growing body of empirical evidence on how well-planned and designed landscapes can positively change the character of an area and its functionality across several criteria. This evidence, combined with the high value placed by communities on their living environments, should be harnessed and broadcast by landscape architects to demonstrate the benefits of schemes which consider landscape as an integral and meaningful part of developments. I believe landscape architects can play an important role in providing added value to development projects, and in making existing landscape resources perform better for all. Wider recognition of these benefits will lead to increased influence for landscape architects on policy makers and clients.

How will the importance of landscape change in a world battling food security, climate change and sustainability?

I believe the importance of landscape and environmental qualities generally have already been recognised for the benefits they can bring to inter alia: climate change mitigation, physical and mental health, social cohesion, property values, and biodiversity. Increasing pressures on landscapes will only bring these values into sharper focus, and the future will have to look creatively at how land can serve multiple purposes and absorb pressures from population expansion and associated intensified development. The design of urban landscapes will be particularly important aspect of future sustainability, and will likely bring the greatest challenges. These require an holistic approach which ensures the creation of attractive and versatile living/ working environments which can also operate for urban cooling, drainage attenuation, access and recreation, and local food production. I therefore expect that green infrastructure will become increasingly important and that the positive use of all brownfield sites will be essential to meet future demands for developments and open space, and in so doing, protect existing environmental assets.

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Sarah Barron, Landscape Architect SMITH SCOTT MULLAN ASSOCIATES How will the importance of landscape change in a world battling food security, climate change and stability?

Most of these issues are the function of increasing population and how this is accommodated within a changing environment. Wild land and the access to it will become more prized as it becomes rarer and conservation measures will be required. More concentrated and innovative ways of growing and providing food will develop, from urban farms to intensive aqua-culture.

Much of the world’s land source is only providing a fraction of its potential and landscape architects are perhaps better placed than many other professionals to develop strategies to cope with climate change, and the many issues it will throw up especially, the increase of flooding, food production, wildlife and biodiversity protection. Landscape design and management can be a contributor in maximising benefit both for mankind and for other species.

How do we create more diverse habitats in urban areas?

The techniques of habitat diversification are well established, from pocket parks to green walls.

International examples abound, from the Vauban district of Freiburg to the re-use of redundant urban infrastructure, such as the High Line in New York.

One major issue is in getting clients to understand the importance and value of landscape and to accept the ongoing running costs. We need to persuade local authorities to actively commission greening programmes.

The public must also see the advantages of diverse habitats and it is important that Landscape Architects promote the advantages in a positive way. Landscape needs to be seen as the backbone of urban structure that will guide the growth of a community. Green Infrastructure can help to create bio-diversity and new wildlife habitats as well as making our towns and cities more resilient to climate change. It is important to link our green spaces together to form chains and corridors to increase an area’s wildlife potential, thereby creating more exciting ecosystems. There will be instances where we can retrofit green infrastructure to existing housing developments and commercial areas of our towns, creating new green roofs, living walls and edible food growing projects as well as recreation. Landscape

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Architects can work with SuDs engineers to adapt sterile, uninspired hard surface areas to create useable space where planting, wildlife and biodiversity can be introduced and habitat creation made possible through rain gardens, green streets and bio-retention verges.

We need to use plants in a more effective way to face the challenge of climate change, it should be exciting, cost effective and multi-functional, taking inspiration from the landscapes created at London Olympic Park or the Barbican. We need to revisit the way we design and manage our urban landscapes to make them more resilient and sustainable for wildlife and deliver maximum benefits to society.

How can landscape architects increase their infl uence: Landscape Architecture is a wide-reaching industry which is constantly evolving, encompassing many issues from ecology to placemaking. The landscape architect’s influence is directly proportional to the priority which the general public put on landscape. Hence the demands they make on their elected representatives in order to protect or enhance it. Consistently promoting the importance of the landscape at every level of society is vital, as is the role of landscape architects in criticising proposals which have a negative influence on the environment. One of the key emerging areas for concern, and hence potential for influence, is the inevitable expansion of our cities, towns and villages into their surrounding landscape in response to Scotland’s current housing crisis.

Landscape architects could perhaps be more effective if they develop better project management skills and integrate themselves into multidisciplinary teams. Collaboration with other professionals, with clients, developers and with local authorities will be the key to increasing their influence.This points to a growth in advisory roles and advocacy, working within multidisciplinary teams at a more strategic level, playing a greater part in masterplanning. Similarly there is also a recognition of the growing need to engage with the public, who often only understand landscape architecture as ‘Beautification’. Landscape architects could increase their profile by investing more time with local communities, the stakeholders and end-users, creating more functional and sustainable local community landscapes, which aim of improve our health and well being. There is a need to articulate the benefits landscape architecture brings to the public in clear succinct layman’s language.

Gary Stodart, Director TGP Landscape Architects How can landscape architects increase their infl uence?

Landscape Architects are now a lead voice on landscape at a national level and help guide government thinking and policy and are now at the forefront of key issues including use of our natural resources and the development of sustainable communities. We also are bringing a balanced environmental, social and economic approach to tackling climate change. This is being reinforced through the Landscape Institute’s Policy and Technical Committees and branches which regularly prepare submissions to Government departments and agencies in response to national public consultations on wide range of landscape issues.

How do we create more diverse habitats in urban areas?

Understanding the requirements of end users and other stake holders coupled with detailed analysis of specific site constraints can increase a collective understanding of capacity and capability of sites to accommodate habitats. Landscape Architects can contribute to the process by collaborating with other consultants such as ecologist, planners and engineers to achieve a sustainable design solutions with increased biodiversity potential.

Landscape Architect’s role as part of Green Infrastructure planning represents a holistic approach to the natural and built environment within urban areas and contribute in providing benefits for the economy, biodiversity and wider communities as well as playing an important part in climate change adaptation.

What is the most satisfying aspect of your job?

Influencing design and planning strategies as part of a direct commission or within larger consultancy teams gives me great satisfaction. Our involvement in project work often from feasibility to project completion allows us to influence design at an early stage and be an integral part of the project evolution and development. At TGP we always strive to deliver high quality landscape projects that exceed our clients’ aspirations. TGP are advocates of an integrated landscape-led design approach which has the power to transform a place and people’s attitudes toward their homes and communities.

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The Hansel Foundation The Hansel Foundation, based at the Broadmeadows Estate in South Ayrshire, offers innovative support and care to adults with a range of disabilities. Erz were appointed to develop ideas for the underused walled garden at the heart of the landscape estate, to bring this lost space back to life.

The sloping walled garden was terraced to create a flexible grass area and orchard alongside more intimate spaces defined by the topography.

The upper edge of the garden is defined by a south facing seating wall and a series of shelters. The walled garden incorporates raised beds, in-ground growing areas and a bespoke ‘potting shed’ building (also designed by erz).

The finely detailed brick enclosing walls (part of the arts and crafts built heritage of the estate) were stabilised and repaired and a new feature gate introduced forming a connection to the wider landscape.

The range of uses of the redesigned walled garden currently includes: quiet sitting, wandering, events, fitness classes and horticultural therapy.

The walled garden has become a new hub of activity for Hansel’s clients, reflecting their varying needs and interests.

Top - Looking towards the potting shed and shelter.

Middle - The new gate opening in the existing garden wall.

Bottom - Walled garden overview showing growing spaces and accessible routes.

Landscape Urbanism Design Strategy URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

erz, 21 James Morrison Street, Glasgow, G1 5PE Tel: 0141 552 0888 Email: info@erzstudio.co.uk Web: www.erzstudio.co.uk Twitter: www.twitter.com/erzstudio

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Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Gillespies delivered the new masterplan and landscape designs for the landmark £842 million Glasgow Hospital which was designed by architects IBI Group and constructed by Brookfield Multiplex in collaboration with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Board. The landscape scope included the design of the public spaces as well as roof gardens, terraces and signage.

The 14-storey ‘super hospital’ sits amongst Europe’s largest and most advanced medical campuses, setting a new benchmark in healthcare design and delivery. Set within an extensive public realm designed by Gillespies, the building’s strikingly different geometric forms - inspired by Clydeside’s maritime heritage - create an iconic landmark which has transformed the skyline.

Steve Wardell, Managing Partner, Gillespies, comments: “The landscape, and in particular the character and rhythm of the seasons is an important element in the creation of a positive healthcare environment. We worked with the NHS Board and the Brookfield team to define a Masterplan with a strong identity in which the hospital

buildings are grounded within a high quality external environment within the campus, and within the expansive and far reaching landscape beyond.

We understand the importance that staff, visitors and, in particular, patients place upon seeing and gaining access to the outside world as part of their healing process and in the definition of tangible milestones towards recovery.

Access to good landscape and engagement with weather, sunlight and views is an important part of feeling better. The scheme has been designed to deliver intuitive wayfinding and to create important opportunities for access to engaging landscape character areas as a break from the stresses of the clinical environment. Whilst function and efficiency is always paramount for any hospital, we hope and intend that this expansive and functional green campus character of linked parks, roof gardens and courtyards, will create a lasting and appropriate legacy for this exciting new landmark facility”.

Recently, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital picked up the international MIPIM award for Best Healthcare Development – a new category for 2016 that focuses on the fast-growing healthcare property segment.

Gillespies, 21 Carlton Court, Glasgow, G5 9JP Tel: +44 (0)141 420 8200 Email: sue.wilson@gillespies.co.uk Web: www.gillespies.co.uk Twitter: @GillespiesNews

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

© KIRK WATSON/LEE HOWELL/HIE

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Inverness Campus, Inverness Opened in May 2015 the HIE Inverness Campus extends over 35Ha on the southern fringe of the city of Inverness. The multi-layered estate has been designed to express the qualities and experiences of the Highland landscape. From rugged grassland meadows, to high quality and enduring stone detailing the estate is given structure by a northsouth axis.

The fully accessible site will be a gathering place where people work, learn, live and spend their leisure time. There is a series of perambulation routes for walking, jogging and cycling for both resident users of the campus and connected into the wider city infrastructure network.

The 1km internal estate loop frames the campus amenity core incorporating two lochans that manage the site’s full SUDs provision.

Set as a hierarchical journey of formality to nature, the southern water body is bound by the main public realm space for civic and collegiate gathering. This water body cascades into a fluctuating, beach edged, lochan that is the nucleus of the site’s vibrant biodiversity and targeted habitat creation. This in turn radiates out through the development plots via wildlife corridors of oak avenues and ecologically rich mixed native hedges. These link with a diverse boundary woodland providing further habitat alongside the environmental mitigation of wind, noise and visual screening.

HarrisonStevens Limited, Elmwood House, 40-44 Thistle Street, Edinburgh EH2 1EN Tel: 0131 226 2672 Email: Hello@HarrisonStevens.co.uk Web: www.HarrisonStevens.co.uk Twitter: @HSLimited URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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Newcastle Science Central Newcastle Science Central occupies the 20ha former Tyne Brewery site in the heart of Newcastle. Following masterplanning and statutory consents for the development of a new science- themed urban quarter, LUC worked as part of multidisciplinary team to deliver the first phase of the project. This included complex site preparation, infrastructure development and delivery of public realm as the framework for future developments. LUC’s Glasgow design team acted as landscape architects, responsible for the first phase of public realm for the project. This has included a network of streets and two new civic spaces: The project also has extensive areas of interim landscape with a public access network to allow positive use of the future development plots until they are needed. The project has established new connections with the surrounding urban areas and has created strategic links for cycling and student movements.

Design Approach The brief defined strong aspirations for a distinctive high quality public realm which promotes environmental sustainability and science themes whilst providing a range of

fully accessible and multi-functional spaces. LUC developed a public realm strategy which incorporated both permanent and interim landscapes in which the pedestrian has priority with level surfaces throughout to facilitate all-abilities access.

The new civic spaces, ‘Blue Star’’ and ‘Science’ Squares, were designed to become the key foci of social activity, events, science showcasing, and information exchange. Design concepts evoked science themes relating to digital technology and the ‘Big Bang’, creating distinctive spaces. The first developments on the site will frame the new civic spaces, to-date ‘The Core’ building by Faulkner Browns Architects has been completed on Blue Star Square, and major University buildings are set to follow on Science Square, including the Urban Sciences Building and the Conference & Learning Centre.

Sustainability is central to the project which has achieved CEEQUAL ‘Excellent’ rating. As examples: stone quarried on site during site preparation works was used as paving material and timber columned lighting make an overt statement. LUC has recently been assisting Faulkner Browns in a review of the Newcastle Science Central masterplan and this has involved consideration of how multi-purpose GI and integrated SUDs could become a significant feature of the developing site.

LUC, 37 Otago Street, Glasgow G12 8JJ Tel: 0141 334 9595 Email: glasgow@landuse.co.uk Web: www.landuse.co.uk Twitter: @LUCtweeting

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Nevis mountain resort masterplan Looking towards Ben Nevis, the area around Nevis Ski Range is a national focus for adventure sports, including skiing, climbing and mountain biking. It hosts large events including the Mountain Bike World Cup which makes it one of the major tourist destinations in the Scottish Highlands.

Our Masterplan creates a 20 year vision to direct future development and establish a platform of general support from the local community, business organisations and wider interest groups, in order to contribute to the future overall economy of the Lochaber area.

The project examines a number of development options, covering aspects from expanded facilities and environmental improvements at Nevis Ski Range to the provision of Accommodation Pods, a Bunkhouse and Camping Areas. It also promotes the integration of sustainable development into the surrounding forest, in the form of an 80 bed Spa Hotel and associated chalet development.

The project is being carried out in close liaison with the local area forestry staff in order to create an improved natural forest environment, which will both respect the working forest and add substantial value to the future developments.

This transformational project has the potential to create a destination of major importance to the Highland economy in years to come.

SMITH SCOTT MULLAN ASSOCIATES, 378 Leith Walk Edinburgh EH7 4PF Tel: 0131 555 1414 Email: mail@smith-scott-mullan.co.uk Web: www.smith-scott-mullan.co.uk

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Wyndford Estate Maryhill, Glasgow In May 2015 TGP Landscape Architects (TGP) were appointed to work with the Wheatley Group, their strategic partners Cube Housing Association and their customers in the community. The aim was to develop a strategic masterplan for an integrated green network encompassing the award winning and Wyndford estate and linking to the wider Maryhill area to a support a bid in relation to the Governments’ and Scottish Natural Heritage Green Infrastructure funding.

The site was developed in the 1960’s on the former Maryhill Barracks which had been located on Maryhill Road from 1876 to their decommissioning and demolition in 1961.

The estate lies within the remaining boundary wall of the Barracks is a mix of high-rise blocks of 26, 14, 9 and 8-storeys, plus walk-up flats and maisonettes. The flats won a Saltire award in 1968 for design. The site also contains the one millionth social housing construction project built in the UK. At the time of undertaking the study and masterplan the submission requirements of the bid process to obtain Green Infrastructure funding through the SNH had not been

detailed. However it is understood that support would be made to projects in urban areas which create or improve the quality of greenspaces, remediate vacant and derelict land to green end use, develop green corridors and improve accessibility to and links between greenspaces. TGP‘s proposals were based on this principal.

The output of the project was principally plan led in the format of a finalised Landscape Masterplan, with key detail areas and budget costs and a suggested implementation phasing programme for the development. The plan sought to address current issues of negative image, poor quality greenspace, lack of connectivity, fragmentary character and negative image. A key element in shaping the masterplan has been engagement with the community and with key partners which will ultimately build long-term capacity for decisionmaking and participation at a community level.

Almost a year later and TGP have been asked to prepare a phased environmental improvement package for the estate for implementation late 2016 – 2018. The design focuses on high quality materials and green infrastructure including redesign of all the courtyards, redistribution of car parking and provision of sustainable urban drainage solutions.

TGP Landscape Architects Ltd, 7 The Square, 95 Morrison St, Glasgow G5 8BE Tel: 0141 429 2999 Email: gary@tgp.uk.com Web: www.tgp.uk.com Twitter: @TGP_Landscape

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THE DEMISE OF RETAIL IN A DIGITAL AGE HAS LONG BEEN HERALDED BUT IN EDINBURGH THE SECTOR IS TO MAKE A GALLANT LAST STAND WITH AN £850M REDEVELOPMENT OF THE FORMER ST JAMES CENTRE TO CREATE 1.7M SQ/ FT OF NEW FLOORSPACE. HERE WE TAKE ONE LAST LOOK AT THE AGEING EDIFICE AS IT MAKES WAY FOR A NEW ERA OF RETAIL THERAPY. PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCO DE VITA.

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BETTER OFF OUT THAN IN? IN THE BATTLE TO RETROFIT EXISTING HOMES BRE HAS A NEW WEAPON AT ITS DISPOSAL, AN ONLINE DATABASE OF INSULATION PRODUCTS & DETAILS. When choosing to install energy efficiency measures in their homes, consumers rely on a framework of standards to ensure that they are protected and get a good quality outcome. Key to realising this ‘good quality outcome’ is not only robust framework processes, but access to and use of easy to understand best practice design and information.

Meanwhile, the biggest impact in an area is from schemes funded by the UK and devolved Governments. Typically these have focussed on a fairly ‘one size fits all approach’ aimed at reducing primary energy demand. A key aspect of schemes such as Green Deal and ECO has been to target an improvement in the thermal performance of external walls to improve the energy efficiency of older homes in the UK. This is a logical enough approach, in that although insulating older housing stock is one of the greatest challenges for energy efficiency policy, it can potentially make one of the greatest impacts on energy consumption and carbon emissions. The most common form of retrofit wall insulation in the UK is applied externally, as it is less disruptive to the residents and logistically less challenging when compared with internal wall insulation.

Cosmetically it can be argued that external insulation has both positive and negative effects – if applied universally to a street it ‘tidies things up’ but it can result in a patchwork effect where some properties are insulated and others not. This can also lead to detailing anomalies where adjacent properties are not both treated, which can affect performance outcomes. In addition, there is increasing evidence of unintended consequences from retrofit energy efficiency measures the impact of which, leaves end users in a worse position than before the installation, with little or no way of recourse. This is particularly relevant to external wall insulation installations, where impacts resulting from poor choices and defective installation can range from poor air quality, condensation, damp and even mould growth causing significant health implications.

Amber Rudd and Greg Clark, the Secretaries of State for DECC and DCLG, recently commissioned Dr Peter Bonfield, Chief Executive of BRE, to chair an Independent Review of

Consumer Advice, Protection, Standards and Enforcement for UK home energy efficiency and renewable energy measures – the ‘Bonfield Review’.

The BRE Certified Thermal Details and Products Scheme has and continues to engage with industry manufacturers, installers and associations to provide best practice solutions and products to support developers, designers and ultimately the end occupier. Recent studies have identified that one of the biggest issues was the design and installation of ‘retrofit’ solutions for external wall insulation. As a result the Scheme has developed a set of ‘retrofit’ construction details which utilise external wall insulation which is one of the most commonly utilised energy efficiency measures adopted under ECO and other similar schemes.

The ‘retrofit’ details will be listed within a section of the BRE scheme’s online database, which allows users to search a wide range of accurate and independently assessed thermal junction details, products and elements, ensuring accuracy, consistency, credibility and quality throughout the design, specification and construction process.

One of BRE’s retrofit experts Colin King stated: ‘BRE has traditionally focused upon research, certification, training and business to business advice as a way of maintaining and driving industry performance, but as the way the industry is working is changing to enable access to more digital content, so must our way of disseminating best practice information. The development of a full set of external wall insulation retrofit details, which are freely available through the Certified Thermal Details and Products Scheme online database, can help to support best practice design and installation, reduce any ‘unintended consequences’ and ultimately support the process of giving the end user a good quality outcome. We encourage insulation manufacturers and installers to continue to engage with us.’

The external wall insulation retrofit junction details will be published online this summer, with a range of collaboration opportunities available for insulation manufacturers. Further information can be found below.

Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 0RZ Tel: 01355 576200 Email: CertifiedThermalProducts@bre.co.uk Web: www.bre.co.uk/certifiedthermalproducts

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Previous page - This apocalyptic sight will make way for a new shopping mecca Above - Edinburgh is hoping to stem a bleed of consumer spending to its great rival in the west

Contentious plans to erect a set-piece hotel at the heart of the planned redevelopment of Edinburgh’s St James Centre promise not only to deliver one of the most significant additions to the city in a generation, but also to remove one of its largest buildings from the streetscape and skyline.

Initially designed by Burke Martin Partnership in 1964 but was completed by architects Ian G Cooke and Hugh Martin of Hugh Martin & Partners after Martin’s partnership with Ian Burke ceased in 1969.

Developer TH Real Estate is currently soft stripping this brutalist landmark to make way for the Jestico + Whiles designed Peeled Orange as centrepiece to the Allan Murray designed mall but before they do photographer Marco DeVita has taken one last wander around the endless corridors and spaces to document the structures final moments.

DeVita said: “I have always been very attracted by architecture. I believe it’s probably the only art form that constantly surrounds and affects every single person, whether they like it or not, whether at home or outside. I have been lucky enough to have experienced life around Western Europe and East Asia and be able to observe first-hand how different societies and cultures shape

architecture, the concept of beauty and its purpose.

“The St. James Shopping mall is a very characteristic building that takes a very large amount of space in one of Edinburgh’s most touristic and vibrant areas. Its effect on its visitors and its surroundings is undeniable, and whether we actually like its architecture or not, its demolition will undoubtedly reshape once again a central part of a city that has recently seen many changes to its style and architecture.

“Walking past it so many times every day on my way to work or shopping on a weekend, I started thinking how such a monolith of a building could be demolished and gone forever, slowly disappearing from our memories. I felt like I could not waste the opportunity to immortalise it in a series of photos before it was too late.”

For many the St James Centre (and the swathe of Edinburgh demolished to make way for it) is a symbol of all that was wrong with seventies planning but is DeVita optimistic that its replacement will fare any better in the longer term? “Change is never easy and a lot of times we end up appreciating architecture not for its beauty or for its purpose but rather because it is a familiar sight or a place where we may hold many memories”, DeVita said. >

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Walk this way: The decaying ramparts of the mall will look down on shoppers no more URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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Top - Edinburgh’s skyline is set for a period of dramatic change Bottom - Grey will be banished from the new build

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Top - The new look St James Centre will lay down the gauntlet to Glasgow Bottom - The centre will turn outwards to embrace the streetscape URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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The twisting form of Jesticho & Wiles’ hotel will transform the Edinburgh skyline

“In this particular case, and The St James Centre has imposed itself upon the capital for certainly the same can be said the better part of 45 years. Its successor will need to stand about brutalist architecture in general, St James Shopping considerably longer if the investment is to be worthwhile mall may never be remembered for its beauty, but the character and nonchalance expelled by the harsh symmetry and its evening economy. dully grey and brown colours end up being an explosive DeVita concluded: “Edinburgh can boast about having combination that simply fails to leave anyone unfazed and some of the most spectacular architecture in the world, without an opinion - arguably this is indeed what art is all however I think it has yet to find an identity when it comes about. to modern buildings. Recent constructions such as the “The planned new St. James Shopping does a better job ever so (un)popular parliament building and the apartment of keeping coherent with the neighbouring Multrees Walk buildings situated in the Newhaven Harbour fail to feel and the style of the New Town, but perhaps the hotel by organic and unnecessarily disrupt the style and feel of a city Jestico & Whiles is too concerned on attracting attention to that should be encouraged to keep improving and adapting itself rather than finding a balance between the old and the to the times but still without deviating too much from new.” centuries of brilliant and stunning architecture.”

This hotel is merely the whipped cream on top of a The St. James Centre has imposed itself on the capital layered confection of uses that will include 85 shops, 30 for the better part of 45 years and its passing won’t be restaurants, a multi-screen cinema and 210 room hotel missed by most. Whether its successor will ever be taken to upon completion, illustrative of the current trend toward heart or remain as something more utilitarian remains to be giant mixed use complexes over single use developments seen but it will certtainly need to stand considerably longer which can stand idle, earning little, during the critical if the mammoth investment is to prove worthwhile.

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SIGHTHILL JOHN GLENDAY

NOR T HERN EXPOSURE

The bones of past grand housing projects litter the landscape at Sighthill URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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THE CITY OF GLASGOW IS NO STRANGER TO THE CYCLE OF DEMOLITION AND REBIRTH SO AS THE HIGH RISES OF SIGHTHILL MAKE WAY FOR LOW RISE FLATS AND TOWN HOUSES MANY COULD BE FORGIVEN A SENSE OF DEJA VU. WE POUND ITS NEWLY LAID STREETS TO SEE IF THIS LATEST STAB AT REGENERATION HOLDS OUT ANY BETTER PROSPECT OF DURABILITY THAN ITS FOREBEARS. PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEITH HUNTER.

Whilst Glasgow’s east end has benefitted from Commonwealth Games largesse the comparatively forgotten northern outskirts of the city have remained largely below the radar but with Sighthill’s designation as a Transformational Regeneration Area things are slowly beginning to change.

The first visible fruit of this change is an estate of 141 new build houses for social rent, built on behalf of Glasgow Housing Association to provide spill accommodation for the tenants of five nearby tower blocks which are being demolished. Some have opted for more central accommodation on the High Street but those who chose to remain are the pioneers of a new Sighthill which is literally rising from the ashes of the old.

In order to speed up the delivery schedule the properties were all prefabricated by CCG before being winched into place. In this way the tight >

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Left - Collective have striven to foster a sense of community amongst residents Right - Materials are limited to a simple palette of brick and zinc

deadlines imposed by the demolition of the existing flats could be met ensuring decanted tenants had a new flat ready and waiting to move into.

This latest stab at regeneration differs from the failed point blocks and maisonettes of the past, which were afflicted by a combination of isolation, low quality infrastructure, fragmentation and a blurred distinction between public and private space. To avoid such ills Collective has carved out three distinctive urban blocks opening up new north/south connections. Each of these new blocks reinforces the street edge and in so doing responds to the local topography, with flatted blocks to the south limited to three storeys to prevent overshadowing of terracing linking to flats of up to four storeys which overlook a cemetery to the north.

Feature doorways with extensive use of brick and glass help provide continuity and strong built forms evoking the Baronial style provide a contemporary response to crow stepped gables through steeply pitched roofs and corners.

On a tour of the estate Jude Barber, director at Collective Architecture, explained: “It’s the first site to be develops as part of the wider master plan, so it was important to give it a sense of identity. We wanted the streets to have character and retain unity across the whole site. Because we’re up on a hill we URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

looked at traditional Scottish forms of hilltop dwelling.”

One aspect of Sighthill life the architects were powerless to confront is the distinctive smell of sulphur which hangs in the air in parts. A malodorous legacy of the areas industrial past it will necessitate some mammoth engineering works to remediate land, lay drainage and prepare infrastructure for the next phase. In this the architects must also contend with a patchy public realm including a sunken public underpass and submerged lamp standards, a reminder of the post-apocalyptic atmosphere from which the area is struggling to shake free.

To carve out a new identity Collective have sought to keep things simple by employing a limited palette of colours and materials as project architect Mairi Laverty explained: “There was a little bit of capping needed which helped with the levels.

Zinc was to express the corners of the flats rather than being too monolithic across the road. If it was completely brick it would be too dominant, it’s interesting that you don’t really sense the black so much until you see an aerial photo.

“We worked with the Youth Olympic Games team to work out where our roads would line up with their master plan.

When we were developing it this road would loop round the cemetery and meet up at Cowlair via an improved bridge over the motorway. At the moment you have to come round >

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Keppochhill Road to the other side.”

Low car usage amongst tenants has allowed the designers to apply limited parking and thus promote the streetscape; in addition the architects have consciously avoided the use of blank gables to help foster a sense of place, an objective also achieved by tying in with existing roads where possible.

Laverty added: “We made an argument with planning that car ownership is low and the area is well served by buses to reduce parking provision. Access is tricky on such a sloped site and there were a few roads which we had to tie in which gave us parcels of land with double sided connections to the street.”

Included in the scheme are 11 wheelchair accessible units and shared surface back courts. Laverty added: “We’ve got the view south and north to the graveyard. Most of flats have through light between the kitchen/diner and the living room.

Because it’s just a sliding door between they can open up to both sides.”

Completed in September 2015 the £13m project signals an intention for future phases of a district-wide master plan which promises to transform the city centre’s forgotten hinterland.

It is the first step on a long road toward a wider regeneration

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which promises to deliver a further 800 homes, a school, community facilities and commercial units on 50 hectares of land connected to the city centre by a footbridge. A public realm strategy spearheaded by LDA Design will ultimately see this area bisected by a series of interlinked ‘parkettes’ along a central route hosting seating and sculpture.

Kirstin Taylor, Director at LDA Design, said: “The public realm strategy in this development is both highly sustainable and people centric. Our focus has been on the landscape and amenities, taking the emphasis away from vehicles and onto the community they will serve, and giving Sighthill a unique identity.

“We’re also proposing innovative green infrastructure solutions such as rain gardens within key streetscapes, right through to the design and specification of bespoke street furniture and dramatic gateway spaces.”

The ambition then is to effect step change in an area which has been subject to decades of decline and the first tangible outcome from that process promise much more to come. It no longer takes a great leap of imagination to see Sighthill as an integral part of the city once again.

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Above - Rows of town houses sit cheek by jowl with flatted accommodation Below- New streets link up with existing roads to improve connectivity

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GROWING AWERENESS WRITER

GREEN ON B L UE GROWING AWARENESS, A NEW BOOK DISTILLING CURRENT THINKING ON URBAN AND RURAL LANDSCAPES SERVES AS A BOLD TEMPLATE FOR THE CREATION OF A GREEN AND BLUE NETWORK TO RIVAL TRANSPORT AND UTILITIES. WE CAUGHT UP WITH ITS AUTHORS TO FIND OUT WHAT THIS WOULD ENTAIL.

The Central Scotland Green Network (CSGNT) has spent the better part of the past decade supporting existing partnerships and developing new ones in the field of environmental policy, in which time it has amassed a broad sweep of data pertaining to our natural, semi-natural and urban environments but which has hitherto lacked a concise home.

Into the breach step Brian Evans, head of urbanism at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, and Sue Evans, head of development at CSGNT) who having first conceived of the idea to collate this material in book form were duly tasked with gathering 15 essays over the past year written by a who’s who of practitioners and policy makers including environmentalist and writer Jonathon Porritt and prof Sir Harry Burns, a former chief medical > officer for Scotland.

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The sun could be rising on new form s of managed landcape

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Singapore’s Garden by the Bay by Andrew Grant

akp Scotland Limited 3 Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ Tel: 0131 516 7705 31 Carron Place, East Kilbride G75 OYL Tel: 0135 557 6020 enquiries@akpscotland.com www.akpscotland.com Akp are a principal contractor with a wealth of experience throughout several industries. We are passionate about our clients and projects and are delighted to transform areas into amazing spaces.

Whether you need an office fit out, refurbishment of a building, or an inspirational workspace we are delighted to work on projects of a diverse and interesting nature.

We have worked with pharmaceutical companies, universities, hospitals, satellite manufacturers, whisky distilleries and a wide variety of commercial companies.

We want to be proactive and promote a collaborative approach to each and every project and offer value engineering and expertise on technical aspects of every job for our customers. We work with our clients offering an understanding of their needs and requirements at each stage of the project.

Communication is at the absolute top of our priorities for an excellent project and we continue to work with clients on repeat business.

Services and Unique Points • Principal Contractor • Owner Managed • Commercial Fit out and Refurbishment • Reactive to client needs • Design and Build • Technical ability and experience • Turnkey Management • Bespoke Team • Deliver Critical Path • One stop shop – We offer Design and Build • Our own in house trades

Project: Clyde Space , Skypark, Finnieston, Glasgow Architect: Whitecross Building Consultancy Clyde Space is recognised as a world-leading innovator and supplier of CubeSats and small satellite systems. Their extensive product heritage speaks volumes in terms of their quality, performance and customer service. They continue to innovate and develop their products and processes to support their customers and the rapidly growing small satellite market.

They are an award winning company with a key focus on the design and manufacture of hardware for CubeSats, small satellites, nanosatellites. Clyde Space supports missions at all levels; from conceptual design, development, integration, testing, through to launch and on-orbit operations.

Akp were delighted to be asked to work with Clyde Space, Glasgow when they were moving into their new premises.

This project involved reconfiguring the empty area into an appropriate workspace for the client which comprised of design, construction and alterations. We worked closely with Whitecross Building Consultancy and Clyde Space on the concept and style of their working area. We built an open plan office with several meeting rooms around the perimeter. The interior was designed throughout to enhance the spacious feel of the offices, ensuring that natural light came through all windows. The breakout/ kitchen area was built in the centre of the space, making it aesthetically pleasing, open and accessible to all. We also constructed a clean room with double airlock doors, hepa filters and applied an antistatic paint finish to the floor.

Clyde Space employed a Glasgow graffiti artist directly to complete the murals.

GROWING AWARENESS

Top - An ambitious green and blue infrastructure programme is being called for

Evans said: “The book is a distillation of research into landscape and the environment in cities and regions over the past five years. It’s fantastic to have the former chief medical officer for Scotland saying that we should be designing places for social interaction, ‘are you listening and could you get on with it?’ As one of the football commentators once said, ‘nectar to my ears’!”

The resulting book is gathered together in three sections; learning from thought, learning from place and learning from action to show how awareness of green issues can feed through into evolving perceptions of ideas and places.

“Everybody thinks about what they do but my colleague prof Vicky Gunn made the point that people reason about things in a different way >

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Bottom - New York’s High Line is a poster child for green thinking

ASA16

Architecture Scotland Annual 2016

IS YOUR BUILDING AMONGST THE BEST?

For more information contact Urban Realm team at 0141 356 5333 or email info@urbanrealm.com

GROWING AWARENESS

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A competition entry by Gillespies for a new Moscow River park

and so the introduction to the book is about reasoning the landscape and the way that thinkers, makers and doers reason. We need these people to interact with one another to address the challenges that we have.”

What follows is an exhaustive treatise encompassing everything from urban growth (Evans points out that 80 per cent of people are expected to live in cities by 203050) and the associated sprawl and challenges to existing eco systems such migrations entail.

Rattling off just some of the themes which come in for scrutiny Evans reels off a list of doom-laden issues with which the world is still grappling and yet to form answers including effects borne out of climate change such as extreme weather, drought and heat islands to the loss of biodiversity. Evans also raises the issue of health, the de-industrialisation

of most of the northern hemisphere, the need to bring people together, management and stewardship of the water system and a fresh appraisal of our economic system.

Evans observes: “We’re not actually short of money, we’re just not prioritising things the way we need to. There’s best practice and a new normal that is emerging. That in turn is delivering new perceptions of what is possible and a new aesthetic in landscape. We used to reflect on the landscape as sublime, we approached it with awe. The landscape was awe inspiring to the Georgians then we moved through the picturesque, the gardenesque where landscape was manicured and now we have re-wilded the landscape by bringing wildness back into the city in a biophilic landscape.”

The book concludes with talk of transferring such ideas into

the mainstream by moving from distinctive romantic and scientific appreciation of the landscape to an integrated approach which marries elements of both. Evans states: “At heart the book serves as an impassioned cry for an integrated green infrastructure and a natural and semi natural green/blue network that is the equal of the transport and utilities network from which we all currently benefit. Merging human habitats with nature to create elegant viable, resilient places that create social cohesion and integration all bound up within Burns’ concept of wellness.”

As the challenges described in Growing Awareness themselves grow the need to carve out a proper policy and practical responses grows with it.

Hopefully this work can go some way toward bringing about solutions for tomorrow’s environment.

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PORT DUNDAS JOHN GLENDAY

W I NDY C I TY A RECENT RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPETITION AT PORT DUNDAS, GLASGOW, HAS ELICITED A TRIO OF OUTLANDISH DESIGNS BUT WILL THEY USHER IN THE WINDS OF CHANGE OR IS IT SIMPLY PEEING IN THE WIND? WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE MERITS OF EACH SCHEME TO SEE WHETHER ANY MIGHT POWER AN ENERGY REVOLUTION. Wind turbines often divide opinion, just ask Donald Trump, but with a new generation of oscillating ‘stalks’ set to roll off the production line next year our hills, seas and urban spaces might play host to a whole new generation of turbine which does away with the blade entirely to allow installation in tighter spaces and opening up a range of new artistic possibilities closer to home.

Against this backdrop, together with a looming energy crisis and mounting concern over the growing evidence for global warming an outlandish scheme to install a Windforest on top of Dundas Hill, Glasgow, is to be brought forward after the renewable energy project was chosen for adoption by the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), an international organisation dedicated to the conception of sculptural forms of renewable energy.

The cluster of 13m tall wind turbines would be capable of generating electricity through oscillation and was one of three shortlisted schemes conceived in collaboration between artists, architects, engineers, scientists, landscape architects and urban planners at the behest of LAGI .

Following a brief false start when the team looked at basing their solution on water, only to be shot down by an electrical engineer who warned they URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

wouldn’t generate enough electricity to boil a kettle, the team alighted on a solution that could be cost effective, environmentally sound and posing no danger to birds.

Inspired by the infamous Tacoma Narrows bridge in the US, which collapsed spectacularly under its own convulsions in 1940 (and perhaps the more recent embarrassment of Lord Foster’s ‘wobbly’ Millenium Bridge) Spanish firm Vortex Bladeless has done away with windmills entirely by seeking to harness these forces and put them to good use in the production of electricity.

Enthused by this concept ZM Architecture, Dalziel+Scullion and Qmulus Energy, together with New York based Yeadon Space Agency, prepared their competition winning scheme which could result in one of the first outings for the technology anywhere in the unlikely location of Glasgow’s Port Dundas, specifically on the site of one of the many drumlin’s that pepper the local geography will now be subject to detailed design work as well as preparation of a business plan to make the project a reality.

ZM Architecture director Peter Richardson told Urban Realm: “We’ve been working in the background with the project sponsors to agree a way > forward with our proposal. We are

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Windforest seeks to recreate a post glacial landscape on Dundas Hill

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The LAGI project has the potential to reshape perceptions of the city

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Watergaw would have produced rainbows on demand

waiting to get confirmation from LAGI for the next stage. When we were asked to enter it was very much on the basis that the project would be implemented as part of the 100 Acre Hill scheme that Bigg are doing with HTA, so we had to integrate with that.

“Part of the spirit behind the project is to see Glasgow rekindle its past engineering spirit. What’s exciting about these proposals is we’re using prototyping technology, we’re not using run of the mill stuff, its new technology and the wind turbines we’re looking at are in production right now. If they work Glasgow could be one of the first cities to use it.”

Whilst Glasgow could be one of the first places to host the new technology it will not play host to any manufacturing however, as Matthew Dalziel of environmental art firm Dalziel & Scullion explained: “The new turbines will be URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

coming on stream about the same time as Windforest so we could be the first ones to actually introduce them on a large scale. There is no prospect of them being built in the UK as the rights to the design are held by the Spanish firm so manufacturing rests with them.”

A major question mark still hangs over whether the scheme will ever make it off the drawing board however with no budget currently in place to realise the £1m project, even though Dalziel calculates it could actually turn a profit inside 12 years thanks to annual electricity sales to the grid of some £92k.

Dalziel observed: “Louise and I have noticed that rather than having money or an idea up front promoters ask artists, architects or creatives to generate an idea that could get supported. “Although Bigg Regeneration is on board they’re a bit wary at this point. We’re confident they will back it at the next stage. >

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Left - The potential of Port Dundas is squandered as an industrial estate Right - Each ‘tree’ will oscillate in the wind

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Normally architecture is the first thing spoken about and artwork is shoehorned in but before any buildings have even been designed there’s going to be a big art work.”

A key consideration for the experience is the two metre motion and blurring brought about by the oscillating stems of each turbine, something Dalziel is keen to harness by creating an impressionistic ensemble when viewed from afar to create some considered.

It would be quite impressionistic. In addition to the turbines the Windforest team have also incorporated a series of ‘erratic’ boulders designed to mimic glacial debris by using industrial bricks and detritus found on site, some of which could even be used for bouldering.”

But with no imminent prospect of delivery is the scheme ultimately little more than a marketing gimmick or PR stunt: “Absolutely not. It’s ambitious but its still early days and the whole team is behind it. We’re relying on other people to support us but it’s an economically viable project which some clever businessman or entrepreneur might want to support.

In addition to the winning design two other schemes were also shortlisted with Watergaw, prepared by landscape architecture studio ERZ and poet Alec Finlay in collaboration with Riccardo Mariano, amongst those which just missed out. Featuring an integrated array of devices including wind turbines, hydroelectric turbines and a heat pump the mechanical marvel would have announced its presence through a recurring rainbow on the city skyline.

Explaining the mechanics of Watergaw Mariano said: “It is an integrated system of devices (mainly wind turbines, hydroelectric turbines and heat pump) that generate renewable energy. Every time the system generates a certain amount of energy the water feature is triggered for a few minutes.

The Watergaw is an expression of the renewable energy generated on site.”

Another participant in the scheme, URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

ERZ director Rolf Roscher said: “The Port Dundas / Dundas Hill site is so close to the city centre and potentially so visible. The canal basins and the proposed new neighbourhood offer great possibilities. The Watergaw scheme is very responsive to this site, drawing on the full range of power generating opportunities that this site specifically offers. This includes: microhydro turbines in the pipe feeding the canal, a water source heat pump in the basins and a series of modified quiet revolution wind turbines. “ The final runner up in the trio of winners was Dundas Dandelions, a tubular construction that also aims to harness the power of the wind through vibrations rather than rotation. Designed

by Stallan-Brand, Pidgin Perfect and Glasgow Science Festival/University of Glasgow together with Matthew Rosenberg of Los Angeles based M-Rad. It aims to put beauty back into energy generation and create a ‘unique destination’ to boot through creation of a Glasgow Science Festival lab housed within temporary container architecture.

The ‘dandelion’ itself would consist of 345 individual steel tubes with a 16m long ‘hair extension’ at the end of each to convert kinetic energy to electricity via a torque generator. LED’s would have been embedded in its tips for aesthetic effect with the complex dome all held together by the structural principle of tensegrity – a process which allows isolated components to be held in place by continuous tension and compression, a complex solution only made feasible through the use of Building Information Modelling.

However the project would be much more than just a dandelion, as the project backers wrote: “There will be opportunity for an outdoor cinema, a market, a theatrical dining experience, temporary sculpture park, live music and festival helping to further illustrate Dundas Hill as a place of creative and technological experimentation.”

The Lighthouse will display the winning design through to 29 July.

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It may look like a twister has taken hold of some scaffolding but this mettalic dandelion could revolutionise power generation

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WOOD FOR GOOD JOHN GLENDAY

SCOTLAND MAY BE A UK LEADER IN THE USE OF TIMBER BUT IT STILL HAS FAR TO GO TO FULFILL ITS TRUE POTENTIAL. IN AN EFFORT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS WONDER MATERIAL URBAN REALM SAT IN ON WOOD FOR GOOD’S SPRING CONFERENCE TO SEE HOW THIS MOST SUSTAINABLE OF PRODUCTS IS BEING PUT TO USE IN NEW AND INNOVATIVE WAYS. URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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The Wikihouse build in Fountainbridge shows what can be achieved with a little muscle and brain power

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Growing appreciation of the role timber has to play in solving Britain’s worsening housing crisis has prompted Wood for Good to lay on a series of four one-day events to explore a variety of inter-related housing themes.

Attending the first of these, The Innovative Timber House, Urban Realm saw at first-hand how the perception of timber as more than just a building material is beginning to take root.

Themed on the use of timber in modern housing design to build more, better, cheaper and bigger houses the event looked at the provision of urban, suburban and rural homes via a variety of products and systems which could help in meeting ambitious construction targets through to 2020.

Peter Wilson, director at conference organisers Timber Design initiatives, said: “The purpose for Wood for Good’s point of view is looking at what can be done for housing in the UK, we want to find new ways of doing things. We want to share ideas and technologies and build better, bigger houses. It’s not just can we build houses with timber but can we build them at all.”

One speaker at the event was Matthew Benson, head of land & development, new homes and research at Rettie & Co, who complained that you can ‘set your watch’ by an 18

year boom bust cycle and it’s time to try a different model.

He said: “As land prices rise, buyers need more credit to purchase the land. Appreciated land serves as collateral for more loans and so on,” contributing to a vicious cycle of ‘buy, build, bugger off and go broke’ amongst the major house builders.

Outlining one example of how things can go awry Rettie highlighted the experience of Mactaggart & Mickel at Polnoon where they took land already in their possession and looked at maximising efficiency. Rettie said: “They redesigned it on designing for streets principles to end up with more flats, with more variety but the overall build costs were higher than the computer designed plan of 2004 - as a result although prices were higher the overall profit margin was less. The maths is there – design doesn’t pay.”

Proffering an alternative vision Benson said: “Imagine we had a housebuilding delivery model where it cost 25 per cent less to occupy the house, deposit requirements were 50 per cent lower and house builders were competing on the quality of their design and place making.” To reach this Nirvana Benson advocated a new model, he explained: “What happens if you take the land and infrastructure and

Left - These Keppie designed modular lodges were fabricated by Carbon Dynamic in less than three weeks Right - Mactaggart & Mickel’s Polmont

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you didn’t pay for them from the house builder’s balance sheet but over the long term on another balance sheet?

That leaves the house builder to fund the bricks and the mortar. The developer now doesn’t need as much profit as they are not investing as much money.

“If you buy a £300k house now you will pay £1,500 per month for that mortgage. If you take out a mortgage only to pay for the bricks and mortar then on the same terms you pay £790 per month plus an annual charge to service the bond that built the infrastructure as well as a monthly sum for the use and ability to buy the land over an 80 year period. The combined payment there £1,180 and I only need a deposit on the £790- so my deposit id £14k not £30k.

“That saving of £320 per month you could spend £43 per square foot more on the building or 523sq/ft bigger. Or you could save the money. You’re using a much more cost effective use of funds rather than the very expensive, short term balance sheet of the house builder and you’re using the long term money to finance the long term elements of what goes into a house.

“If the local authority stumped up £60k for the infrastructure, the homeowner is paying for that through

a top up on their council tax at a 4.5 per cent fixed rate of interest. Finance that over 50 years £210 per month. The local authority can borrow that money at 3.5 per cent over the same period of time so that’s £177 per month so the local authority is generating an annual income of nearly £400 per unit.”

Amongst those seeking to make a difference is Wikihouse, an open source design solution initiated by London based Architecture 00 which recently delivered a community meeting space in Edinburgh for the Fountainbridge Canalside Initiative. Overseen by architect Akiko Kobayashi this facility was put together over the course of a single weekend courtesy of a small band of volunteers and simple mallets and pegs.

Citing the likes of Wikipedia, YouTube, Airbnb Alastair Parvin, vision and product lead, of the Wikihouse digital build solution, outlined how this can be made possible: “Our dependence on a tiny number of huge players who build a tiny number of one size fits all homes and try to sell them – and they might not even do that. The digital revolution has moved us from models where we are totally dependent on massive centralised models of production and distribution, to models where many small players can >

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collectively outperform large ones.

“That’s now coming into the domain of physical things and will change the way that we fabricate and produce things, especially the built environment. Our housing economy and industry are complete dinosaurs, they never made it to the 20th century never mind the 21st with an incredibly dangerous and messy system of production resulting in low quality homes.

“There’s a running joke in the industry that prefabrication has been the future of housing for as long as anyone can remember. In the 20th century the only way of doing this was large scale heavy upfront cost production on large scale factory models. You then hit a slump, there’s a demand gap and the factory goes bust.

“Now we’re entering a world where you can set up a factory for £15k in a garage to form a distributed network of Maklab’s and distributed spaces, pop up factories.

Collectively they are very resilient and can outperform the major players. That is the Wikihouse project.

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“We can move from a world where we’re solving the same problem again and again to taking a solution which already works. That will be as powerful in the design of the built environment as it was in software. The moment you can share design solutions as code you can also code design solutions so we can begin to share open source grammars of joints as code and allow them to be built based on rules and data. You can produce a two bed house for around £60k.

“There is simply no way of talking intelligently about an open circular economy unless you embrace open source and standards, If it’s a proprietary system then it’s not going to be adopted. “ Whilst the trend toward timber is clear much still needs to be done to reduce waste and inefficiency, particularly in the use of new components and processes. This alone will not be enough to break the logjam in housebuilding but with demand for accommodation still going through the roof we must take every opportunity available.

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Top- Blakeburn by A449 won Wood for Good’s best use of timber award Bottom - East Park school by Threesixty Architecture

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WOOD FOR GOOD PETER WILSON

HAVING JUST COMPLETED A WHIRLWIND UK TOUR HELMING WOOD FOR GOOD’S SPRING CONFERENCE SERIES PETER WILSON EXPLORES HOW DEVELOPERS AND ARCHITECTS ARE MAKING USE OF NEW MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE MODERN HOUSING DESIGN.

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Westwood Villa by MAC Architects employs a super insulated timber clad envelope

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Left - Haiko Meijer of Onix Architects employs engineered timber to stunning effect Right - New timber technologies give architects more options

Innovation - the word is very much a buzz term these days and indeed, in economic terms, Japan’s Nomura Research Institute could not state its relevance more clearly - “We are now in the creative era: the information age is over and speed of innovation is the only sustainable advantage.” In this context, the value of the creative industries to Scotland has long been apparent but anyone who continues to wish architecture be included in this grouping in preference to that of construction needs to consider the way in which this is increasingly viewed: the tectonic plates have shifted of late and perhaps usefully so if the profession is now considered to offer an economically beneficial role in the re-industrialisation of the nation.

Certainly Scottish Government policy has imperceptibly moved in this direction, with the creation of a series of ‘Innovation Centres’ that are intended to link key industries more directly with academia in order to transform good ideas through research and development into marketable products, processes, services and systems. Oil, biofuels, aquaculture and several other sectors - including construction - now have their own innovation centres all linked to departments in those universities able to provide the necessary academic rigour and research experience to URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

bring good ideas into the mainstream economy.

But what do we actually mean by ‘innovation’ and what is it that architects do that can be viewed as genuinely innovative? Dictionary definitions vary but “a new method, idea, product, etc.: e.g. technological innovations designed to save energy” whilst clear enough, implies a level of originality - the notion that every innovation has to be the result of a eureka or lightbulb moment.

From an architectural perspective, Kenneth Frampton describes it as: “material constraints aside - innovation is… contingent upon a self-conscious re-reading, remaking and recollection of tradition, including the tradition of the new - just as tradition can only be revitalised through innovation.” So pure invention is not necessarily always the case - and invariably is not: most innovation in fact arises from a constant process of development and, when coupled with intensive research and testing, can deliver high added value results - Japanese industry, for example, has long been held in high regard for its constant evolution in working methods that have since transferred from car manufacture to the construction industry where a ‘lean’ approach is now commonplace in sectors such as timber frame production.

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The need to explore this further and the opportunity to view the use of timber in new housing in a very different light from conventional perceptions has been the subject of a series of conferences around the UK promoted by Wood for Good, the first of these taking place recently in Edinburgh and entitled “The Innovative Timber House developing new timber housing systems & products for the 21st century”. Others have addressed some of the diverse areas of timber construction in housing today (e.g.’Prefabricated Timber House Design: Delivering Quality, Meeting Demand’; ‘Solid Timber House/Vertical Timber City’; and - in late October - ‘The Self Build and Custom Build Timber House’) but, with the industry here in Scotland perhaps more conversant with the use of wood due to long familiarity with timber frame construction, the broader role of innovation in the use of timber - and its potential economic value to the architectural and engineering professions was the subject selected to kick off Wood for Good’s Spring 2016 programme.

Aligning innovation with the role of timber in the Circular Economy, Charlie Law of Sustainable Construction Solutions Ltd immediately established the context for new thinking: the advantages timber has over others from an

environmental perspective and the possibilities to design buildings for lease rather than sale by manufacturers made clear how materials, products and construction systems might be developed to ensure they can be re-purposed at the end of their prescribed term of use, a concept that focuses attention on the deficiencies of conventional financing and waste management solutions and the benefits available when a longer term view is taken. Louise McGregor of Zero Waste Scotland picked up on this theme and further emphasised it immediate economic value to the sectarian her outline of the organisation’s Circular Economy Investment Fund, a source of new finance that should be explored by all architects and engineers with thoughts on how more sustainable buildings might be developed.

The academic and technical back up available in Scotland to all of this became clear from presentations

by Professor Sean Smith, Director of Edinburgh Napier University’s Institute for Sustainable Construction and Dr Neil Burford of Dundee University, the latter using a project built in the city’s Botanic Gardens to explain how new approaches to timber housing could not only achieve Passive House standards but also offer self-sufficiency (autarkic) in energy use and actually contribute surplus >

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WOOD FOR GOOD

Wood for Good are seeking to reframe the debate on housing

energy generated from the building’s daily use back to the grid. The route to how architects and others might similarly prototype and test their ideas was given sharp focus by Bruce Newlands, Technical Director of the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre in his dramatic presentation of the new and very large facility being created near Hamilton that will have all the technology necessary to fabricate and test full-size products and systems and which will be available to all on an open source basis similar to that of the MakLab, which Bruce himself originated.

All the technological development in the timber world won’t build new housing, however, if financial structures mitigate against its implementation, but Matthew Benson of Rettie and Co. delivered a radical alternative to the way we think about land values and construction and how we might build more economically to solve the problems of housing shortage. So radical in fact that it was something of a shock to the audience to find that Matthew’s proposed economic model was more or less how Edinburgh’s New Town was financed.

But if anyone thought that was ‘radical’ dealt with for the day, they hadn’t anticipated Alastair Parvin’s presentation of the WikiHouse concept, a wholly unusual URBAN REALM SUMMER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

method of construction using CNC-machine-cut plywood sections. The resulting easy-to-assemble structures convinced many that this could well be the way to go to meet ambitious housing target numbers. Architecture and housing: not a word combination often expressed by volume house builders but Parvin was clear about the role of the profession to influence the quality of the housing stock in this country, and if anyone was in any further doubt, one of Europe’s leading timber architects, Haiko Meijer of Onix in the Netherlands, showed in project after project how the material excels in affording opportunities for design expression and product innovation.

Kicking off a conference series with a programme embracing economics, sustainability, R&D and prototyping, finance, manufacturing and construction innovation as well as outstanding architectural resolution is perhaps unusual but the synthesis of all these elements is arguably what good architecture should be all about in the 21st century.

As a promotional organisation, Wood for Good has been bold in the conception of its conferences and perhaps in itself innovative - radical even - in its delivery of stateof-the-art, objective information on the one genuinely renewable construction material available to us all: timber.

CASE STUDY

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PANE IN THE GLASS A NEW WINDOW SYSTEM FROM SAS GETS A LOOK IN AS THE DRIVE FOR LOWER CARBON VALUES FOSTERS INNOVATION INSIDE AND OUT. A new primary school in Derby has become the first completed project in the UK to feature the new thermallyefficient PURe® windows from leading fenestration designer and manufacturer Senior Architectural Systems.

The innovative new aluminium window system, which is the first on the UK market to benefit from an enhanced thermal barrier manufactured from expanded polyurethane foam (PUR), has been specified for use on the new Carlyle Infant School in Derby. Working alongside main contractor Bowmer & Kirkland and Bond Bryan architects, Senior’s PURe® casement windows were installed by leading fabricator Allied Glazing.

Key to the specification of Senior’s PURe® windows was the system’s high thermal performance that not only gives exceptionally low U-values but also has the potential to dramatically improve the building’s overall carbon calculations.

Carl Broadhurst, managing director of Allied Glazing added: “Allied Glazing is extremely proud to be the first installer to work with the new PURe® window system and we hope that the staff and pupils of Carlyle Infant School are as pleased with the finished results as we are. With any new product there is always going to be some uncertainty about how easy it will be to work with and how well it will perform but we are extremely impressed with the PURe® window system, particularly as it combines ease of fabrication with a technically advanced construction and exceptional thermal performance. We liaised closely with Senior’s technical team throughout the contract, developing a much stronger working relationship in the process, and we are looking forward to working with the new PURe®system on future contracts.”

Providing a modern and inspirational learning environment for some 180 pupils, the new Carlyle Infant School in Derby is one of six to be rebuilt as part of the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) Priority Schools Programme.

The new patent-pending PURe® window range is the first in the UK to benefit from an enhanced thermal barrier

manufactured from expanded polyurethane foam (PUR).

Traditionally used in cladding and insulation products, the innovative use of PUR as a thermal barrier in windows gives the PURe® system the potential to achieve U-values as low as 0.71w/m2k when calculated as a commercial CEN standard window.

As well as helping to cut the operational carbon emissions by making the building easier and more costeffective to heat, the unique construction of the PURe® system can also contribute to reducing the calculations of embodied carbon which looks at the energy used in the manufacture, transportation, assembly and deconstruction of construction materials. Not only is the PURe® system manufactured from aluminium, which offers ‘cradle to cradle’ recycling, but the PUR thermal barrier can be re-used as fillers for other products with no requirement for landfill.

With a generic Green Guide rating of ‘A’ for use in commercial projects and a life expectancy in excess of 40 years, Senior’s most recent product innovation has also been designed to meet the PassivHaus standard cycle and exceed the current requirements of Part L of the Building Regulations.

For more information about Senior, visit www.seniorarchitectural.co.uk

Tel: 01709 772 600 Email: info@sasmail.co.uk Web: www.seniorarchitectural.co.uk

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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

Austin-Smith:Lord LLP Tel: 0141 223 8500 Email: graham.ross@austinsmithlord.com iain.wylie@austinsmithlord.com glasgow@austinsmithlord.com Web: www.austinsmithlord.com JAMstudio Tel: 01467 641670 Email: info@jamstudio.uk.com Web: www.jamstudio.uk.com jmarchitects Tel: 0141 333 3920 Email: gla@jmarchitects.net Web: www.jmarchitects.net John Renshaw Architects Tel: 0131 555 2245 Fax: 0131 555 5526 Email: jr.architects@btconnect.com HLM Architects Tel: 0141 226 8320 Contact: Lorraine Robertson Email: lorraine.robertson@ hlmarchitects.com Web: www.hlmarchitects.com

ARCHITECTURE & MASTER PLANNING Hypostyle Architects Tel: 0141 204 4441 Contact: Gerry Henaughen Email: glasgow@hypostyle.co.uk Web: www.hypostyle.co.uk BUILDING CONTRACTORS Muir Tel: 01383 416191 Web: www.muir-group.co.uk BUILDING PRODUCTS SUPPLIER Marmox Tel: 01634 835290 Fax: 01634 835299 Web: www.marmox.co.uk Caxton House, 101-103 Hopewell Drive Kent ME5 7NP Principal Contact: Grant Terry BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES Drew Elliot Associates Tel: 07769 670 080 Email: drew@drewelliot.co.uk Web: www.drewelliot.co.uk 44 Broomieknowe Park, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian EH19 2JB CONSULTING STRUCTURAL & CIVIL ENGINEERS

CLADDING RHEINZINK Tel: 01276 686725 Fax: 01276 64480 Email: info@rheinzink.co.uk Web: www.rheinzink.co.uk Wyvern House, 55-61 High Street FRIMLEY GU16 7HJ FIRE ENGINEERS Astute Fire Ltd Tel: 0131 4458607 Contact: Adam Bittern Email: adambittern@astutefire.com Web: www.astutefire.com LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS City Design Cooperative Tel: 0141 204 3466 Contact: Chris Rankin Email: mail@citydesign.coop Web: www.citydesign.coop ERZ Architects Tel: 0141 552 0888 Contact: Rolf Rosher Email: info@erzstudio.co.uk Web: www.erzstudio.co.uk LDA Design Tel: (0)141 222 9780 Contact: Kristin Taylor Email: kirstin.taylor@lda-design.co.uk Web: www.lda-design.co.uk

McLean Architects Tel: 0141 353 2040 Email: arch@mcleanarchitects.co.uk Web: www.mcleanarchitects.co.uk

David Narro Associates Tel: 0131 229 5553 and 0141 552 6080 Contact: Amanda Douglas (Practice Manager) Email: mail@davidnarro.co.uk Web: davidnarro.co.uk

rankinfraser Contact: Chris Rankin Tel: 0131 226 7071 Email: mail@rankinfraser.com Web: www.rankinfraser.com

Michael Laird Architects Tel: 01312266991 Fax: 1312262771 Email: marketing@michaellaird.co.uk Website: www.michaellaird.co.uk 5 Forres Street Edinburgh EH3 6DE

Scott Bennett Associates Tel: 1383627537 Contact: Robert Storey Email: rstorey@sbag2.com Web: www.sbascotland.com 19 South Castle Drive Carnegie Campus KY11 8PD

STANNAH Tel: 0141 882 9946 Contact: Graham Barr Email: liftservices@stannah.co.uk Web: www.stannahlifts.co.uk

Stewart Associates Phone: 01475670033/44 Fax: 1475673103 Email: info@stewart-associates.com Website: www.stewart-associates.com

Will Rudd Davidson Tel: 0141 248 4866 Contact: Brian Walker Fax: (0)131 557 2942 Web: www.ruddconsult.com/ 43 York Place, Edinburgh EH1 3HP

LIFTS

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 STONE Tradstocks Natural Stone Tel: 01786 850400 Fax: 01786 850404 Email: info@tradstocks.co.uk Web: www.tradstocks.co.uk Dunaverig, Thornhill Stirling FK8 3QW 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 WORKPLACE INTERIORS The Works by Saxen Tel: 0845 652 0454 Fax: 0845 652 0454 Email: info@saxen.com Website: www.saxen.com Riverbank Mill, 2 StoneyGate Road Newmilns KA16 9BN

A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE STREETS IS ON THE STREETS To advertise contact John Hughes on 0141 356 5333 or email jhughes@urbanrealm.com

PRODUCTS

TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCT OR COMPANY IN THIS SECTION CONTACT JOHN HUGHES ON 0141 356 5333 WOODBERRY DOWN RENEWED WITH KINGSPAN KOOLTHERM

SIKA LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE ONLINE SUSTAINABILITY HUB FOR SPECIFIERS

Premium performance products from Kingspan Insulation have been used to insulate new high and low rise buildings at Woodberry Down. Architect Hawkins\ Brown specified Kingspan Kooltherm K12 Framing Board and K15 Rainscreen Board for Kick Start Sites two and five within the master plan, comprising 710 residential units and over 1500 m2 of commercial space, spread across a number of blocks.

Architects, contractors and clients are set to save time and hassle with Sika’s Sustainability Hub, a website packed with tools for those specifying projects with a sustainability requirement.

Sika’s Sustainability Hub will drastically reduce the time needed to meet certain corporate social responsibility requirements or obey regulations with its all-in-one portal that guides users through the process.

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

Tel: 01707 394444 Email: sarnafilroofing@uk.sika.com Web: sarnafil.co.uk/hub

Rodger Allan Joins GEZE UK’s Automatic Sales Team

KINGSPAN INSULATION UNVEILS U-VALUE CALCULATOR APP

GEZE UK has reinforced its presence in Scotland with the appointment of Rodger Allan as area sales manager for automatic door systems. Rodger will work closely with fabrication companies as well architects, specifiers and contractors to recommend the right products from the company’s comprehensive range.

Rodger has 13 years’ industry experience encompassing all aspects of the sales process, from inspiration through to specification, design and purchase negotiation.

Kingspan Insulation is taking U-value calculations mobile with a free app for Apple, Android and Windows devices featuring over 6,000 calculations, all approved by BBA/TIMSA. Users can easily adjust everything from rafter depth to masonry thickness making it simple to find the right insulation product for a desired floor, wall or roof U-value. To start calculating, visit your App store and search for ‘Kingspan’.

Tel: 01543 443000 Email: info.uk@geze.com Web: www.geze.co.uk

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

SCHOOL WINS RACE AGAINST TIME WITH KINGSPAN TEK

LDA DESIGN

The Kingspan TEK Building System of structural insulated panels has been installed as part of a modern, energy efficient classroom block at Boyle and Petyt Primary School in the Yorkshire Dales. Kingspan TEK Delivery Partners, SIPS@Clays LLP, helped to ensure that tight delvery schedules and costs were achieved by designing, fabricating and fitting the Kingspan TEK Building System to form the roof and walls of the block.

LDA Design is a global environmental design business, recognised as one of the UK’s leading landscape architectural and urban design specialists. We have five offices in the UK and bring together all the services necessary for the creative and technical leadership of complex development, regeneration and environmental projects.

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

Tel: +44 (0)141 222 9780 Email: kirstin.taylor@lda-design.co.uk Web: www.lda-design.co.uk Twitter: @LDADesign

MUMFORD & WOOD CLASSIC™ RANGE

KINGSPAN OPTIM-R INSTALLED ON SUSTAINABLE LONDON HOUSING

Mumford & Wood is pleased to announce the addition of a new timber window and door range designed especially for replacement projects in period buildings.

Mumford & Wood Classic offers an alternative slim panel glazing system that effectively reduces sight lines. This visual is more in keeping with period aesthetics making the Classic ideal for window replacement and upgrade in heritage projects and conservation areas.

Tel: 01621 818155 Email: sales@mumfordwood.com Web: www.mumfordwood.com

The superior thermal performance of the Kingspan OPTIM-R Flooring System has helped a new residential development in the fashionable area of Battersea Village to meet its strict sustainability goals.

111m2 of the Kingspan OPTIM-R Flooring System was specified for the Cobalt Place townhouses due to its high level of thermal performance, which is five times that of other, more commonly available insulation materials.

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

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