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VOL6 ISSUE28 WINTER 2016

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straight to the point UR100 Broomielaw district architecture in crisis

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I F TO AN ES

We bookend this issue with two complementary tales of riverfront rejuvenation, opening with an ambitious Ayr masterplan (pg 12) which seeks to take the Ayrshire town back to the future with a new network of vennels and closes. In many respects Ayr is leading the way over Glasgow, which is still scrabbling to come up with a coherent riverfront strategy of its own (pg 88). The big story this issue is our annual rundown of Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top architecture practices (pg 56) which is topped this year by a commercial practice which has taken strides in recent years to bolster its design credentials. Whilst there is work still to do in this area it shows that profit and design neednâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be mutually exclusive goals in architecture. In light of these findings we take a closeup look at two centres of excellence which strive to achieve high-end design on a limited budget; Oriam (pg 37) and

Kilmarnock Campus (pg 21). Oriam shows what can be achieved when architects put their best foot forwardwhile Kilmarnock Campus illustrates how further education can kick-start wider regeneration. 2017 may signal the end of the Festival of Architecture but despite a year of activities and events the profession is far from being in rude health. Here John Pelan outlines why our built environment is in a state of crisis (pg 80). Elsewhere Mark Chalmers takes a look at the myths swirling around Gillespie Kidd & Coia and Sigurd Leverentz (pg 28), drawing parallels between the cult-like appreciation of both and the discrepancies between their not insignificant achievements, Chalmers separates fact from fiction. Whatever your background, wherever you are an exciting year lies ahead. John Glenday, Editor

IT’S A WRAP FOR ARCHITECTS, A LOOSE BRIEF CAN BE BOTH A BLESSING AND A CURSE, BUT WHEN IT CAME TO CREATING A NEW HOME IN PONTELAND, NORTHUMBERLAND, IT WAS CERTAINLY THE FORMER. The client wanted a ‘fuss free’ 4-bed detached home, with large living spaces and a minimalist feel. The design needed to fit the existing linear plot while combining privacy, views and shade. The solution was a wrap. Architects Sutherland Hussey Harris selected Russwood’s Thermally Modified Hardwood to act both as an aesthetic feature and a practical solution. The wooden ‘ribs’ sit away from the home’s concrete base and are open at either end, allowing light to flood through the large windows. On the western elevation, the cladding runs to 4.5m long, providing a full height screen. The selection of Thermally Modified Hardwood allowed for minimalist detailing and resilience against the elements, while the rich colour fades to a silvery grey that will complement this lush part of Northumberland. Says Colin Harris: “We wouldn’t have come across this timber if we hadn’t used Russwood. They were able to interpret our designs and match that to a best-suited product. We were shown lots of alternatives so the choice was ours, but it was an informed choice thanks to that support.”

Architect: Sutherland Hussey Harris Products: Thermally Modified Hardwood – Natural Cladding Photography: Sutherland Hussey Harris

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CONT ENTS QUARTERLY DIGEST 12 AYR MASTERPLAN 21 KILMARNOCK CAMPUS 28 SIGURD LEWERENTZ MYTH & LEGEND 37 ORIAM 42 MACK REBUILD 50 DERELICT GLASGOW 56 UR100 80 ARCHITECTURE IN CRISIS 88 BROOMIELAW DISTRICT 96 DIRECTORY 97 PRODUCTS 05

Cover image: School of Simulation and Visualisation, GSA

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

HALO EFFECT Kilmarnock is set to benefit from creation of a £14m urban park after East Ayrshire Council gave its financial and political backing to the regeneration of 23 acres of brownfield land in the town.

BRIEFS Led by the Klin Group and backed by Diageo the scheme will occupy the site of the drinks giants’ former bottling plant, host to Ayrshire College (see pg 21), subject to government backing.

Stallan Brand have prepared an outline development statement for a mixed use transformation of Tradeston comprising a mixture of offices, homes, a hotel, serviced apartments, retail and leisure. The ‘vertical’ vision outlines the potential for a new public square and gateway building to improve perceptions of the city for those arriving by train. An Aberdeen office park has welcomed its latest addition in the form of a 215,000sq/ft grade A pavilion designed by Michael Laird Architects on behalf of HFD Property Group. Tenanted by Wood Group CityPark1 occupies an elevated spot at Altens Business Park and has been awarded a BREEAM ‘Very good’ and EPC ‘A’ rating.

PIPING HOT

MILE HIGH TOWER

Mosaic Architecture & Design have filed revised plans to build a 286 bed student housing development at Dunblane Street, Glasgow, extending a gold rush to provide purpose built accommodation in the city. Conceived as a rectangular urban block the building will nestle alongside the B-listed Piping Centre and A-listed Scottish Ambulance building.

Stallan-Brand Architects have lodged plans to build a 17-storey ‘Style Mile’ hotel tower on the junction of Dixon Street and Clyde Street, framing views of the UK’s second busiest shopping street. The design adopts a ‘figurative’ approach as seen from Buchanan Street, with a design ‘inspired by abstract images of Glasgow’s ships, bridges and cranes’.

LONE SURVIVOR Page\Park Architects are bidding to bring a forgotten survivor of the Gorbals’ tenement past back to life with a full rehabilitation of the A listed former British Linen Bank on behalf of Southside Housing Association. The at risk landmark is one of only a handful of listed buildings to survive in the area, making it a priority for refurbishment.

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The City of Edinburgh’s small sites urban infill program is continuing to bring disused land back into productive use with the submission of plans for 44 homes at Parkgrove Terrace, Clermiston. Designed by Barton Willmore on behalf of Robertson Partnership Homes the scheme will form a ‘suburban block’ comprising four L-shaped buildings framing a terraced communal garden. Plans have been brought forward by Collective Architecture, Robertson Partnership Homes and Hillcrest Housing Association on behalf of Dundee City Council to regenerate Derby Street, Hilltown. Occupying the site of a number of demolished tower blocks the scheme aims to recreate the Victorian street pattern. An expansion of Aberdeen Railway Station has been proposed as part of works to deliver Halliday Fraser Munro’s Atholl Square development. In redesigning a deck structure to accommodate a trio of towers rising up to 17 storeys it is hoped to bring redundant platforms back into use.

Q U A R T E R L Y O C T D I G E S T HEIGHTENED AMBITION

PUSH UP

The Chris Stewart Group has formally proposed a £70m lane development off George Square devised by Hoskins Architects to transform two listed buildings on George Street into 43 serviced apartments and office space, together with construction of a 258-bed hotel and a 272 bed student accommodation block focused on a new lane lined by restaurants, bars, cafes, boutiques and food stores.

Elder & Cannon Architects have drafted plans for a 12 storey student tower constituting 308 bed spaces at New City Road, Cowcaddens, on behalf of Bankell Developments. Situated over the road from Glasgow School of Art’s planned School of Fine Art the brick build will punctuate a key sightline along the Great Western Road corridor as it is bisected by an elevated section of the M8.

CIVIC PRIDE Edinburgh City Council is considering plans to build a £26m civic centre and 160 affordable homes on the site of a dilapidated shopping centre in Pennywell and Muirhouse. This will include delivery of 13 shops, office space, cafes and public services centred on a new civic square which will be delivered by Willmott Dixon and Barton Willmore in phases by 2020.

BOROUGHMUIR HIGH CALA Homes and Michael Laird Architects have teamed up for a residential conversion of the B listed Boroughmuir High School, Edinburgh, together with construction of a new build

apartment block offering a mix of private and affordable housing. This will see 115 homes built within the schoolhouse and surrounding grounds as well as landscaped gardens.

BRIEFS The former headquarters of Strathclyde Police has been earmarked for a giant £105m build to rent development following the force’s relocation to Riverside East, Dalmarnock. Moda Living and Haus Architects have teamed up to draft plans for the prominent Pitt Street complex, transforming a full city block with 365 apartments and 20,000sq/ft of ground floor cafes, restaurants, workspaces and gardens. Glasgow Caledonian University has completed a £30m campus overhaul conceived by Page\ Park, which has seen it create a new entrance and landscaping together with refurbishment of the George Moore and Hamish Wood buildings. Delivered by Robertson ‘Heart of the Campus’ was conceived as creating a new gateway by recladding and remodeling existing concrete framed buildings whilst they remained in use. John McAslan & Partners have detailed their £66m refurbishment of Glasgow’s Burrell Collection. The four-year project will see the current basement upgraded to form additional exhibition space with a new roof and high performance glazing installed throughout. A central vertical core will also be inserted through the building to improve access with a new ground level café, retail units and landscaped terraces. Partick Housing Association has completed work on a £6.5m development of 46 homes on the site of the former Broomlea School, one of a number of surplus school’s being given over to affordable housing. A three storey terrace of brick and laminate panel town houses has been delivered, fronting an area of shared space and landscaping. The social landlord is now progressing plans for 60 flats at the former St Peter’s School.

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

BRODIE CASTLE

BRIEFS Austin-Smith:Lord, acting on behalf of Irvine Bay Regeneration Company and North Ayrshire Council have unveiled a planned public realm makeover for Saltcoats by spring 2017. Improvements to Countess Street will improve the kerb appeal of an important thoroughfare connecting the railway station with the retail core and seafront, enhancing the environment around the town hall in the process.

Hoskins Architects working in collaboration with landscape architects erz have designed a £2.8m ‘Garden of Playfulness’ to sit within the grounds of Brodie Castle. Morayshire. Commissioned by the National

Trust for Scotland the work will see the Forres stronghold, ancestral home of the Brodie family, transformed into a key tourist attraction through construction of a visitor pavilion and gateway building by year’s end.

KING OF THE SWINGERS

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

A preliminary artist’s impression of a 184m long swiveling road bridge connecting Clydebank with Renfrew Riverside has been published in a new scoping report prepared by engineering consultants Sweco. A key plank of the £1.13bn Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal the Renfrewshire Council led project will connect both banks of the River Clyde between Ferry Road and Inchinnan Road.

Esh Border Construction have begun work on a £3m transformation of the Calton Hill observatory, Edinburgh, realizing longheld plans to create a new restaurant and gallery space within the hilltop landmark. Improving access to the 19th century scientific facility the works will include a restaurant with panoramic views over the city that will be illuminated at night when it opens in October 2017.

VICTORIA VICTORY Collective Architecture have been appointed by Sanctuary Group to draft plans for conversion and redevelopment of the former Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow, to provide 400 homes. Both the Nightingale wings along Battlefield Road and the gatehouse off Langside Road will be retained in addition to a listed administration building – allaying fears they would be lost. A community engagement programme will begin in January.

URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

The University of the West of Scotland has signed contracts to build a 38-acre campus at Hamilton International Technology Park, in partnership with South Lanarkshire Council. The Mosaic Architecture designed scheme will offer a range of specialist labs, teaching facilities and social spaces as well as homes, sports facilities and a student union. Barratt and David Wilson Homes have prepared plans for the development of land at Cathcart House, Glasgow, to form a residential development at the former Scottish Power HQ. The in-house design will see a mix of housing take the place of surface car parks together with public realm improvements around the White Cart River. Page\Park have become the latest holders of the RIAS Andrew Doolan best building in Scotland award, courtesy of their work in delivering the Saunders Centre Science & Technology building for Glasgow Academy. The recognition comes after the practice saw off 10 other challengers to claim £25k for their‘elegant and subtle’ work. Ayrshire College has thrown open its doors to students and staff at its £53m Kilmarnock campus, situated on the site of a former bottling plant on Hill Street (see pg 21). The 183,000sq/ft facility was designed by Keppie.

Q U A R T E R L Y N O V D I G E S T OFF TO A FLYER

SHOP TO DROP

The National Galleries of Scotland have given the most detailed look yet at Hoskins Architects’ ambitious plan to transform the Scottish National Gallery by improving connections to Princes Street and internal circulation routes. A fly-through video gives a taste for the new gallery spaces as part of the £16.8m project which will open in early 2019.

Comprehensive Design Architects, acting on behalf of LaSalle Investment Management, have tabled plans for conversion of a listed BHS store at 64 Princes Street, Edinburgh, to form a hotel, revamped retail space and restaurants. As part of this work a later extension on Rose Street dating from the 1970s will be demolished to allow the formation of better connections to the existing store. The new roofline will include a ‘modern interpretation of the dormer window’.

BACK TO SCHOOL CCG and Parc Craigmillar have lifted the lid on a homely transformation of the former Niddrie Mill Primary School into 66 mixed tenure houses by Halliday Fraser Munro. The Schoolhouse comprises a mix of terraced and flatted timber frame housing the development was built with insulation, windows and doors all preinstalled – allowing construction of three terraced homes in just seven weeks, complementing wider regeneration.

JAMAICA INN A long-standing gap-site on Glasgow’s Jamaica Street could soon be plugged following submission of plans by pub giant J.D. Wetherspoon to erect a KDPA-designed hotel. An extension to the A-listed Crystal Palace this will see a nine storey build rise on the adjacent plot containing hotel accommodation, a rooftop garden and bar, reception and courtyard. Additional hotel rooms will also be created within the vacant upper floors of the existing building, retaining period features where possible. A rear elevation fronting Central Station will be faced in brick with subtle glazed detailing around windows.

BRIEFS Allan Corfield Architects and McCallan Homes have moved on-site with a development of 12 modular flats on the site of the former Inverpark Hotel, Arbroath, in what is thought to be the first use of the technique in Angus. Each flat is broken down into a series of modules including flooring, electrics and plumbing, all of which will be factory built. NHS Tayside have taken possession of a new garden room at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital following delivery of a competition winning design by the Voigt Partnership. Designed to offer an inclusive space for the conduct of gardening related activities The Leaf Room offers an organic form overhanging a regular rectangular room underneath a diagonal beam and rafters supported on perimeter columns. City of Edinburgh Council has undertaken a pre-planning consultation for a replacement sports complex at Meadowbank Stadium. Incorporating a 400m running track and a 500 capacity stand the centre will be part funded via a sell-off of council owned land with a portion of the site also being reserved for affordable housing under the 21st Century Homes initiative. Facilities will also include games halls, studios, a gym, athletics track and café. A pair of Leith tower blocks could become Edinburgh’s newest listed buildings following the launch of a consultation exercise by Historic Environment Scotland. Best known as the home of ‘Sick Boy’ from Trainspotting Cables Wynd House, colloquially known as the banana flats owing to its curvaceous profile, the building is being considered for listing alongside the neighbouring Linksview House. Residents of both blocksbare being asked their views on listing.

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

YOUNG AT HEART FetLor Youth Club have shown off new purpose built accommodation at Crewe Road South, Edinburgh, following delivery by Hardies. Over a period of eight months the

old facility, a sixties era wooden hut, was demolished and rebuilt with a geometric corten panel front elevation and secondary elevations are finished in off white render.

BRIEFS The Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service have published fi nalised plans for a new Justice Centre on the site of a former bus depot at Burnett Road, Inverness. Design work undertaken by Reiach & Hall seeks to establish a base for justice, social work and voluntary organisations in support of victims, accused and off enders around court appearances from 2019. Work has begun on the restoration of the Mackintosh Library at the Glasgow School of Art with the removal of windows and stone piers now well underway by contractor Kier Construction. The delicate project will see the fi re ravaged structure brought back into use following painstaking forensic work undertaken by a team of conservation experts led by Page\Park (pg 46).

FETED PROPERTY

GARDEN HEAVE

Michael Laird Architects and Royal Bank of Scotland have prepared a planning in principle application for the redevelopment of land at Dundas Street/Fettes Row, on land owned by the banking group. This will see existing office buildings swept away in favour of a 47,450sq/m residential-led scheme with the potential to include retail, a hotel, care home and offices knitted within the fabric of the neighbourhood.

Aberdeen City Council have held a public engagement exercise for their latest Union Terrace Gardens proposals; including access improvements and a café. Prepared by landscape design specialists LDA the £20m plan includes an elevated walkway plugging into Union Street to improve disabled access, transformation of the central lawn into a flexible events space and reinstatement of a staircase to Union Street.

The latest addition to Edinburgh’s mushrooming student housing has opened its doors in Dalry, 18 months after CCG began work on the modular build. The Orwell Terrace project provides a home to students of Napier University and takes the form of three blocks dominated by a seven-storey rotunda, establishing an urban presence next to Dalry Park. Clyde Gateway and the Forestry Commission have completed a new pedestrian and cycle bridge spanning the River Clyde connecting the Athlete’s Village to Cuningar Woodland Park. Forming one of two primary entrances to the park the link takes the form of a single span of corten steel. Lawrence McPherson Associates have tabled plans for a 60-bed Premier Inn on Grampian Road, Aviemore, on behalf of Whitbread.

URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

Q U A R T E R L Y D E C D I G E S T TRANSLUCENT LINK

STEALTH HOME

BRIEFS

The University of Edinburgh is progressing plans to sweep away a double-height link building conjoining the Lister Institute and Pfizer building at Hill Square with a Reiach & Hall designed teaching facility. Doubling as a circulation route and entrance space the Teaching and Learning Centre would be accessed off Roxburgh Place with new hard landscaping and little change to an existing rear courtyard.

A sunken home in Glasgow’s west end has won approval, clearing the way for construction to begin on the cameronwebster, MBLA and LCD Architecture scheme on the corner of Doune Gardens/Belmont Street. Approval comes despite 135 objections on the grounds that the project would result in a loss of green space and adversely impact the conservation area and listed buildings by including a green wildfower meadow roof.

Robertson Partnership Homes and Grampian Housing Association have teamed up to put forward plans for 138 affordable urban homes in four blocks of up to six storeys at St Machar Road, Aberdeen. Designed to off er strong street frontages and screen homes from neighbouring industrial land the scheme off ers private south facing courtyards, public open space and a tree-lined avenue.

STONEYWOOD SCHOOL

A B-listed Perth church languishing on the Buildings at Risk Register is be turned into a new public space. Occupying a prominent spot on the High Street the building has been acquired by the city council who will consolidate the walls whilst removing the roof and windows to form a walled outdoor space, accessed by four newly inserted archways.

A primary school campus and nursery has been given the all clear by Aberdeen City Council, clearing the way for a start on-site to be made at the former Bankhead Academy in January. Stoneywood School has been designed by Scott Brownrigg to accommodate 16 classrooms with direct access to the surrounding grounds in addition to a range of flexible teaching spaces and sports facilities.

TRAM LINK A £144m tram link connecting Glasgow Airport to the city centre via Paisley Gilmour Street has been unveiled as part the £1.13bn Glasgow City Region Deal. The Glasgow Airport Access Project

would comprise custom-built tram-trains capable of running on existing railway lines and a newly built light rail spur from Paisley. Construction could commence on the link by 2022 and be operational by 2025.

Hackland and Dore have submitted plans to build eight fl ats on the site of a former wash house in the heart of Edinburgh’s Portobello conservation area. Brought forward by Figgate Street Developments the scheme will sit at the junction of Portobello High Street and Figgate Street, taking the form of twin three storey blocks conjoined by a central access stair. Faced in buff brickand vertical timber cladding, a ‘recessed dark grey render band’ marks transition between the two elements.’ National Museums Scotland have kick-started construction of a £3.5m collections centre in north Edinburgh which will provide an additional 1,000sq/m of specialist research and storage space. The National Museums Collection Centre is expected to begin operation in October 2017, providing enhanced facilities for the scientifi c study, conservation and research of over 12m historic items.

AYR MASTERPLAN John Glenday

AYR IS GETTING 2017 OFF TO A FLYING START WITH AMBITIOUS PROPOSALS FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF ITS RIVERFRONT BUT WILL THE PLANS SWELL A RISING TIDE OF OPTIMISM OR WILL THEY PROVE TO BE A BRIDGE TOO FAR? URBAN REALM TAKES A CLOSER LOOK.

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AYR MASTERPLAN

A cathedral-like activity space would provide a new focal point

Whilst its metro big brother Glasgow fumbles for a coherent waterfront masterplan (see pg 88) Ayr Renaissance is pushing forward with an ambitious riverfront vision of their own for a patch of prime town centre land sullied by the presence of overbearing warehouses and retail barns dating from the 1960’s. For long a local sore point Ayr Renaissance, URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

a body formed by South Ayrshire Council, plan to excise the boil and build a destination festival hall, public realm and office space which would be the envy of any city. To realise this vision Ayr has turned to a high caliber design team spearheaded by Niall McLaughlin Architects, fresh from delivering a masterplan for

Oxford University and London Olympic Authority, together with landscape artist Charles Jencks and delivery architect Keppie. Together they will oversee the revival of a prime parcel of land bounded by the medieval ‘Auld Brig’ and Victorian ‘New Bridge’, with an extensive new area of public realm. The first phase of this work has been

given the green light by the council, clearing the way for Keppie to put forward fully costed stage two design proposals for a riverfront office block for 350 workers as well as active public space in March of next year. In addition tenders for the demolition of existing buildings on site have already been issued, dispelling fears that the plans were no more than

pie in the sky. Outlining the team’s brief Ayr Renaissance chairman James Knox, said, “The balance of the development depends on the added value created by the quality of the architecture, the welcome to the public afforded by the originality and openness of the plan and the content of the public realm. Getting

these right is the key to unlocking longterm regeneration of the town centre for generations to come.” To that end the indicative masterplan makes provision for a range of uses including office space, retail, cafes, restaurants and open space using quality materials, intended to marry with historic buildings – including new vistas >

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AYR MASTERPLAN

Top - A and B listed buildings along Bridge Street have been given a facelift Bottom - Niall McLaughlin Architects are spearheading a renewal plan

of the town hall from a series of vennels. Tilo Guenther, project architect at Niall McLaughlin Architects told Urban Realm: “The riverfront is currently landlocked by the warehouses which were mostly built in the sixties and which turn their backs to the river. Our aim was to come forward with a masterplan to return the river to the awareness of Ayr, its people and those visiting.” More than just a pretty natural asset the River Ayr defines the very existence of its urban namesake, which was established at the point at where the river was navigable yet still within the reach of bridge builders. Since then the riverfront has fallen victim to a slow, sad, decline leading us to the present situation. Guenther said: “Over time the bridges were built and then the river became less and less important to the extent where that riverfront block has no elevation to the river and the public have no awareness that it exists from that part

of the town. The idea is to open that up again, create lots of public spaces and do it in a way which respects the historic grain of vennels and smaller buildings. From the High Street there will be a large town square which connects diagonally with a river square which opens out towards the river and provides a new area

of public space where people can mingle. “The heart of the development is a public festival building which may host temporary events to bring activity that is adjacent to both squares with buildings to either side with stepped gables to offer a recognisable river elevation.” Intended to be read as a modern interpretation of >

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17/12/2016 17:17

AYR MASTERPLAN

Key vistas of the town hall will be respected

crow-stepped gables and the nautical style found in the Baltic states and Hanseatic cities the look is at once modern while remaining rooted in the past. Stressing that this is a masterplan concept and far from a finished architectural design Guenther stated that the idea had been to proceed with a mono-pitched structure. “We thought it could be a highly-glazed building with the sun filtering through to animate the space through coloured glass”, he said. “The uses of the buildings are not fully defined and will depend on further development and market research but there will be a degree of offices and maybe accommodation of some kind. “We’re aware of where the place is and continental café culture may spring to mind but equally there is a need for sheltered space and public activity. On

certain days, the place might be quite busy and the idea is certainly to maximise activities on the ground floor to attract people onto and through the site. By continuing the vennels north and south to existing east west connections we aimed for maximum connectivity.” Beyond a place to sit and saunter there is also a desire to properly engage with the river as an activity space, although a marina isn’t on the cards. Guenther said: “People got really excited about using the river and the two embankments either side as an events space to make the river itself an activity space with festivals or races.” Over the longer term, it is hoped to extend the River Ayr walkway from the Auld Brig through the site and onward to the sea as well as re-landscaping the north shore to provide a more appropriate backdrop to the events

space, flanked by the grand sweeping arms of both bridges. Before that can happen however a full planning application, which isn’t expected until early next year, must be approved, which would in turn enable demolition works to commence alongside an archaeological dig. From there the project is structured in such a way to allow phased implementation from east to west or west to east. Should Ayr’s back to the future vision come to pass a corner of the town once defined by bustling wharves and narrow closes, all thought to have been consigned to the past, could find itself thrust into the forefront of the town’s future. Before that can happen however the bigger problem of bridging ambition to reality must be crossed and it remains to be seen if this proves to be a bridge too far.

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17/12/2016 17:22

KILMARNOCK CAMPUS John Glenday

URBAN REALM PAYS A VISIT TO AYRSHIRE COLLEGEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RECENTLY COMPLETED KILMARNOCK CAMPUS TO SEE IF THE TOWN CENTRE PROJECT HERALDS THE START OF A BOLD POST-INDUSTRIAL DAWN FOR THE FORMER JOHNNIE WALKER BOTTLING PLANT. A SITE WHICH HAS GONE FROM PRODUCING WHISKY TO EQUIPPING YOUNG ADULTS WITH LIFE SKILLS.

KILMARNOCK CAMPUS

Ayrshire College’s unveiling of its all new Kilmarnock campus is big news for the town and even bigger news for the school itself but as staff and students settle into their shiny new surroundings will the building raise ambition in the town as well as their own aspirations? At 183,000sq/ft the £53m campus is big in several ways but it is through a four storey presence alongside Kilmarnock Railway Station that most will first become acquainted with it and on a glorious autumnal day the expanse of brushed stainless steel alucobond rainscreen certainly gleams and glisten, even if the effect on a less sunlit afternoon is likely to be flat and grey. This prominence extends through to the main entrance on Hill Street, a giant full height atrium protected by two extending arms of accommodation which reach out across an expansive forecourt paved with buff grey sandstone and white concrete trim. To the rear a contrasting palette of black aluminium cassettes and brick has been chosen to provide a deliberate contrast to the front elevation and as a backdrop to the car park and 4G playing fields – which may even be utilized by Kilmarnock FC and an indoor court. Having moved from a retro-fitted bus depot the students are understandably over the moon at receiving new custom-built facilities. Ryan Sylvester, divisional director at Keppie, said: “It works well for the most part because we’ve been able to get the windows to align with the cladding. I tried to limit the amount of brick because you do get a lot of efflorescence from it and you do need a good bricklayer on board. That’s the problem with brick, you just can’t be assured of the quality of the bricklayers.” Working to a brief that was closer to the Silverburn shopping mall than a standard college the architects specified a ‘central spine’ from which the body of the campus can be accessed whilst doubling as a focal point and meeting space for staff, students, the public and even local businesses. This ‘transitional space’ draws people through the building and is lined by a training restaurant, beauty salon and café these social spaces ground a much larger volume above with an IT department, technical workshops, music and drama suites which occupy four floors of colour coordinated accommodation. The product of a tortuous development process the scheme, originally conceived by BDP, was subsequently taken on by RMJM before Keppie took it under their wing as delivery architect alongside McLaughlin & Harvey as main contractor. Sylvester commented: “We were brought on board as one of three bid teams taking forward BDP’s stage D design. At that time we were under the impression we were just recladding the design and sorting out a couple of adjacencies but within that first day they effectively put that to one side and said we’ve got a clean slate just come to the table with your thoughts. “The first thing we did was look at the heart of the building URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

in the atrium because the first thing they said to us was we don’t want a college, we want Silverburn, that idea of a central spine and activity, we didn’t want an institutional feel of entering into a small space. “Our design wasn’t just looking at the form of the building and then throwing things in, it ultimately came out of an understanding of the brief and types of space and the level of public interaction. What I tried to do was plan out everything very simply so that we were not relying on wayfinding and signage to understand the building. “We were always challenged by the length of the site which required two entrances, you create a problem in a sense but you’re using that to your advantage by widening the main entrance and funneling that through the back with a clear line of sight to the reception and all the public spaces such as the training restaurant, refectory and learning resource center.” Designed to draw the college’s existing facilities together rather than increase capacity the new campus unifies departments within a single structure, a decision which stretches so far as to avoid the two storey tin games hall shed >

Left - A generous atrium stretches from ground to sky Right - Wide stairwells ease circulation between floors

Students benefit from ready access to computers, study spaces, printers and books

KILMARNOCK CAMPUS

Top - Outsized lanterns dramatise the cafeteria space Bottom - Selective use of colour helps to brighten the interior URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

Semi-private pods provide opportunity for groups to congregate

which typifies much further education work. Instead the hall is treated as an intrinsic part of the building mass. This approach is further reflected in the decision to embed the Hope, Inspiration and Vision in Education (Hive) unit, which provides opportunities for youngsters facing challenges in their lives, alongside mainstream classes. It was previously housed in a separate building – with all the attendant psychological ramifications that brings. It has now been drawn into the body of the main college whilst retaining separate access. Walking through the connecting hallway Sanderson commented: “The original plan was to have the rooflight and window come together as a glass slit. The windows are arranged in double banding after an initial study found that the double arrangement maximizes natural light because the top band allows a lot of light into the depth of the space.” Colour plays a subtle but important role in wayfinding with the ground floor accented in the college’s signature teal branding before rainbowing through purple, green and orange palettes on upper levels to reinforce progression through floors. This approach extends to placing strips of colour over the thresholds into the rooms to achieve best practice in catering for the disabled. Sanderson added: “All the teaching areas are on the outside of the building to allow natural ventilation and all the IT labs and heavily serviced areas lie on the inside. That comes

back to achieving a BREEAM Excellent rating for the whole building. We are now looking at an Outstanding rating.” Aiding the high-quality feel of the interior space, which resembles the foyer of a large company, Ayrshire College have splashed out on a huge set-piece table and outsize signature lightshades sourced from BuzziSpace, London. These designer flourishes are complemented by Character Joinery who were employed to build a trio of outsized Space Solutions designed light shades in the refectory which, doubts over the chosen colour palette aside, seem to have gone down well. Eileen Mackin, project director for the New Campus development remarked: “From an artist’s point of view the building is great because you can bring the students out here (to the atrium) and they can sketch up the shapes, details and colours. The shades are a statement and they work well though they are a lot more robust than initially intended.” Inevitably some teething troubles have occurred since opening. A bottleneck in the kitchen was difficult to resolve owing to the inbuilt stations limiting flexibility and there were frustrations over limited parking. Unfortunately placed structural beams also impede views on some high-level walkways which is a shame as views out across Kay Park and the Ayrshire countryside are one of the campus’s strong suits, although these assets aren’t harnessed to their fullest courtesy of a 3m high screen around the roof to hide plant >

KILMARNOCK CAMPUS

» I WANTED TO AVOID THE LONG

CORRIDORS YOU GET IN SOME BUILDINGS. I ALWAYS THINK IN A SUCCESSFUL BUILDING YOU DON’T NEED TO BE IN IT VERY LONG TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT OPERATES. «

Left - The campus puts students and staff in the spotlight Right - Extensive public realm work connects with Hill Street Bottom - Sport is well provided for

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and other detritus from view but which also hides the view for those on the roof. In high transit areas, there are problems with glare hitting some office workers. The sheer scale of the glass atrium means blinds are having to be installed in some offices as staff receive too much of a good thing and seek to keep glare to a minimum in the mornings. Opaque glass has been used around the learning resource centre partly to address privacy whilst maintaining visibility whilst in the restaurant stenciling has been introduced to mitigate glare. Mackin cites the partnerships with industry as the key including a focus on core Science, Technology Engineering and Maths subjects, saying: “Each learning space has a real work environment so you’ve got the opportunity to spend time on the learning and theory then take two steps and you’re in the practical environment. That’s been hugely beneficial. The mall or atrium is already at the point where

there is a real buzz about the place. There was concern that this wouldn’t be an active space but that hasn’t been an issue at all. I’m quite passionate about this because one of the things my college failed to get right was its connection with industry”. At Ayrshire College local industries partner with the school and pick apprentices from its students as Macklin observed: “We’ve always done well in this area and it’s been about bringing everyone together so that construction, painting and decorating along with sports have been brought together as a single unit and this has worked really well.” In fact the college would have liked to have gone even further by combining all fabrication workshops into a single giant space. This partnership with local business extends to companies using the college building for meetings and the partnership centre and lecture halls are also available for public hire however for the most part the college is already at full capacity. This is due to a desire to make the space work as efficiently as possible so that few rooms lie unoccupied at any one time, without wasting resources on an overprovision of classrooms. As Macklin observes however: “Formal meetings are becoming less common as more people are meeting informally in the refectory and social areas.” Mixing learning and practical considerations isn’t without its complications however with delivery doors regularly opening out onto a tight service yard populated by students, with no clear line of sight to alert anyone to approaching trucks. Sylvester said: “The junction box should have been around the corner, I’ll be honest with you though and if you turn around to me and say ‘I’ve been in the building and it works great, my main issue is your junction box at the front I’d be quite pleased because in the scheme o things it is pretty small beer and ultimately the success of a building is in the people who use it.” One of the requirements of the brief was that all circulation areas had 2m wide corridors and the stair cores are generous in this regard. Sylvester explained: “Generally the main atrium is the feature stair but equally we have these four corners which are just as well used. I wanted to avoid the long corridors you get in some buildings so it’s been broken down with fire doors. I always think in a successful building you don’t need to be in it very long to understand how it operates.” To that end there is very little overt signage with open sight lines drawing you through the building. Whilst signs within the college are few and far between the building is itself a symbol of something bigger. Kilmarnock Campus shows the benefit of agglomerating further education on accessible town centre sites, improving visibility and opportunity in the process. In the mantra of one unlamented former politician it’s all about ‘Education, education, education’ and in that regard Kilmarnock’s future look’s bright.

SIGURD LEWERENTZ Mark Chalmers

PHOTO-JOURNALIST MARK CHALMERS JOURNEYS TO DENMARK AND SWEDEN TO INVESTIGATE PARALLELS BETWEEN LOCAL HERO SIGURD LEWERENTZ AND THE CULT OF GILLESPIE KIDD AND COIA HERE AT HOME TO SEE AT FIRST HAND THE POWERFUL EFFECT A PROLIFIC ARCHITECT CAN HAVE ON A SMALL COUNTRY.

P E RSONA L I T Y CUL T

St. Petri Kyrka is 50 years old. It’s a brick kirk in a small town called Klippan, which lies in the Skåne region of Sweden. Although Klippan is a backwater, St. Petri has become world-famous. It was designed by Sigurd Lewerentz, around whom a cult has grown up – yet it could easily have been so different. The fact we know about Lewerentz is partly thanks to the exhibition which Alvin Boyarsky organised at the Architectural Association in 1989, but mainly due to the Swedish architect Janne Ahlin. His book, Sigurd Lewerentz, Arkitekt was translated into English in 1988 and is still the definitive source on the architect’s life and work. Over the course of the next few years, Lewerentz was gradually assumed into the canon – the “other tradition” of Modernism, among the awkward ones like the Smithsons, Pietila, Giancarlo de Carlo. The making of the myth around Lewerentz is an interesting process which proves that, ultimately, we have no control over reputations. The resurrection of Lewerentz’s career was unexpected. He re-emerged in the Sixties to build a handful of startling buildings which explore architecture’s fundamentals. Sweden had forgotten about him by then: he was a man of the distant past, born in 1885, his notable work created in > URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

A half century on St Petri Kryka, Klippan, defines Lewerentzâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second-life in the sixties

SIGURD LEWERENTZ

the early decades of the 20th century. Lewerentz grew up in Lund and studied at Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, which was founded by the son a Scots merchant. Early in his career, he worked with Gunnar Asplund on a series of commissions including the Eastern Cemetery in Malmö, but after adding the St. Knut & St. Gertrude chapels to the cemetery in 1943, work appeared to dry up. For years afterwards, Lewerentz concentrated on producing furniture and architectural hardware to his own designs: he was the Knud Holscher of his day, and his “Idesta” range may have given Holscher the idea for “D-Line”. So the 1955 commission to build a new kirk, St. Mark’s at Björkhagen in Stockholm, evidently came as a surprise to everyone other than Lewerentz himself. It was his first major building in over a decade. Even as they briefed him, the kirk session was concerned that the architect’s age might militate against him completing the project – but when it opened in 1960, they realised that Lewerentz had achieved something unique. Following on from St Mark’s, Lewerentz was commissioned to design the St. Petri Kyrka (Church of St. Peter) at Klippan in 1962, at the age of 77. He drew upon a

lifetime – nearly six decades of practice by that point – to build a profound piece of architecture. By then, he was a formidable old man who worked from a studio of black and silver in Lund, another small town in provincial Sweden. I’m certain that no-one else, not even a younger Lewerentz, could have designed St. Petri. While the St. Knut & St. Gertrude chapels in Malmö are understated and uplifting, St. Mark’s and especially St. Petri are powerful, primitive and timeless. At Klippan, Lewerentz seems to prove that it takes a lifetime to condense what’s worthwhile then translate it into architecture. St. Petri was consecrated exactly fifty years ago, on 27 November 1966, and remains much as the architect intended. When you walk into the sanctuary for the first time, the birse on the back of your neck stands up. At the kirk’s consecration, Bishop Martin Lindström declared that, “a renowned architect has with all his being built here a hallowed room of majestic weight,” and Lewerentz certainly achieved the gravity of a cathedral in a compact package. Of course, the medieval cathedral builders had the advantage that ordinary folk in the Middle Ages were easy to impress: the grandeur of a cathedral was so overwhelming and so far out of their everyday experience.

Left - Delicate brick barrel vaults at St Petri Kryka, Klippan Middle - The warm interior of St Gertrude’s Chapel, Malmo Right - The spartan environment of St Knut’s Chapel, Malmo

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By contrast, Lewerentz’s churches are modest in scale, built from humble materials, and tucked away in small towns and suburbs. In the moments when you have St. Petri to yourself, you’re conscious of the burning wicks of wax tapers, the enveloping darkness, and the steady drip of a font which demarks the silence. Beyond them wrap a series of strangely-angled vaults, a sloping floor and slots in the walls and roof which beams of light spear through. St. Petri taps into ancient places, perhaps the caves in which Christian saints first took refuge when they reached the West from the Holy Land. Most of all there is the burnt-dry air, which smells and tastes like the inside of a brick kiln. I know that smell will stay with me and instantly take me back to Klippan – just as the smell of hot electrics and Ferodo dust transports you to the Tube lines under London. St. Petri’s atmosphere is a major factor in the cult which has grown around Lewerentz since his death in 1975. Another is the fact that Lewerentz was a radical thinker. He questioned what the wall does, and what a window is. Ahlin recounts that he wrestled with these fundamentals in private, in the wee hours of the morning. It’s difficult to know

where the solutions sprang from, because Lewerentz was rarely forthcoming about his work, although he did mention Persian brickwork as a source of inspiration. At St. Petri, Lewerentz concluded that you can build a floor, walls and roof from the same material – purplebrown clinker bricks from Helsingborg Ångtegelbruk – and he decided that you can form openings simply by leaving a hole, spanned by bricks laced together with rebar. The windows are no more than double-glazed units sealed to the brickwork: the glass doesn’t need a frame. The vaulted roof is carried on a “T”-shaped column, built up from rolled sections of CorTen steel which hint at a massive cruciform. Even the faucet in the washroom is just copper pipe formed into a spout, the taps are brass valves with cross-heads. St. Petri is architecture stripped down to its essentials – but that doesn’t mean a reductive Minimalism. Lewerentz straddled the eras of Neo-Classicism, Arts & Crafts and Modernism. He came from the generation of Corb, Mies and Gropius, all of whom worked for Peter Behrens during the era of the Deutscher Werkbund. Lewerentz also worked for a time in a Werkbund-influenced practice in Munich, and he carried the things he learned >

SIGURD LEWERENTZ

Left - The central sanctuary at St Petri Kryka, note the ‘cruciform’ column behind Right - The cracking baptismal font

there through his career: a love of craftsmanship and an insistence on total design. Like the other Modernist masters, he designed the building and everything which went inside. The construction process of the kirks at St Mark’s and St. Petri has also taken on a mythical status thanks to the way in which Lewerentz built. He insisted that no brick should be cut, and he never rejected a brick which others would have considered flawed. In fact, he consciously selected seconds and over-burnts for the kirk: perhaps he felt that the imperfect bricks were a metaphor for humanity’s fall from grace. Lewerentz spent endless days on site, discussing and directing the works – his method harks back to the Masters of Works who oversaw the construction of the great cathedrals. Perhaps only the Church could indulge an architect like this, but St. Petri would never have been realised without the partnership between Lewerentz and his tradesmen. Sometimes work proceeded by experiment, trial and error and intuition. Best known is the story of the exasperated metalworker at St Mark’s who asked Lewerentz, “If I can’t do it this way, then how shall I do it?” The architect’s answer was, “That I don’t know. All I know is URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

that you are not going to do it the way you normally do.” Even then, the workmen realised they were engaged in something unique. So, the machinery of myth drew upon the man, his methods, and the finished work. But there are outside factors, too. Today’s practices are measured by their turnover, how many schemes they have on their books, and how many awards the projects win afterwards. Their reputations are reinforced by books, exhibitions and magazine articles. There’s a beaten path which Reiach & Hall, Page & Park, Richard Murphy and many others follow towards recognition and success. It was no different during Lewerentz’s lifetime. His contemporaries won competitions and accolades while his own career lay dormant. They saw their work published in magazines just like Urban Realm, hoping the articles would help to establish a reputation and offer a critical view of their work. By contrast, Lewerentz was inscrutable: over the last few decades of his career he didn’t lecture, publish or teach. That only served to fuel our curiosity. The myths around Lewerentz grew after his death, and over the past few years, he’s become an inspiration to a new generation of architects. For those who believe the digital era is >

SIGURD LEWERENTZ

Top - St. Knut and St.Gertrude Chapels, with porte-cocheres at entrance Bottom - Lamp-posts bow their heads in deference at St Petri Kryka URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

An external courtyard serves to connect the kirk and parish offices

destroying architecture, he offers materiality, craft and a connection to the past. Lewerentz demonstrates how they can be incorporated into something startling and contemporary. The Cult of Lewerentz may seem comparable to the Cult of Gillespie Kidd & Coia: a practice which also built religious buildings in brick. Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein’s careers as architects were cut short – but unlike Lewerentz, they received no comeback commission from the Church late in their career. However, MacMillan and Metzstein went on to teach and mentor hundreds of younger architects, and the steady name-drop of former students has helped to maintain their myth. Similarly, Basil Spence created an enormous machine which churned out high quality buildings, and the brute maths of how many people passed through his office led to an exhibition and book “Basil’s Bairns” a few years ago. Yet Lewerentz is different in that sense, too, because he stood alone. He exercised very little influence over other architects

during his lifetime, collaborated with no-one after he parted company with Gunnar Asplund, and employed only a handful of people over the decades. Perhaps the most apt comparison in Scottish terms is with Peter Womersley. This year’s Festival of Architecture, with an exhibition, lectures and tour of his buildings marks the first concerted effort to assess his reputation and make his work more widely known. In the process of doing so, there are the first hints of a cult growing up around Womersley – another designer who developed his own idiom but didn’t seek to explain his creativity. It took me 20 years to see St. Petri Kyrka, from reading Janne Ahlin’s book and being moved by its final chapter, The Epiphany of the Bindweed, to visiting Klippan on a summer day when the Swedish railways were in meltdown. Perhaps the wait was justified. I don’t think I would have appreciated St. Petri as a student, and I still don’t fully understand what Lewerentz achieved at Klippan, but I now have an inkling how cults are created.

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17/12/2016 17:22

ORIAM

John Glenday

WHEN BRAZIL’S ROBERTO CARLOS SCORED AN IMPROBABLE GOAL AGAINST FRANCE IN 1997 LITTLE CAN HE HAVE KNOWN THE IMPACT HIS LEFT FOOT WOULD HAVE, NOT ONLY ON THE NET BEHIND FABIEN BARTHEZ BUT ON A SPORTS PERFORMANCE CENTRE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF EDINBURGH 19 YEARS LATER. Oriam (Or is Gaelic for gold) has been conceived by the Scottish government in a bid to turn around the fortunes of an underperforming national football team by giving them access to the best facilities and services available. But with sub-par performances still raw in the memory, most recently a screaming pink 3-0 drubbing from England at Wembley, can this cathedral of sport turn things around - or is more divine intervention required? For those unacquainted with what many consider to be the greatest free kick of all time Reiach & Hall director James Grimley sets the scene: “He was about 35 yards out and he’s got a wall of French guys in front of him. He takes a long run up

to it and pelts it with the left side of his foot. Bartez is standing in goal for the French and you can see he doesn’t understand how this ball got past him. A group of French scientists sat down and worked out how this goal was scored and it turns out if you hit the ball hard enough with enough spin, over enough distance it doesn’t just curve but it starts to curve in on itself. If there was no gravity it would eventually form a spiral.” Having tried (and failed) to replicate this trick shot in person Grimley settled on replicating the achievement as only an architect can by tracing the arcing trajectory of the ball in steel, 18m above the heads of players below – perhaps in the hope that this might subliminally influence their game. >

ORIAM

Previous page - Sport is now a big tent national endeavour Below - A rippling canvas sheath provides a photogenic backdrop for the sports press

of a gimmick Grimley counters: “In a way it’s a slightly cheesy idea but we were in competition with Dundee and Stirling in bidding with Edinburgh and Heriot Watt University to host this facility. Stirling at the time were favorites so we knew we had to come up with a story to capture the imagination of the Scottish Football Association and journalists.” Clearly the ruse worked but did it overly complicate or compromise the build in any way by having to conform to a rigid mathematical concept? Grimley said: “If it’s a true equiangular spiral an engineer can’t mark it out because it’s infinitely different at every single point on its curve. The reality of it is split into a series of smaller curves which are calculable. You don’t notice that it’s a series of curves, it looks like one big sweeping curve.” Instead of bouncing off the ground however the flowing curves of the tensile trusses come crashing through 15m of earth and rock via giant steel piers, each modelled on the Alberto Giacometti sculpture ‘Head-Skull’. Harnessing experience gleaned from their work at Aberdeen Sports Village the team settled on the use of translucent polycarbonate cladding, relishing the opportunity to experiment with industrial materials on a large and unusual URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

building with little in the way of obvious precedent. This transparency in the façade feeds through to interior spaces with the intent to give occupants regular ‘glances’ through to other halls as you progress through the building, giving a real sense of a living, working building. Located within a former Pinetum at the long gone Riccarton House the complex is rooted in romanticism, as Grimley explained: “We loved the idea of arriving through the trees to get to the building. We produced an image of a young boy in a football strip and it’s almost a Hansel and Gretel moment where he comes out of the forest and finds this magical glowing building where amazing things happen. He walks out the other end as a Scotland player.” More prosaically the belt of trees, part of the historic landscape, affords protection from the wind, prying eyes and tabloid hacks. Installing an elite entrance for high performance athletes and a separate public entrance for everyone else ensures an added layer of seclusion, as the centre juggles the needs of public and players with twin circulation routes around which playing spaces are organised. The most striking element of the design is an undulating

white canopy intended to provide an instantly identifiable backdrop for TV interviews as well as keeping the elements at bay and with the intention that it ultimately becomes a symbol of sport. Modelled on a pine cone the stretched PVC fabric is wrapped over the structural steelwork to provide a strong and stable shape although it already required a jet wash, the hope being that a regular dousing with rain will do this work for them. Outlining one of the pitfalls of using such a roof Grimley stated: “In Aberdeen we used a similar roof where seagulls would land and see people playing sport underneath. Because of the way their eyesight works they would actually try and peck thinking it was bugs on the roof - there was a story of one seagull getting its beak embedded in the roof light and dying there with its face stuck!” By taking advantage of a change in level Reiach & Hall have been able to carve out a dramatic ascension from changing rooms to pitch, for an effect akin to a major stadium entrance, by slowly unfolding the pitch to view and it raises the hairs on the back of your neck in anticipation. This volume comes relatively cheap at just £1,400 per sq/m which is reflected in a fair amount of value engineering

as evident from wonky joins and bare concrete floors to the demotion of thick box girders to skinny trusses. Despite this some high spec touches such as glass balustrades are evident and with space for 500 baying spectators alongside the 3G pitch (a further 300 can be accommodated in the games hall) there is nothing artificial about the atmosphere it generates. Standing alongside the 116x76m indoor pitch Grimley said: “A lot of people try to hit the girders but they struggle, they are much higher than required. We had to go up to 28m on the centerline and 15m at the sides but if you’re covering a huge span and put a curve in the structural element its more efficient than a straight line. Like a shell the curve gives you strength. That combined with the spiral means it’s a higher space than briefed for. It’s not heated so you’re not paying any more in energy costs.” The wall at the far end of this hall has holes punched through it for acoustics and ventilation as well as opening up views from the public area to the high-performance area at different heights so kids and adults can take a peek. Grimley points out that if you drew musical score lines over these gaps the music for ‘Flower of Scotland’ could be read. >

BUILDING ll

GOING DIGITAL AS THE PACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT QUICKENS BRE LOOK AT THE ADANTAGES OF SWITCHING FROM BRICKS AND MORTAR TO SILICON As we move progressively towards a digital built environment, we are witnessing significant advancements in technology that enable us to design, build and deliver more efficient and more advanced living, working and recreational spaces. The introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one example of the recent advancements that are propelling the construction industry into a digital era. BIM is viewed as a key part for the future of the construction industry; the UK Government is looking for the sector contribute towards a twenty percent reduction in capital cost and carbon burden from the construction and operation of the built environment. Central to these ambitions is the adoption of information rich BIM technologies, process and collaborative behaviours that aim to unlock new more efficient ways of working at all stages of the project life-cycle. The changing needs of an ageing population also create a growing demand for us to develop design and technology solutions that allow people to interact with and age well within properties more safely and for longer. This challenge is particularly prevalent within our public and healthcare sectors; sectors that are already experiencing growing financial pressures. One of the key responses to this emerging challenge has been the development of assistive technologies, designed to support people to live independently and safely for longer, as well as reducing the pressure on their carers. The benefits of investing in assistive technology solutions become more apparent when we consider that in the UK we have a growing elderly population, with increased life expectancy and that the prediction is that by 2021 the number of people living with dementia will have increased to around one million. Moving towards a digital built environment creates new challenges for the construction industry, with many of these challenges requiring a broad approach to training and learning. BRE is working closely with industry, government and academic partners seeking to combine science and technology with innovation and entrepreneurship

to identify solutions for a digital built environment. The BRE Innovation Park @ Ravenscraig is being utilised to demonstrate how the use of the latest technologies can support an ageing population. The Dementia Friendly Home is currently being showcased on the Park and highlights how adjustments to traditional properties could make living at home safer for the increasing number in the UK population who are being diagnosed with the condition annually. The demonstration project highlights key benefits from design and technologies that aim to improve quality of life, reduce accidents and falls within the home and improve support for people living with long-term health conditions. The BRE Innovation Park @ Ravenscraig is also home to BRE Academy in Scotland, BREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industry respected training and education arm. The Park provides BRE Academy with a live, interactive training and education platform. BRE Academy offers a range of accredited courses ensuring our industry has the opportunity to continue to invest in developing individuals, from boardroom to building site and providing them with the skills and knowledge that they will require in order to design, build, install and maintain the technologies we will rely on to deliver a better built environment. BRE Academy is supporting industry in meeting mandatory government requirements and is the industry leading training body for BIM in the UK, enabling individuals in gaining Level 2 BIM accreditation and beyond. A range of online courses are currently on offer as well as classroom courses that take place on the Innovation Park @ Ravenscraig. Unique partnerships have also been created with a number of professional membership bodies and education institutions, offering a wide range of industry professionals and graduates access to CPD and accreditation that supports their lifelong learning needs while offering unique access to an inspiring, innovative and interactive learning platform. Together, industry, academia, government and associated partners can work towards a digital built environment, with better outcomes for all.

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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ORIAM

Top Left - Sweeping curves become apparent with distance Bottom Left - Gym bunnies are well catered for Right - Edinburgh’s very own field of dreams

Late in the design process it was decided that the artificial pitch should play host to rugby as well as football which required a wider playing area and some creative juggling of spaces to cram everything in. This saw support buildings pushed back within the same roof span and an angled acoustic façade which bounces grunts and shouts back to the pitch. Behind this wall sits a high-performance treatment room which, whilst lacking the MRI scanner used by top flight clubs such as Manchester United, does mean people can be treated there and then, improving the chances of recovery. This is joined by a hydrotherapy area and semicircular changing rooms modelled on Tottenham Hotspur’s, which means the manager can stand in the middle and hand an equidistant bollocking to the whole team. Speaking of which Gordon Strachan’s office is on the upper level (for now) alongside desk space for the Scottish Football Association, Sport Scotland, Volleyball and Netball organisations as well as multi-use theory classrooms. Elsewhere a listed walled garden has been incorporated into the building fabric with a minimum of fuss. Adding weight, solidity and a sense of history these were simply given a light brush after necessary doorways were cut through to remain as true to the original gardens as possible. Wrapping around a nine court games hall this space provides Sport Scotland with the space it needs for Volleyball, Badminton and Basketball tuition – with the notable exception of tennis, although this could change with discussions underway as to whether courts should be added to a remaining section of walled garden. Grimley added: “Sport Scotland have criteria about the

reflectance value of the walls and soffits whereas but not the specific colours, whereas Sport England do so we chose a vibrant blue which we actually borrowed from Herzog and de Meuron’s Basel insurance building for Roche. We took lots of pictures and samples to recreate the same colour. It pings and pops.” Four lines of polycarbonate roof lights which sit between the courts are sufficient to provide generous lux levels on a normal day. It illustrates how far Reiach & Hall have come since their first foray into sports provision at Herriot-Watt a grim windowless seventies block which remains in use on the campus alongside a later nineties addition. “It’s not one of our finest”, admits Grimley. “It was built back in the day when sports buildings didn’t have roof lights and there wasn’t much natural light getting into them. There is a certain section of the sports fraternity that don’t want any natural light in their spaces, they’re just not used to it, so there are a lot of gloomy sports buildings. We wanted to show you can control the light with thermal plastics to stop glare and create bright daylit spaces.” A subdividable café affords views out into the games hall offering an event space and private dining accommodation for the Scotland and Hearts squads. The nutrition needs of players are now very precise so there’s a fully equipped kitchen from where club chefs can dish out high protein grub. Much like Grimms’ fairy tales of old there is no guarantee of a happy ending for Oriam and it won’t deliver tomorrow’s sporting superstars on its own. What it does offer however is a level playing field to all who step through its doors, assuring them of a real sporting chance.

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART JOHN GLENDAY

MAC K

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WHEN FIRE RIPPED THROUGH THE PRICELESS INNARDS OF CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH’S SUBLIME GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART MANY FEARED THE WORST. BUT THE IRONY IS THAT IN LOSING ONE OF THE CITY’S MOST TREASURED INTERIORS WE NOW KNOW MORE ABOUT ITS HISTORY AND CREATION THAN EVER BEFORE. WE LOOK AT THE LATEST REVELATIONS.

When fire ripped through the priceless innards of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s sublime Glasgow School of Art many feared the worst but the irony is that in losing one of the city’s most treasured interiors we now know more about its creation and history than ever before. This is down to the forensic work of a team of conservation experts led by Page/Park architects who have over the subsequent months painstakingly raked through the ashes of the old to learn how best to build anew. It is an inclusive and measured approach necessitated by a project fraught with passions and sensitivities on all sides including those who think the restoration should not be attempted at all. Speaking at a Friends of the GSA meeting Liz Davidson, senior project manager for the Mackintosh project, said: “We get asked a lot if it was the Mona Lisa you wouldn’t be restoring it. Well, no we wouldn’t but Mackintosh didn’t physically build the school. He designed it and others built it for him.” In making this argument Davidson reaches out to the distinction between autographic and allographic art, a distinction traditionally made to separate forgeable from non-forgeable art which comes into play here when discussing the ‘forgery’ of Mackintosh’s work. Whilst in URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

painting an artist will directly construct their work in paint a playwright will see their work performed by others. Davidson points out that architecture falls between the two disciplines with someone else building the designs - but in a process that usually takes place just once. The fire started in the basement of the school on the 23 May, 2014, the last day of the hanging for the degree show. During this process a gas canister used in a student project was dropped over a projector fan and ignited. Within 30 minutes the fire was well alight and had started to propagate through a warren of vents. A fire suppression system which could have halted the fire was being installed at the time but was not yet operational. Seeking a silver lining amidst the resulting soot and charcoal Davidson said: “The positive, if you can call it that, is that we are finding out things about the building that we would never have known otherwise.” Part of this new-found knowledge has been gleaned from the School of Simulation and Visualisation which has carried out an exhaustive MRI-style scan of the building over the past year, taking 20 billion data points to measure the building down to millionths of a mm. But it has also been a process of good old fashioned detective work >

GSA have gone straight to the point, 20 billion of them to be precise

This detailed cross section reveals the full extent of the damage - and how much survives

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART

Left - Many new discoveries have been made amidst the soot and rubble Right - Beaming Kier employees have unfurled their banner

with the team scanning archive photos, testimony for clues whilst archeology has built an incredibly detailed understanding of how Mackintosh’s builders delivered the design by cataloguing and studying surviving debris. Davidson said: “Mackintosh did, thankfully, build a structurally robust building. Many thought the school was lost and would simply collapse but it didn’t. He built an extraordinarily strong, muscular building with brick lined walls that have held up remarkably well. We can walk through pretty much every part of the floor. We lost the books, the paintings and the wonderful library itself but the space is still there.” Alighting on Page/Park to conduct the work having dismissed a who’s who of international architecture (and one team from Turkey who offered to set-up a local office in Manchester), Davidson’s first objective is to ensure the integrity of any replacement. “As a client, you need to know that the building will be safe, future proof and functional for use of students”, Davidson said. “They are doing a miraculous conservation job and also installing Wi-Fi connectivity and disabled access.” Period photography of the school from 1909 is being scrutinised in minute detail for clues as to the building’s URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

original appearance, throwing up many surprises along the way. Indeed, the School of Art calculates that whilst it has lost four per cent of the building and 17 per cent has been damaged the bulk of the building has been left either utterly untouched or with only minor water and smoke damage. In practice this means that the refurbishment will require relatively unobtrusive work such as re-skimming plaster and relaying timber floors. Elsewhere the work will be more involved, particularly the reinstatement of the famous library lanterns. “Most are in bits”, lamented Davidson. “But we’re pretty certain we’ll be able to restore all of them. They will not be black but antique brass they were originally before they were painted due to tarnising.” More prosaically issues such as the harling to the back of the building, which wasn’t looking its best even before the fire, will be redone using Portland cement. Articulating the dilemma facing conservators at every stage in terms of what to restore and how Davidson added: “Whilst we would never ever have wished for the loss of the library one thing we can say about the space is that we’d already lost the public use of it for many years, it could only be accessed by appointment. It was the one room which

had become precious. If we if Mackintosh had built the library, walked out and seen restore it, it will become a room it burn down in 1909, he would have just said here’s the like any other and we can use it drawings, do it again. as a library again 24/7. “We don’t know what Mackintosh would have done but If Mackintosh had built 20bn data points but they don’t look inside all the surfaces. the library, walked out and it had burned down in 1909 Our guys had to spend months measuring the inside of he would have just said here’s the drawings, do it again. If everything. Our approach is millions of little steps, there he had continued to live and evolve as an architect then is no grand conception, towards a reconstruction and he wouldn’t have built it again, he would have changed.” restoration. Our starting point is an absolute admiration Comparing the predicament to a DAB radio Davidson for what Mackintosh achieved but it’s complicated by declared: “… we’re building something which looks the same what’s been left there. When it was completed in around but performs better.” 1910 it was recorded in photographs and that’s the closest Outlining some of the biggest discoveries thus far approximation of how Mackintosh left it. So we’ve taken a David Page, head of architecture at Page\Park, said: “This stance that 1910 is roughly the period to return to but it is project is painful, not just because of the story behind it but adjusted by an understanding of what happened in the first the intellectual challenges it presents. There are no clear phase of 1897. answers. It is constantly provoking us.” “Sometimes things done in the first phase were redone, Wielding a pointy stick with a rusty nail still embedded it’s not as simple and straightforward as two halves. Post on the end Page looked to be venting these frustrations on 1910 there were adjustments carried out until 1913 by his audience but then said: “It was nailed together. It wasn’t Mackintosh and post 1913 through to the present day. There tongue and grooves, or screws. It was nailed together! were lots and lots of adjustments like fire doors and new “We’ve measured every inch of the school. We have windows. It’s further complicated by the need for a fire >

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART

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suppression system and smoke detectors. There’s going to be an infinite number of conversations to come to the best approximation of a position.” In short what the conservation team are seeking isn’t a carbon copy of an uncertain past but to reclaim the ‘mantle of creativity’ and broader themes of ‘repetition, grids and transparency’ which define the art school. Page added: “Page has created this amazing encyclopedia which we see as a crucial part of the reconstruction, not simply the artefacts. Our methodology is piece by piece, mm by mm, nail by nail, to reconstruct a room and ultimately the school. What informs that process is this cycle of thinking. We can identify Mackintosh’s decisions and the origin of our decisions so others can retrace those steps. One of the defining elements of the school, its vertical windows, were installed in 1947. Page explained: “Keppie was gone then so it was possibly Henderson. He tried to improve the Mackintosh building but that’s the iconic image of the Mac which everyone has in their minds. This is what we all grew up with and drew in our sketch books but it wasn’t what Mackintosh intended. The problem was the windows leaked and so they were strengthened, with thickened frames and changed orientation. “I’m flexible. If the consensus view had been to restore to the 1947 detail for all the windows, I could have gone with that. If we decided, we were going to replace all the windows (including those that weren’t damaged) with the original design I could go with that too. If we were going to restore the windows in the library to 1910 and keep the rest of the windows, I’d be against that – I struggle with the inconsistency.” In this case the decision was taken to revert to the horizontal look Mackintosh envisaged but as Page points out: “We know those windows leaked! “We’ve found the original window sketches to have them rebuilt but are faced with the task of ensuring they don’t fail a second-time round. We think the original windows were constructed in pieces whereas our engineers think they can construct this as a giant lattice to give it rigidity and preventing movement pulling the putty loose. We can conceive of it as one piece. So not true to the original but adjusted. “Another example is the detail of the library. In 1909 the librarian said he wanted a window so Mackintosh moved the office. I think that would have been painful for him because it broke the symmetry, there’s a judgement to be made. There’s no straight forward answer but whatever we do we will have recorded the journey to get there.” A crucial key detail lies in the upper floor ‘hen run’ where it was found that the pitch of the glazing had been increased at some point, probably before 1950, to eliminate leaks caused by pooling water. Page stated: “We can do what Mackintosh dreamt of. We can adjust that level back.

Left - The school has worn an ill-fitting tarpaulin hat since the fire Above - Laser scanners have cast the school’s innards in a new light

In the 21st century surely it needs to be double glazed but should we? I could have gone with it but the fury of my colleagues came upon me. On this side it works well because if you double glaze this it cooks in summer. On the north side, we’ll put more heating in.” One of the key differences is in the use of colour with the school being far removed from the white walled spaces we are familiar with today. Period photos prove that the hen run was originally dark before being painted white and much of the interior, which was cheap Douglas Fir, was painted a beautiful green. Moveable partitions were also discovered in the studio spaces which weren’t known of before. Page observed: “We think that the timber was stained with oil paint to mask all the variations in the timber. The discoveries that we have made in the process of this journey add to the immensity of Mackintosh’s creativity.” The 23 May 2014 may have been a dark day for the Glasgow School of Art but the weeks and months since have informed our understanding of Mackintosh to such an extent that we can now begin to reappraise Mackintosh’s masterpiece in a new light. Armed with this knowledge the school’s future now looks brighter than it has ever done before.

DERELICT GLASGOW

D I SAP P EAR I NG ACT Over the past eight years you may have missed a quiet revolution taking place in the skyline of Glasgow. Waking up late on a Sunday morning only to spot something newly absent from the horizon for instance, or an early morning boom and cloud of pulverized concrete. Such events are the physical manifestations of a changing housing policy which is prioritizing scant investment on low-rise housing at the expense of stigmatised post-war stock which is expensive to maintain and often built in inappropriate locations. During this time one man has gone out of his way to record these changes through photography, documenting the short lives of the buildings themselves as well as the lives of the people who called them home. Capturing a familiar city in a brief orgy of destruction that proponents hope will dispel lazy stereotypes while improving the quality of social housing and which detractors fear is a needless waste of resources brought about by changing fashions. Irrespective of the truth of these viewpoints Chris Leslie, author and photographer of Disappearing Glasgow, told Urban Realm that the point of peak demolition may now have passed. Leslie said: “I think we’re at a turning point because one of the blocks at Govan, the Ibroxholm flats, was rescued at the last minute when the Scottish Government stepped in to save it for staff within the hospital (Queen Elizabeth University Hospital). There’s fantastic work going on at Maryhill as well with the high-rise flats there’s a project with Collective > URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

IN RECENT YEAR’S NEWTON’S LAW OF GRAVITY HAS PROVEN AS TRUE OF GLASGOW’S TOWER BLOCKS AS IT IS OF APPLES. UNLIKE FRUIT HOWEVER SOCIAL HOUSING DOESN’T GROW ON TREES SO HOW ARE WE TO REPLACE WHAT HAS BEEN LOST? IS DEMOLITION NOW AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, OR CAN/SHOULD IT BE ARRESTED? IN HIS NEW BOOK, DERELICT GLASGOW, CHRIS LESLIE GETS TO THE CORE OF THESE ISSUES. The goal posts in social housing provision have shifted over the years

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DERELICT GLASGOW

You were only supposed to take the bloody door off!

Architecture for a whole reimagining of the scheme. Not just the usual recladding but looking at the issues and the community to see what can be done.” While much of the housing stock was substandard Leslie believes that the sink estate label has been applied too liberally, particularly with a dearth of housing contributing to ever lengthening waiting lists for accommodation. Leslie remarked: “I think the high-rise flats that have come down in Glasgow have all been labelled sink estates many years ago, because of serious problems where demolition seemed the only answer but for a long time there was nowhere else to house people, we’d ran out of places to send people. What’s going to replace them and where are we going to be in 30 years’ time? In terms of quality and because of the cost of land and regulation no-one builds houses like they used to. One of the main goals of the project was to avoid being in the same position in 30 years’ time. It’s the same areas of the city that seem to be in this cycle of moving on every 30 years. People are beginning to use their imagination rather than just wiping the slate clean.” While Leslie labored in isolation

during the many years of preparatory research the book, now that it has been published, throws open a window to all with a latent enthusiasm for tower blocks and brutalism in general, and even to those seeking a Christmas stocking filler with a difference. It does at least break the mold of books detailing the more photogenic tenements and grand municipal architecture from the city’s Victorian heyday. Leslie commented: “The market for this book wasn’t old, nostalgic, elderly people. It was younger people because everything in the book has disappeared over the past eight years. This isn’t about nostalgia, it’s about events that everyone can relate to because they happened so quickly and so recently. “It’s still fresh. A lot of people’s memories and connections are with the high-rise flats. If you were away over the past eight years you would have missed all the changes, there’s a lot of things going on. Having it in book form certainly draws attention but for a long time nobody cared!” Is there a danger in this new air of pragmatism as leading stakeholders try to make the best of what we have that the pendulum could swing too far in the opposite direction. Might we be best to

cut our losses now rather than throw good money after bad? “Eight blocks at Red Road housed 4,500 people, it was huge but they were nowhere near the shopping area. They wanted to blow up the Red Road estate for the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. It was a crass idea but even without the failed demolition the whole city would have been bearing its scars to the world. Even if it did come down in a spectacular firework display why are you blowing up failed social housing? “With an audience of a billion watching it would have generated some debate and discussion and I was in favour for that to happen because I was documenting these flats and nobody seemed to care. We’ve lost 30 per cent of the city’s tower blocks since 2006, when this latest phase of regeneration started and it’s happened at such a speed that the whole point of the project wasn’t to look at it from an architectural or academic viewpoint but to look at it from the residents point of view. What happened here? When did it go downhill? What changed? These flats were the utopian answer to a horrendous housing crisis and these flats were sought after. It was about giving former and current residents the chance >

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DERELICT GLASGOW

This natty example of florid wallpaper is probably best consigned to history

to speak out – it’s a multimedia project not just a book.” So-called ‘poverty porn’ has gained traction from programmes such as Channel 4’s ‘Benefits Street’ and BBC 2’s ‘Hardest Grafter’ so is this project a reaction to the demonization of these buildings in the press, highlighting that there are many positive stories to be told which have been lost behind wider narratives and salacious headlines that proclaim a world of urban decay, unemployment and drugs: “They were marketed as progress but my first attraction was to photograph them. It wasn’t my agenda to romanticize the flats because a lot of people I’ve spoken to were delighted to get out of them, they were in such a state. It’s a real mixed bag of opinions and views and experiences. It’s happened in the blink of an eye and no-one has properly stopped to document it.” It seems that opinions on tower blocks are rather polarized, arousing feelings of hatred and love often from neighbours in the same block but what feelings do they elicit from the photographer’s standpoint. Is their

sheer scale and unavoidable presence enough or should you try to ensure that everyone has a viewpoint? “Architects and photographers loved the idea of high-rise buildings but I was often told ‘try living in it for six months and that might change your mind’. I was very conscious of that. Some of the images show the buildings in a beautiful light and a very aesthetic presentation but that’s just the type of photography I do. It’s meaningless without the narrative of people who lived there and the social documentary.” Of all the projects on display two stand out, literally for Leslie. The Whitevale/Bluevale twins which once towered over Dennistoun and are now no more. Leslie said: “For me personally Whitevale/Bluevale flats were in my neighborhood and that was the last project I did. They were brutalist buildings with fantastic stories and wraparound balconies but they were hated by the community and the council. They were so close to the Commonwealth Games Athlete’s Village that my friend said these flats could have been used by the Athlete’s

given their proximity to Celtic Park for the opening ceremony, city centre and transport links. You could walk around those balconies and get 360 degree views of the city. They were big, spacious flats inside as well. There was no imagination allowed for that because they were viewed as a sink estate and had to go. That was a real shame for me. In any other city they could have done something special with those flats.” A block lost here or there isn’t going to change the city but read over a period of eight years the city is changing and perhaps isn’t the city now that it once was? Is Glasgow becoming any less Glaswegian? If there is one constant of history it is that waves of demolition precede waves of renewal and the real question isn’t so much what is being lost but what will replace it. A question which has no clear answer despite being asked for the better part of a hundred years and more. Disappearing Glasgow, A Photographic Journey by Chris Leslie, edited by Johnny Rodger (Freight Books, £20)

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©DONAL MCCANN

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The ups and down’s of the roofline at Ballymena Health & Care Centre, a joint production by Keppie and Hoskins Architects, mirror the peaks and troughs of a turbulent year URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

CENTURY CLUB

OUR ANNUAL SURVEY OF THE TOP ONE HUNDRED ARCHITECTURE PRACTICES IN SCOTLAND IS OUR BIGGEST YET. IN THIS DEFINITIVE RANKING OF 2016’S WINNERS WE DETAIL THE PROJECTS WHICH WILL BE REMEMBERED THROUGH 2017 AND BEYOND AND SPEAK TO THE DESIGNERS BEHIND THEM.

Over the past 12 months Urban Realm has been busily collating staff and fee income from Scotland’s biggest practices to produce a definitive ranking of who sits where in the industry pecking order. Weighted to give relevance to design success, as measured by award winning and commended work,. We’ve crunched the numbers using this four-step methodology (detailed on pg 91) to arrive at our final ranking. At the top of the Christmas tree this year is a practice best known for its commercial work but a series of strong showings in the healthcare sector have seen it carve out a niche for itself in the design space - part of a concerted effort to play to its strengths that has seen it withdraw from the booming, though tough to crack, Manchester market. Elsewhere our list is dominated by more design-focussed practices, whose reliable haul of awards each year makes them reliable bets to dominate the ranking’s upper strata. Cumulatively they show that, while many fear a drop-off in quantity and quality of delivered projects following the Brexit the Festival of Architecture 2016 concludes with what has been another stellar year for our built environment. Read on to see the list in full: >

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©DONAL MCCANN

This Northern Ireland Health Centre proves that carefully considered architecture can aid patient recovery

Keppie Design Peter Moran Managing Director

What distinguishes your practice from others? Our desire to collaborate closely with Clients and other consultants makes us more attentive. I believe we are now a very people-focused practice and that attribute has been evident in the success of our most recent work. We work throughout the world on a wide variety of project types, with values ranging from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions, but the culture of the company and the desire to create the highest quality architecture remains the same irrespective of type, size or location. What has been your best work of the past year? It’s always difficult to single out individual projects. In my opinion, our recent work has been amongst the best in the practice’s history, but the successful completion of Ballymena Health and Care Centre and the multiple awards that it has received has been a particular highlight. Likewise,

the workplace awards for the Aker HQ in Aberdeen, and the recent completion of Ayrshire College were also very satisfying. Moving into 2017, we are excited at the prospects of West Dunbartonshire Council Offices, Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre, East Lothian Community Hospital and Orkney Hospital, all of which are progressing through construction. Would you recommend a career in architecture? Absolutely. It’s not easy and it often feels that it goes without recognition, but it is still an exciting and rewarding career. Architecture has opened up so many opportunities for me that I don’t think I would have received elsewhere and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some fantastic people on exciting and interesting projects. What can Scottish architects offer the world? We bring a level of innovation tempered by pragmatism. Our current international work is diverse but it is all predicated on a recognition that we have a level of acknowledged expertise that is eminently exportable.

©ANDREW LEE

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Left - Page\Park’s Kelvin Hall overhaul forms a new city street Right - The Saunders Centre, by the same practice, shows how to do an urban block well

Reiach and Hall

Page \ Park Architects

What distinguishes your work from other practices? A healthy democratic society has an implicit acceptance of a diversity of approach. Nurturing that rich tapestry should be an implicit objective of us all. We see ourselves as part of that movement to support that broader mix, and integral to our business model is the enabling of a blend of multiple overlapping skills; from care for the structure of our cities, towns and villages, concern for its historic fabric, all the way down to the individual experience of its places and interiors. It is perhaps this crosssection of experience and understanding that distinguishes us as a practice: the ability to share, explore and blend the spectrum of activity from the general to the particular. What has been your best work in the past year? We have seen this year three projects complete, projects that have been in the practice for a number of years. All have a similar theme - engagement with the city as a strategy and with the particular experience of those that interact with it. At the Scottish Power Headquarters, it is about the hundred metre arcade which, in this inhospitable part of the city beside the motorway, seeks to give a degree of dignity. At Caledonian University it is in the framing of the central campus street and at the same time the containment of three botanical gardens within; an oasis of green in the heart of this learning quarter. At the Kelvinhall it is in the insertion of a new door and route URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

©ANDREW LEE

Karen Pickering Director

conceived in the spirit of a covered lane cutting through this immense building, in the spirit of an open city, with a diversity of activities around it. What can Scottish architects offer to the world? We would look at the question of what Scottish Architects can offer to the world from a historical/future perspective. We ask the question what has been the legacy of our towns, cities and villages offered from St Andrews to Edinburgh, from Inveraray to Glasgow. At the same time what do we learn from the creation of our universities, through to health care, transport and social fabric. What has the legacy from Robert Adam to Thomson, from Peter Womersely to Gillespie Kidd and Coia left for the world? We don’t act in isolation, we are part of that legacy, our understanding of urbanity, the building of its institutions and distinctive individual architectural contributions - anchored in that history is a steadying platform to launch into the future contribution.

BDP

Cooper Cromar

ÂŠANDREW LEE

Left - James Gillespie High School by JM in full blossom Right - The school encompasses five new additions arranged around a central listed building

jmarchitects Ian Alexander Design Director

What distinguishes your practice from others? Our practice endeavours to make works that are distinctive, imaginative and improves the lives of the people who use them on a day to day basis. We are interested in architectural language as a means of creating identity but also understand that place and context can drive the ideas for a project. We place our clients at the centre of the design process as we find that a creative dialogue and synergy is essential in creating spaces that inspire and serve the need of the occupants. In many ways our practice is similar to others but we try and foster a supportive environment that encourages our team to make the best architecture they can within an environment where interesting work is constantly emerging from the studio. Would you recommend a career in architecture? Recommending a career in architecture is something I would

probably always do because I have always enjoyed being one. Firstly the education of the architect is a great primer for life. The person becomes acquainted with the connection of many things â&#x20AC;&#x201C;landscape, city, the environment, food, film, music, art and society. The career interacts with many complex issues â&#x20AC;&#x201C;psychology, poetry, science, construction and business. What other career offers this insight? Human life revolves around the meaning and utility of built forms and by making architecture for a diverse set of uses we are always learning as individuals and architects. What can Scottish architects offer the world? As Scottish architects we are constantly redefining and reconnecting with the idea of our relationship with place and culture and what that might mean in an evolving world. Can our work as Scottish architects be defined as a form of Critical Regionalism? Is it distinctive? Is it a body of work that has a shared set of concerns in design, construction, environment and materiality? Do we have shared concerns about the future and how we might progress? For me, this all feels very relevant to the evolving times that we live in. If we love the work that we do and if it has integrity, then others may find it of interest. >

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Michael Laird Architects Brendan Diamond Senior Director

What has been your best work in the last year? Our best work is the £160m City Campus for City of Glasgow College. Designed in conjunction with Reiach & Hall Architects and following hot on the heels of the award winning Riverside Campus this project is a triumph of urban design, architecture, interior design and project delivery. We are told that it will help lift the ambition and aspiration of the 5000 students who will use the building every day. Also our HQ for Ineos in Grangemouth is another building for which we are very proud. This 80,000sqft building was designed and built in under 18 months and provides office and training facilities for a delighted client.

©KEITH HUNTER

What distinguishes your practices from others? Although we pride ourselves on the quality of our architecture and interior design we also seem to be able to differentiate ourselves from our competitors by the quality of our service. This quality is exemplified by our expertise in many sectors; our expertise in workplace and briefing, our quality of technical design, our understanding of construction and our commercial acumen. When all of these attributes amalgamate you have a package that a client really wants. The fact that 70% of our work comes from repeat business or recommendations is evidence of this success.

Top - Riverside Campus, a joint effort by Michael Laird and Reiach & Hall, came within a hair’s breadth of picking up the Stirling Prize Bottom - The campus is equally as impressive within, as this atrium ably demonstrates

What can Scottish architects offer the world? When you stand back and examine the quality of the best architecture being produced in Scotland over recent years there is no doubt that we can stand shoulder to shoulder with any country. Scottish architects seem to have an innate sense of place and a care for the environment. Scottish architects also seem to be able to produce really good architecture on a limited budget. Just look at this year’s Stirling Prize where the City of Glasgow Riverside Campus stood proudly alongside all of the other projects that were built for more than twice the cost per square metre. URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

©KEITH HUNTER

Would you recommend architecture as a career? I constantly recommend architecture as a career. What other career gives you the opportunity to be constantly creative, solve interesting and varied problems on a daily basis, see your creations built, work with a wide variety of different people and have something different to do every day? The great thing about architecture is that it is such a ‘broad church’ and there is room within for such a wide variety of architectural roles. As long as you do not expect to live a lavish lifestyle architecture must be an attractive proposition.

Hypostyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mammoth Dalmarnock Riverside scheme will deliver 550 new homes for Glasgow

Archial NORR

Comprehensive Design Architects

Holmes Miller

Walters & Cohen

3DReid

HLM

Hypostyle Architects Gerry Henaughen Director

What distinguishes your practice from others. The diversity of our experience and the long term commitment of all staff and directors to the ethos of the practice. Hypostyle Architects was formed in 1985 and we currently have 50 members of staff, over 25 of which have been with the practice for 10 years or more. These combined years of experience are a direct result of the collaborative and creative atmosphere that we have worked

hard to create in our office and continue to develop. The breadth of shared knowledge and experience creates a seamless and high standard of performance for our clients and allows us to tackle a range of project types. This experience has successfully delivered projects in housing, healthcare, education, commercial, industrial sectors. We see this range of experience as valuable tool in delivering the highest quality of service to our clients. What has been your best work from the past year. Over the past year we have been involved in a number of interesting projects at various stages of design. On the board three projects are showing signs of being impressive pieces of work 1. 550 New housing units for sale and social rent on the River Clyde at Dalmarnock, for the Link Group. 2. Industrial manufacturing and research facilities for the Aerospace Industry in West of Scotland. 3. Conservation and conversion of grade A listed Townhouses in Edinburgh for the Turkish Consulate. Two projects currently on site will be interesting pieces of work when complete. 1. Whisky Experience facility and boutique distillery on the River Clyde in Glasgow involving conversion of Grade B listed building and new build extension. The challenge on this project has been to create a unified but unique building which marries the existing and the new. 2. Extension to the National Museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collections Centre in Edinburgh including new laboratories and specialist storage facilities. >

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Dalmarnock is being transformed from a post-industrial desert to a desireable address

Would you recommend a career in architecture? I would recommend a career in Architecture to someone who is looking to work in a creative industry, who has a good technical and artistic mind with a passion for design. Architecture is a broad field with many specialisms and areas of practice which can be very rewarding. As an architect you have a high level of autonomy and there can be great deal of satisfaction in managing a project and seeing a design from start to finish. I would however say to someone considering studying architecture that it is worth taking the time to fully consider what the job entails. The job can vary day to day and the reality is that the percentage of your time spent purely designing can be comparatively small. However I believe the impact of these design challenges are far reaching and worthwhile and the variety of activities keeps the job interesting. I would advise that given the rising cost of university tuition fees and length of study required for the Architecture course that they consider the financial implications of taking on the course and how the industry is responding to financial pressures. Also it has to be accepted by prospective Architects, that the re-numeration package available over the career of an architect, is not commensurate with the years of study and the responsibility required. There is a significant commitment to study over a minimum of seven years and an exceptional professional responsibility for a poor re-numeration in comparison to other professions. URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

What can Scottish architects offer the world? Having completed a number of projects abroad and in the rest of the UK my experience has shown that Scottish Architects are highly regarded within the international construction industry. They show a level of creativity and technical ability which is noticeably higher than other countries. They also show a better understanding of a buildings relationship to its context and its impact on the wider social and physical infrastructure. Their knowledge of energy performance in building design is at a higher level than many architects trained outside Scotland. In general I would say Scottish Architects offer greater professionalism and greater creativity. 15

Threesixty Architecture

Ryder Architecture

Hoskins Architects

LDN Architects

ICA

MAST

Stallan-Brand

Top - Urban Eden at Lochend, Edinburgh,

Bottom - The scheme brings distinctive Colony-style housing into the modern era

EMA Ewan McIntyre Managing Director

What distinguishes your practice from others? We care about what we do and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re proud of most of it. We like to see things happen and we put a lot of time and effort into giving our clients the best opportunity of making things happen. This means using our extensive experience of masterplanning, place-making and mixed-use developments to understand what is in fact possible both technically and commercially, then producing the best possible design solution for the site. What has been your best work of the past year? In Elgin, we have completed a masterplan for a new

community of 1,500 households which has been adopted as Supplementary Guidance and which has already won a Scottish Quality in Planning Award. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve also submitted planning applications for two city centre sites in Leith and Portobello. Each site is for a mix of about 500 flats, colonies and townhouses. At Urban Eden in Edinburgh, the first phase is nearing completion. Urban Eden is a new neighbourhood of just over 200 colonies and flats set around shared surface streets, lanes and gardens. Elsewhere, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re involved in some great place-making projects throughout Scotland. What can Scottish architects offer to the world? I think Scottish architects have a lot of work to do at home before assuming that they have something special to offer the rest of the world. >

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AHR

Manson Architects Lindsay Manson Managing Director

What distinguishes your practice from others? At Manson we truly embrace the idea of the Design Team. We understand that the complexity of our Clients’ needs merit the expertise from a variety of fields; and we as Architects shoulder the task of diligently directing and coordinating these team efforts. This provides us with the time and space needed to ensure we are fully engaged with our Clients’ brief and that we deliver an end product which is commercially astute, robustly constructed and of outstanding architectural integrity. What has been your best work of the past year? We have been involved in a variety of project sectors throughout the year. In Scotland our workload has included Property Award student residences at Abbeyhill in Edinburgh; biomass renewable schemes and a bespoke selection of retail parks. The business has expanded throughout the UK and we are currently involved in a £120 million mixed-use scheme in Bournemouth; the project includes offices, hotel, student residences and multi-storey car parking. We have also commenced on site this year with two University schemes in Belfast at Dublin Road and Queen Street. What can Scottish architects offer to the world? Scotland has a diverse range of historic and modern buildings blended with it’s natural beauty and outstanding landscapes. As Scottish architects we have the characteristic of being aspirational designers as well as having the intuitive knowledge gained from our countries’ built tradition: this is unique in the world market.

Manson have led the way during a student housing boom, as here overlooking Glasgow’s River Kelvin

Young and Gault Architects Ltd

Collective Architecture

GLM

7NArchitects

BMJ

susan stephen architects

elder & cannon architects

Aitken Turnbull Architects

Morgan Mcdonnell

ATKINS

SUTHERLAND HUSSEY HARRIS

Groves Raines

FLETCHER JOSEPH ASSOCIATES

andersonbellchristie

Richard Murphy Architects

Moxon Architects Ltd

Nicoll Russell Studios

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Top - Roxburgh McEwan’s precipitous summerhouse would be anyone’s cup of tea Bottom - The Tea House milks its views for all their worth

ROXBURGH McEWAN ARCHITECTS 42

Elizabeth Roxburgh Director What distinguishes your practice from others? The end product. All of our work comes from word of mouth. What has been your best work in the last year? A contemporary reworking of a ruined Scottish Tower House. Would you recommend architecture as a career? Yes, if your not scared of hard work.

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Top - ARPLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kingswood Secondary, Dublin, illustrates the benefits of foraging further afield Bottom - Bold use of colour contributes to a sense of place

Covell Matthews Architects

Austin Smith Lord

Stewart Associates

Helen Lucas Architects

Hackland+Dore Architects Limited

LJR+H

Purcell

LMA

Smith Scott Mullan

IDP Architects

David Blaikie Architects

Taylor Architecture Practice

Brown& Brown

Carson & Partners

Bennetts Associates

ISA

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ARPL Gordon Fleming Director

What distinguishes your practice from others We are a provincial based practice who manage to work in a wide geographic and architectural field. Although we have a strong regional presence our work stretches from Orkney to Dublin â&#x20AC;&#x201C; our biggest projects are in Ireland. We work very hard with our clients to give them the best project we can manage and this has resulted in us gaining commissions for schools, theatres, art galleries, community centres, churches, housing and private houses â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all the dream jobs you hope for as an architect. A strong studio, currently of 11 people, working outside the heat of the central belt means each of these projects becomes very special to us and we hopefully deliver a service which reflects that What has been our best work of the past year. The most signifcant piece of work we have carried out this year has been getting the opportunity to progress on our competition winning secondary school in Dublin. After much analysis of the educational briefing, we have worked with our client to bring the project through detail design to a tender stage. With a site start due early in the New Year this uniquely planned school will bring a new approach to secondary education in Ireland. This is supported by a head teacher whose pedagogical ideas dovetail fully into the spatial concepts and layouts in the building.

Sheppard Robson

MAKAR Ltd

Lewis & Hickey

Would you recommend a career in architecture Working as an architect can be the most engaging and interesting job you can do. It involves working with clients, communities, teams of colleagues, consultants and contractors to deliver buildings which enhance peoples lives. Why wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you recommend it. It is not the best paid professional job and it has stresses and complications. Alongside this the impact of techology and the future make up of the profession is uncertain however I supect this applies to everyone. If you enjoy creating something physical, real and worthwhile then it cannot be beaten. >

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Capital A

Annie Kenyon Architects

McLean Architects

James Denholm Architects 66

Jimmy Denholm Partner What distinguishes your practice from others? Longevity of design - we create designs which stand the test of time and are not temporarily fashionable.

Dualchas Architects Ltd

LeeBoyd Archietcts

Rural Design Architects

macmon

Arc Architects Ltd

Benjamin Tindall Architects

WTArchitecture

Lynsay Bell Architecture

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Top - Dykedale Lodge, Dunblane, brings the outside in Bottom - Set in a stunning location the home responds to the landscape

©GREG CARTER

Would you recommend a career in architecture? Yes – it’s rewarding and challenging in equal measures! The process of design means you are constantly looking at things from first principles and learning, redefining and evolving your approach to each project and your perspective on the wider world!

©GREG CARTER

What has been your best work of the past year? We completed numerous houses for private individuals throughout Scotland in the last year and each of these is special in it’s own way. Other projects completed include a new VIP Lounge and Offices for the Isle of Arran Distillery, Clathymore Residential Development for Stephen’s Homes, Alterations and Interiors at Monachyle Mhor Hotel, Alterations at Peebles Hydro Hotel and Holiday Lodges at Fearnan, Loch Tay for Suilven Property.

Top - A10â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sugar Dumplin BBQ and Bar at Princes Square, Glasgow Bottom - The chain is expanding UK-wide, selecting A10 for its branding and interior design

A10 Architects Ltd Darren Glennie Managing Director

What has been your best work over the past year? Our best work in the last 12 months has been the design for a nationwide Caribbean restaurant and rum bar, with locations including Kingston, Camberley and Wembley, having completed the fit out of Princes Square in 2015. These projects have allowed us to display our interior design ability in a non-traditional setting in addition to the architectural services we can provide. Would you recommend a career in architecture? Yes, I would recommend a career in architecture as everyday provides new challenges and opportunities to positively affect peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives and the built environment. The industry has changed dramatically in the relatively short period of time that I have been in practice however the fundamentals remain. If you enjoy designing, appreciated the built environment and would like an opportunity to walk past a building in years to come and say you designed that and it positively affected people then it is a fantastic job which outweighs any negativities.

What distinguishes your practice from others? As a relatively new business we have had the opportunity to learn from the experiences gained from various practices and interior companies that staff have worked at this has allowing the team to develop the practice into a vibrant, creative work environment which is reflected in the refurbishment of our new office. This reflects our eclectic ideas and design solutions which is also conveyed in our design approach to all projects where each project is design driven with a holistic solution from exterior to interior. >

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ICOSIS Architects

DTA Chartered Architects Ltd

Bain Swan Architects

BTE Architecture

smithfindlay:architects

Voigt Partnership

Honeyman Jack & Robertson

INCH

ZM Architecture Ltd

Fergus Purdie Architects

A449 Matthew Johnson Director

What distinguishes your practice from others? We have our own clear ideas about materiality, and about form and proportion based on long standing rules of geometry, and while we are not sure that anything is unique, we do believe that our work is distinct. Every architect should be making an appropriate response to the site and context, but perhaps because we really focus on simplicity of form, utilise aspect, light and volume to maximise internal spatial qualities, detail carefully, and use a restrained material palette we are distinct from other practices.

ÂŠA449 LTD

What has been your best work of the past year? Blakeburn. This project recently won a 2016 RIAS award and the Saltire Medal, and while we are grateful for the peer recognition of a good design, we have been overwhelmed by the reaction of the client. She was incredibly enthusiastic throughout the project

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and the way she talks about the positive impact the building has made on her life and wellbeing is very rewarding. Our ideal projects, like Blakeburn, are ones that allow the story of a building to continue. We are enthused by the challenge of working with an existing form, and feel that the underused and unutilised resources should be the first point of any development project. Would you recommend a career in architecture? Absolutely, but be patient. It has taken about ten years following graduation to get where we are but we truly love what we do. Running a practice can be intense, but we are driven by the opportunity to interpret and improve how people interact with spaces. Our motivation comes from a desire to develop the practice, to engage and employ, and to move onto larger projects. Our clients continue to inspire us, and we are grateful to those who should be commended for their enthusiasm and confidence in giving opportunity to an emerging practice. >

ÂŠA449 LTD

Left - A449â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Blakeburn Cottage, near Melrose, is entirely clad in scorched larch Right - An existing cottage was completely overhauled

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JAMstudio Marie-Louise Dunk RIBA RIAS Chartered Architect/ Director

What distinguishes your practice from others? I believe our USP is myself and my husband and Co director John Wingate, plus our team! When you ask JAM to design a house, extension, office, distillery then it will be one or indeed possibly both of us, as founder directors that will provide you with the creative look and feel for your project. It is our creative eye that brings our clients to us, and I think that our many years of experience of a huge variety of project types both here in Scotland and formerly in London that has brought something a little different to our projects.

Would you recommend a career in architecture? Yes, but you’ll need to be pretty tough, develop a thick skin and deep pockets! One of the best bits about becoming an architect is the seeing the legacy of the buildings that you deliver and the effect on the end users of those buildings and the sense of place generated where they are built. Producing great architecture in Aberdeen can be a challenge at the best of times, particularly over the past 2 years, as the oil price crisis has completely suffocated the market here for new buildings or even refurbishments. Those that are being built have very tight budgets and all our clients are extremely cost conscious. In some ways, although money is tighter here than it has been traditionally, this has led us to consider some different approaches to design procurement and use of materials that are allowing us to explore different ways of being able to offer architect services to potentially a wider audience than before, which has got to be a good thing for us long term. What can Scottish architects offer to the world? A great deal of talent, a keen design eye when it comes to creating buildings that fit beautifully in their surroundings (for the most part – unfortunately there’s a good reason our great city won a plook on the plinth award not long ago!). There are many small to medium sized practices in Scotland that are URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

©NEALE SMITH

What has been your best work of the past year? From a commercial point of view it was probably the office refit we undertook for Aubin Group – a well informed client with a clear brief and a willingness to let us do something slightly different for them. This led to a colourful and well executed project than has completely transformed their office from the noisy, difficult and somewhat drab place it once was to a vibrant, well lit, colourful space that performs well acoustically. “Funky not fancy” was the key theme of the brief and that exactly what the new space delivers.

Left - JAMstudio’s completely refurbished Aubin Group’s Ellon HQ Right - The open-plan office space has been redesigned to improve acoustic performance

creating really iconic buildings that I find both attractive to look at and very sensitively detailed, which is heartening. We believe that having been lucky enough to live and work in such a beautiful part of the UK, for over 14 years now, that some of that inherent beauty cannot fail to be absorbed by anyone working in architecture here, and that often this is reflected in the quality of the built environment produced.

John McAslan & Partners

Sean Douglas & Gavin Murray, SD + GM

Jewitt & Wilkie

McGregor Bowes

Craig Amy Architect

Kerry Smith Architects

ADP

Simon Winstanley Architects

cameronwebsterarchitects llp

DO-Architecture

ZONE Architects

Konishi Gaffney Architects

100

Roots Architecture Limited Methodology 1. Efficiency points weight: <40 000 GBP fees income/head

<50 000 GBP fees income/head

<60 000 GBP fees income/head

<70 000 GBP fees income/head

>70 000 GBP fees income/head

2. Staff points: Staff points have weight 1:1

Â©NEALE SMITH

3. Qualified architects points Qualified architects points have weight 1:2 4

Awards points including the following schemes: RIAS awards RBA awards SDA awards Awards weight 1:10

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HERE, IN THEIR OWN WORDS, LEADING PRACTICES EXPOUSE THEIR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY, DETAILING THE STAFF, VISION AND SKILL SETS WHICH ALLOW THEM TO DELIVER STAND-OUT PROJECTS FOR ANY BUDGET.

Anderson Bell Christie A10 Architects 12 Moss-Side Road, Glasgow G41 3TL Email: info@a10architects.com Web: www.a10architects.com LinkedIn: a10-architects-ltd Tel: 0141 649 2296 Practice Statement: A10 Architects is a young vibrant and flexible architectural practice which operates a compact team providing a comprehensive architectural, Interior design and project management solution for clients. The practice from the outset has fulfilled what has always been regarded as the Architect’s principal role – to lead the Design Team in all respects and to ensure that a project is handed back to the client successfully completed, on time and within budget. We provide a full range of architectural services from inception to completion, including feasibility studies and master planning.

Email: gen@andersonbellchristie.com Web: www.andersonbellchristie.com Twitter: @AndersonBellChr Tel: 0141 339 1515 Number of architects (in Scotland): 13 Number of staff (in Scotland): 34 Services provided: The practices’ very early work was primarily based in the social housing sector. Since then we have gradually diversified to become a ‘pan-sector’ practice with award winning projects in housing, education, health and community sectors. We are based in Glasgow but work all over Scotland and Northern England, with projects in locations as diverse as the Isle of Lewis and Newcastle.

Services Provided: Architectural services, Principal Designer services, Interior design services, Feasibility studies, Master planning and Urban design, Project Management, 3D Rendering, Space planning Annie Kenyon Architects Ltd South Lediken Studios, Insch, Aberdeenshire, AB52 6SH Email: info@akenyonarchitects.com Web: www.akenyonarchitects.com Number of Architects: 5 Number of staff: 10 A449 Architects 266-268 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh, EH15 2AT Email: mj@a449.co.uk Web: www.a449.co.uk Twitter: @A449LTD Tel: 07809 243388 Practice Statement: A449 Architects are an RIAS Chartered Practice established in 2010. Based in Edinburgh we have a proven track record of delivering high profile refurbishment, extension and new build projects on numerous challenging sites across Scotland. Our reputation continues to grow and we were recently awarded the prestigious 2016 Saltire Medal for excellence in housing design.

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Practice Statement: AKA is based in rural Aberdeenshire and carries out design-led restoration, conversion, extension and new-build projects with an emphasis on sustainability. The practice endeavours to use appropriate materials and promotes high quality energy efficient solutions in both restoration and new-build projects. Existing redundant rural architecture can be put to reuse for residential or commercial purposes through sensitive conversion based on a sound understanding of traditional materials and techniques and the potential of new interventions. We endeavour to create well considered beautiful buildings that are appropriate for their setting.

ARPL Architects

elder & cannon architects

11 Wellington Square, Ayr KA7 1EN

Email: mail@elder-cannon.co.uk Web: www.elder-cannon.co.uk Tel: 0141 204 1833

Tel: 01292 289777 Fax: 01292 288896 Web: www.arpl.co.uk Email: gfleming@arpl.co.uk Number of Architects: 5 Number of staff: 11 Practice Statement: The ARPL philosophy is to work closely with each client to produce buildings which are sympathetic to both the immediate and broader environment. We are committed to providing an exemplary service to ensure all parties in the project team can deliver the result each project demands. Services Provided: Architectural design, specialist conservation , design for sustainability, masterplanning. Principal Designer Services

Number of architects: 7 (Scotland) Number of staff: 14 (Scotland) Practice Statement: Elder and Cannon are a leading architectural practice with a portfolio of high profile projects and a reputation for innovation and high quality work within a wide range of building types. We specialise in a number of sectors including Conservation, Housing, Education, Commercial and Masterplanning, winning national awards in each category.

Fletcher Joseph Associates 5 Millar Place, Edinburgh EH10 5HJ Email: info@fletcherjoseph.com Web: www.fletcherjoseph.com Tel: 0131 447 5000 Number of architects: 5 (Scotland) Number of staff: 13 (Scotland) Services Provided: FJA have over twenty years of experience and an acknowledged capability of servicing the needs of projects varying in scale from small projects to multi-million pound schemes with particular expertise in housing, student accommodation and hotel sectors.

Services Provided: Full Architectural Services including Conservation Accreditation.

glm EMA Architecture + Design Limited Denholm Partnership Architects 11 Dunira Street, Comrie, Perthshire, PH6 2LJ Email: admin@james-denholm.co.uk Web: www.denholmpartnership.co.uk Tel: 01764 670 899 Practice Statement: What we do is all about relationships. Our projects are successful because we work closely and communicate well with clients, contractors, planners, and each other. Our buildings aim to explore and express design appropriate for the Scottish rural landscape whilst responding to the evolving needs of modern living. Our priority is always to find the ideal solution for our clients needs whilst being aware of financial considerations and opportunities. Services Provided: Architectural Design, Masterplanning, Interior Design

42 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4HQ Tel: 0131 247 1450 Email: info@ema-architects.co.uk Web: www.ema-architects.co.uk Twitter: @EMA_Architects Principal Contact: Ewan McIntyre, MD Number. of Architects: 10 Number of Staff: 24 Practice Statement: EMA Architecture + Design is an architectural practice based in Edinburgh specialising in mixed use masterplanning, neighbourhood design and architecture. Our core values are on delivering designs that will reinforce the urban fabric of the surrounding area. We aim to create places with character and identity, with high quality positive street frontages and maximum permeability to encourage social interaction. We pride ourselves on delivering practical and commercial solutions whilst making a positive contribution to Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architecture and urban design. The team at EMA are dependable and enjoy delivering solutions that enhance the value of our clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; assets. At EMA we are ambitious to become one of the best architectural practices in Scotland.

58 Castle Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3LU Email: enquiries@weareglm.com Web: www.weareglm.com Twitter: @weareglm_ Tel: 0131 225 4235 Number of architects: 5 Number of staff: 6 Services Provided: Architecture, Building Surveying, Project management.

Holmes Miller 89 Minerva Street, Glasgow, G3 8LE Tel: 0141 204 2080 Email: glasgow@holmesmiller.com Web: www.holmesmiller.com Number of architects (in Scotland): 34 Number of staff (in Scotland): 53 Services provided: Holmes Miller is a private limited company, wholly owned by the directors. Scottish based with offices head-quartered in Glasgow, the company is a Chartered Practice of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Primary business activity is the provision of a comprehensive range of architectural design, master planning and interior design services.

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Hypostyle Architects

jmarchitects

Lewis & Hickey Ltd

49 St Vincent Crescent, Glasgow, G3 8NG

64 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4NA Tel: 0131 464 6100 Email: edinburgh@jmarchitects.net

1 St Bernard’s Row, Edinburgh, EH4 1HW, UK

Email: glasgow@hypostyle.co.uk Web: www.hypostyle.co.uk Tel: 0141 204 4441 Practice Statement: Hypostyle Architects is a UK practice that works in all fields of Architectural Design. Specialising in Residential, Health, Education, Commercial, Master planning, Industrial and Urban Designs, the practice understands the boundaries and process of creating visually dynamic and functional buildings. During their 30 years in practice, Hypostyle have established a broad and expanding client base throughout the UK, the middle east and Europe. We believe in design excellence and innovation in architecture and deliver functional, creative, sustainable, energy efficient and economic design solutions to our clients. To achieve this we use up to date technology, project evaluation and option analysis combined with 3D visualisation to enable high quality and creative delivery of the client’s aspirations.

59 Bell Street, Glasgow, G1 1LQ Tel: 0141 333 3920 Email: glasgow@jmarchitects.net Web: www.jmarchitects.net Twitter: @_jmarchitects Number of architects: 62 (Scotland) Number of staff: 109 (Scotland) Practice Statement: With studios in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Manchester, jmarchitects has developed into one of the UK’s foremost architectural practices since its formation in 1962. Our aim is to create the best spaces, buildings and places with a level of design excellence that satisfies, delights and inspires. We understand that the success of any project lies in the relationship between client and architect so we adopt a collaborative, balanced and integrated approach to every project we undertake. Services Provided: jmarchitects provides design services in architecture, masterplanning, urban planning, interior design, 3D visualisation and sustainability to both private and public sector clients.

Email: edinburgh@lewishickey.com Web: www.lewishickey.com Twitter: @Lewisandhickey Tel: 0131 343 6222 Number of architects: 6 (Scotland) Number of staff: 27 (Scotland) Services Provided: With 5 UK offices and 2 overseas we cover the country and beyond and can resource accordingly - we are big enough to cope and small enough to care. Renowned for our abilities to deliver projects we are also award winning - ‘we design...we deliver’. We cover most work sectors in depth.

Manson 10 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3BL Tel: 0131 225 2958 11 South Tay Street, Dundee, DD1 1NU Tel: 01382 226361 Web: www.mansonarchitects.co.uk

JAMstudio Ltd Email: info@jamstudio.uk.com Web: www.jamstudio.uk.com Twitter: @jamstudio_ltd Tel: 01224 646450 Practice Statement: If you need to expand your office or design a new distillery, we have a vast array of experience in the commercial building sector. Our Commercial design services include architectural and interior design, furniture procurement and project management. Our expertise in residential and house design means we are very well placed to assist on domestic projects of any size. This has been reflected in a number of awards, both regionally and nationally, as well as numerous recommendations from highly satisfied clients. Practice directors, John and Marie-Louise, worked in London for many years for a number of well-known practices, and have over 50 years architectural design experience between them. Their construction experience has been vast, covering all sizes of projects from house renovations and extensions to multi story office development, for clients throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Services Provided: Architecture, Space planning, Interior Design, Project Management

Keppie 160 West Regent Street Glasgow G2 4RL Email: dross@keppiedesign.co.uk ktoner@keppiedesign.co.uk pmoran@keppiedesign.co.uk Web: keppiedesign.co.uk Tel: 0141 204 0066 Number of architects: 46 (Scotland) Number of staff: 112 (Scotland) Practice Statement: Keppie are one of the UK’s leading, independent architectural practices. Headquartered in Glasgow, the company employs over 100 people in studios based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness. Keppie count some of the UK’s top public and private sector companies amongst their Clients and operate across the UK and internationally. Services Provided: Architecture, Interior Design, Town Planning

Practice Statement: Manson are one of Scotland’s leading architectural practices with over 40 years experience working throughout the UK. The company have completed major commercial projects with a particular focus on mixed-use, retail and university schemes. Our goal is to consistently provide the optimum design solution that clearly relates to the Client brief and we pride ourselves in being commercially aware when delivering our product. We have recently established a Planning Consultancy division within the business and going forward we will be offering an integrated planning and architectural service to the property industry. Services Provided: The company provide Architectural and Planning Consultancy services throughout the UK, with offices in Edinburgh and Dundee.

McGregor Bowes Tel: 0131 332 7572 Mob: 07907 899 885 Email: chrisb@mcgregorbowes.com Web: www.mcgregorbowes.com Twitter: @ChrisMBowes Number of architects: (in Scotland) 1 Number of staff: (in Scotland) 1 Services provided: Architect and principal designer.

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Roxburgh McEwan Architects 42 Forbes Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4ED Michael Laird Architects 5 Forres Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6DE Tel: 0131 226 6991 Email: edinburgh@michaellaird.co.uk 83a Candleriggs, Glasgow, G1 1LF Tel: 0141 255 0222 Email: glasgow@michaellaird.co.uk Web: michaellaird.co.uk Practice Statement: Michael Laird Architects is one of Scotland’s leading architectural practices responsible for some of the country’s most significant buildings and with many award winning buildings to our name. We are committed to creating imaginative, effective and sustainable buildings and to providing the highest standard of professional service for our clients. We strive to produce architecture that enhances the built environment through contemporary design, which responds sensitively to its context, is environmentally responsible and delivers real value for our clients. The team at MLA is committed to creating highly functional and inspiring spaces to live, work and learn. Services Provided: Architectural Design, Interior Design & Workspace Planning, Master Planning & Urban Design. Sectors: Commercial Office, Residential, Workplace & Interior, Education, Retail, Hotel & Leisure, Data Centre & Industrial, Conservation

Page \ Park Email: mail@pagepark.co.uk Web: www.pagepark.co.uk Twitter: @pagepark Practice statement: Page \ Park is a progressive architecture practice based in Glasgow. We are an employee-owned business, reflecting our shared commitment to make a positive contribution to our built environment. Page \ Park has built a reputation for inventive contemporary architecture that stems from an understanding of history, people and place. Our unique business model is based around Centres of Gravity (CoG), that enable us to develop and share expertise across all aspects of our business. This collaborative approach extends beyond our own organisational model, as we build lasting relationships with clients and consultants that inform our architecture. Working across the public and private sectors, we create designs that are context-specific, people-focused, sustainable, creative, memorable and deliverable.

Email: info@roxburghmcewan.co.uk Web: www.roxburghmcewan.co.uk Tel: 0131 229 3766 Number of architects: 6 Number of staff: 7 Practice Statement: Roxburgh McEwan Architects consistently deliver beautiful bespoke buildings across a range of projects, conceiving and producing simple solutions to complex design briefs. We strive to achieve an attention to detail and a timeless elegance in our buildings for like-minded clients. Designs are informed by environmental, technical & cost efficiencies. Services Provided: Full Architectural Service from inception to completion of the build.

Stallan-Brand Email: Info@stallanbrand.com Web: www.stallanbrand.com Tel: 0141 258 5015 Number of architects: 16 Number of staff: 23 Practice statement: Our studio promotes a collaborative design process and client experience. We are champions of architecture and of an architectural approach that embraces dialogue and creative exchange. We wholeheartedly believe that together we can change the world. Our project experience over the last twenty years has proven this to us. Whether on a small or large scale we believe good design can be transformational. We are personally and professionally committed to what we do in the interests of our clients and the environment around us. We enjoy a challenge. Services Provided: Architecture, MasterplanningDesign.

Services provided: We have developed specific expertise over a diverse range of projects, reflected in our CoG structure, which may be broadly categorised as: • Conservation • City and Land (masterplanning) • Places to Live (housing) • Arts and Culture (museums, galleries, theatres and sports facilities) • Creative Working (workplace and education design) • Briefing and Interiors (client briefing and interior design)

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19/12/2016 11:19

ARCHITECTURE IN CRISIS JOHN PELAN, DIRECTOR, SCOTTISH CIVIC TRUST

URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

Left - Saltcoats Town Hall gleams but the town remains rundown Right - Glasgow’s historic High Street has been laid low by ill-considered homes

YOU DON’T HAVE TO TRAVEL FAR THESE DAYS TO STUMBLE UPON A SUBSTANDARD STUDENT OR VOLUME HOUSING BUILD BUT WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THEIR SPREAD? JOHN PELAN PUTS FORWARD THE CASE THAT OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT IS UNDER GREATER THREAT TODAY THAN AT ANY TIME IN A GENERATION.

In the run-up to next year’s local elections in Scotland how many times will the built environment, old and new, be mentioned? I hazard a guess that it won’t figure much in the campaigns of prospective councillors and that health, education, the economy and provision of local services and repeated cuts to funding will dominate. Architecture, planning, development and the historic environment are not generally seen as vote-winners. I think this is short-sighted though. On a recent awardsjudging trip to Saltcoats in North Ayrshire to visit the newly refurbished Town Hall, I was struck not just by how rundown and depressed the town was (along with many other towns in the local authority area it is ranked as one of Scotland’s poorest places in the Index of Multiple Deprivation) but by how people there looked older and unhealthier than in more affluent communities. This is hardly surprising but I think it is evidence that a poor quality built environment does not engender self-respect, civic pride and general wellbeing. In fact, as Sir Harry Burns, the ex-Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, has said many times, there is a clear causal link >

Top left - Maryhill Health and Care Centre, Glasgow Top right - Newmains Community Centre, Newmains

Kevin Cooper Director

What has been your best work over the past year? That’s a difficult one. After the success of our Dalmunach Distillery project in 2015, we have gone on to have an encouraging year in several sectors, particularly education and healthcare. Our completed Clyde Valley Campus building has been very well received, as have our Newmains Community Centre and Maryhill Health and Care Centre projects. All of these buildings will ultimately enhance the lives of all those who use them, and make a tangible difference to their disparate contexts, both of which are rewarding, satisfying outcomes for us as their designers, particularly within the currently challenging economic climate. Would you recommend a career in architecture? On balance, yes I would. It can be an extremely rewarding job with huge variety and interest. Our profession is however becoming increasingly marginalised and collectively we really do need to do something about that. It is our own fault too with project managers filling the roles that we have abdicated from over the past forty years. We need to reclaim the perception that we can’t bring genuinely creative value to any project. A good architect definitely can, in spades. Low fee bids certainly don’t help our cause either. If architects don’t value our own profession, why should anyone else?

Above - Weir Group HQ Interior Design, Glasgow Below - Clyde Valley Campus, Wishaw

What can Scottish architects offer to the world? Well, I think we can offer as much as any other nation; why not? I hate the Scottish cultural cringe thing. Ultimately, it’s about getting the right opportunities isn’t it? Why can’t we have open competitions again for major public projects like the V&A? Sadly, Scottish architects often seem to be relegated to the roll of assistants to apparently more glamorous, polo-necked designers from London or abroad. Why is that? Mackintosh was an architect in a decent firm in Glasgow when he won the art school, and that didn’t work out too bad for the international architectural stage, did it? About NORR Part of the employee owned Ingenium international group, NORR’s 3 offices in Scotland are nevertheless driven by autonomous Scottish directors with regional sensitivity and our own very diverse sector expertise. In this way we blend creative, contextual design with local knowledge, national experience and international expertise for a wide variety of interesting clients in both the public and private sectors. We also enjoy the mutual benefits of effective collaboration with our colleagues in England and abroad.

Aberdeen: 01224 586 277 www.norr.com

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Glasgow: 0141 204 6500

Inverness: 01463 729 307

17/12/2016 17:30

ARCHITECTURE IN CRISIS

Lack of investment coupled with corporate muscle has contributed to the steady erosion of our historic environment

between well-designed, pleasant places and good health. If this is the case, then why do our elected politicians, local and national, not recognise that the built environment is absolutely central to all the priorities listed above as campaign issues, particularly the economy and health? At some point in the 1970s the word ‘environment’ was shorn of a large part of its meaning to refer only to green issues. In the early days of the Scottish Civic Trust, its newsletter was called ‘Environment Scotland’ as the word encompassed the whole environment, natural and built. At the time there was also an understanding that people wanted to feel proud of their local towns, villages and neighbourhoods and that having a connection to and sense of ownership of place led directly to civic pride and collective responsibility. There are some 130 groups affiliated to the Scottish Civic Trust. Some are called civic trusts, others amenity societies, ‘friends of’ or heritage groups. Their aims vary but most share a common purpose: to care for, celebrate and champion their local village, town or city. Many spend a lot of time commenting on planning applications and are battle-scarred from years of fighting inappropriate developments or loss and neglect of heritage

assets. Most members of these societies tend to be older and many are retired. They offer lifetimes of experience and come from a wide range of backgrounds. They are, perhaps, not as representative of their larger communities as they would like to be. Almost all struggle with the same issues: ageing membership, lack of voice, recruitment of new, younger members and a feeling of swimming against the tide. With limited success and much frustration they make a stand against waves of inappropriate and ill-conceived development and gradual piecemeal erosion of what makes certain places special. What drives them on is civic pride in their area, responsibility for its upkeep and future and a determination to stand up for it when it is under threat. Their sense of civic duty harks back to an earlier time, the 1960s and 70s when civic society was at its most active. Then, in response to the widespread destruction of much of the country’s historic fabric, delivered with fervour by modernist zealots from the architectural and planning professions, the Scottish Civic Trust was founded, followed by scores of civic and amenity societies across the country. In a time when people lived in neighbourhoods for much longer than today’s transient populations, there was a greater >

ARCHITECTURE IN CRISIS

Not all hope is lost with Austin-Smith:Lord spearheading a public realm masterplan in Saltcoats

connectivity to one’s environment. This cohesion, along with a campaigning spirit, imbued groups to challenge decisions made by planning authorities and city and town leaders and helped to make the conservation movement grow. The civic movement is still very much alive and kicking today but it faces threats that I believe are more serious and worrying than we have seen for a generation. What are they? A lack of leadership at local authority level in most cases to protect and enhance the local built environment. A full audit of all Scotland’s conservation areas needs to be carried out. The loss of influence at the top table by planners and architects and the shortage of design and conservation skills in planning departments. Also, many elected representatives are making decisions on matters related to design, planning and development for which they do not have the required URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

knowledge or expertise. Scotland’s procurement system which squeezes out design and joy from architecture and planning for the sake of cost, which heavily favours contractors and forces architects to charge historically low fees. Volume housebuilding – many areas of Scotland are now open season for housebuilders who, if their applications are rejected at local level, simply appeal and have the decision overturned by the Reporter. Lack of investment in our precious historic environment and brutal commercial decisions being made in cities like Aberdeen and Edinburgh where the latter is in danger of losing its World Heritage Site status. The incredible number of, at best, mediocre student housing developments springing up all over our cities adding nothing imaginative to the visual streetscape. Local authorities are being starved of cash and are >

Top- An affordable housing development in Dalkeith for Castle Rock Edinvar Bottom - Student housing has kept construction afloat in many cities afloat but at what cost?

ARCHITECTURE IN CRISIS

Top - Provost Skene’s House in Aberdeen is now enveloped by Marischal Square Bottom - Barratt’s Drummond Villa at Eskbank

» I FEAR THAT DECISIONS BEING MADE TODAY IN THE NAME OF ECONOMIC REGENERATION WILL HAVE REPERCUSSIONS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME. «

compelled to sell off assets and prioritise health and education over architecture and planning as if the issues were not intricately connected. There are Scottish Government policies which deserve praise such as the new Place Standard Tool developed by Architecture and Design Scotland with NHS Scotland. Also, it is hoped the recent review of the planning system will encourage greater community engagement in the decision-making process at an early stage and it is good to know that better links between community planning and spatial planning will be promoted. Similarly, Our Place in Time, Scotland’s historic environment strategy, needs to be delivered by the new body, Historic Environment Scotland and all its stakeholders, including my own organisation, the Scottish Civic Trust. However, as long as we continue to have a developerled planning system and where the mantra of economic regeneration is the main driver rather than design and community-led solutions I fear that decisions being made today in haste will have repercussions for generations to come. URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

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17/12/2016 17:27

BROOMIELAW DISTRICT JOHN GLENDAY

URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

Left - The only way is up for Glasgow’s waterfront if Stallan Brand have their way Right - Much of the city centre still lies fallow following ill-judged demolitions in the 1970s

GLASGOW HAS COME A LONG WAY BUT IS IT IN DANGER OF LOSING ITS WAY? AN EMBARRASSING WATERFRONT HOLDS THE CITY BACK BUT NOW A COUNCIL RUN MASTERPLANNING EXERCISE SEEKS TO SHOW THAT IN CREDIT CRUNCH BRITAIN FUTURE PROSPERITY COULD FLOW FROM THE BANKS OF THE CLYDE. Glasgow City Council’s city centre strategy has identified nine ‘character’ zones which are to be the subject of a long-term regeneration strategy. Work to flesh out the second of these, Broomielaw, is currently in full swing and Urban Realm was in attendance to see how the area’s future is shaping up. Following an earlier exercise in Sauchiehall and Garnethill Austin-Smith:Lord’s Glasgow team and Dutch architecture and urban design specialists MVRDV are again on board to give substance to ideas flowing from a series of workshops. At a time of ever quickening homegenisation and globalization is this a chance for the city to play to its historic strengths by differentiating its offer, or a mere distraction from deep rooted problems that may prove intractable? Gillian Black, senior projects development officer at Glasgow City Council said: “We can’t look at a map and draw a line down a street because it’s different from those around it. It was more an assessment of the character and nature of the space as well as the land use,

rather than a red line.” Past zoning has led to dead zones around Blythswood and the IFSD, where predominantly mono-use quarters of the city become no-go areas at night, will this be addressed? Black said: “We don’t say what the land-use is until we’ve done the stakeholder engagement. Yes, in the City Plan there is a development in principle policy, where everything should be but the regeneration framework is basically saying, is that right? Is it because of development policy principles that one area is very much office focused or has no commercial activity at all and how do we use the area where they overlap to bring them together? That’s where we’ll introduce planning policies to fix that exclusion.” But is there a sense that Glasgow has lost momentum since the 1980s and City of Culture celebrations? Looking enviously at the scale of regeneration in Manchester and Birmingham it seems ambition in the south is an order of magnitude greater than what Glasgow is witnessing. What are the reasons for that? “I think there are a variety >

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17/12/2016 17:25

BROOMIELAW DISTRICT

The Renfrew Ferry and environs instil a sinking feeling amongst investors

of reasons that the city centre has not been attractive for urban living. There’s not a lot of school provision, when people think of coming to the city they think of where’s the doctor, where’s the school, where do I get my daily shopping. The consultants have looked at other cities and their population densities and Glasgow is quite low when compared with places like Dublin. One of the key aspects of the city centre strategy is to make it liveable and sustainable for kids and the elderly by prioritizing walking and cycling rather than cars.” Brownfield land remains one of the greatest hindrances to drawing people down to the waterfront but how can these gap sites be brought back into productive use? Black says: “The ownership structure is fragmented but there are organisations who own good-size plots. Within the regeneration framework what we need to do is look at how we show the potential of an area ranging from cosmetic treatment, which might be lighting or parklets and larger interventions for bigger plots by looking at meantime uses to show the potential of a space.” The aspiration is for Argyle Street and the Broomielaw to be made ‘pedestrian priority avenues’ although the precise form this will take has yet to be determined.

Outlining the council’s approach Black said: “When you look along Argyle Street there are a lot of inactive frontages and blank facades. What we want to do is make this far more inviting for people to walk along.” The single largest visual block to movement is the M8 which though an inhospitable environment does enclose a cathedral-like space. Black said: The M8 undercroft is owned by the council but its leased by city parking. The problem is that is a noise generating space so any uses or changes would need to be built around that. One idea explored during the Sauchiehall and Garnethill framework was to ‘cap’ the motorway where it enters a cutting. A feasibility study is now underway for that, leading to consideration of how the elevated section is treated. It’s just how that elevation is treated. Ideally it is hoped to encourage people to use Anderston Station to access the riverfront, a route few would choose at present. Pencilled in for 2019 is there a palpable sense of frustration at the slow pace of change? With land lying idle for decades, a collapsed quay wall at Riverview Gardens and palisade fencing obstructing the path of anyone brave enough to venture along the riverside walkway even basic maintenance and access is being >

BROOMIELAW DISTRICT

neglected. The Renfrew Ferry, venue for one of several drop-in events, is itself enveloped in a thick film of flotsam and jetsam. Black remarked: “It all depends on the scale of the initiative, there might be parklets, murals or lighting initiatives or other cosmetic treatments which we might be able to do quickly but big ticket items will take longer. These are long standing issues which the council is dealing with and I think through the city deal we’ll be looking at ways to work with stakeholders on these challenges.” Market forces dictate where investment is directed leading to a chicken and egg dilemma of what comes first is there a case to be made for foregoing further planning URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

initiatives and just encouraging developers to take on these sites that have been empty for decades? “The market is driven by what people want to invest in and our job in the regeneration framework is to try and carve the route to make that an easy journey. There are lots of sites which have sat empty for 10-15 years but what are the reasons for that? Through these engagements, it seems to be the physical environment of the streets which makes them unattractive to investors. They are coming out of Central Station, walking past the Radisson and Robertson Street and see the physical appearance of buildings and streets and concluding this is not a good space or a >

Left - Glasgow city centre has been subdivided into nine character areas Right - The city is keen to face up to its riverfront after years of turning its back

BROOMIELAW DISTRICT

Left - Argyle Street has been reduced to a dead zone of car parks, fly-overs and blank gables Right - A grand volume below the M8 is wated as a car park

physical environment I want my staff to walk through late at night - because there are no activities.” Commenting on the international perspective which his practice can bring to bear, perhaps more important following the Brexit vote, MVRDV partner Jeroen Zuidgeest, said: “The insertion of the M8 created this scar in the urban fabric, separating the two neighbourhoods (Anderston and the Broomielaw). Central Station is barrier one, the financial district is barrier two and the M8 is barrier three you completely kill the connectivity between what’s happening westwards and what’s happening in the city centre. We need to take down these three barriers to create as close to a normal city street as possible.” Given the frankly embarassing quality of the waterfront as it stands, how many years behind the continent does Zuidgeest believe the city languishes? “It has to do with political will and organizational guts at governmental level. The investment by the City Deal programme is fantastic and we can have fantastic maps and visions but it’s about making it work. I would URBAN REALM WINTER 2016 URBANREALM.COM

say you’re between one month and fifty years behind. Blueprints and masterplans are not the right approach here, it should be much more strategic. It should be possible to have first resource in summer of next year and it’ll be a minimum of 10 years before the M8 is better embedded in the urban fabric.” Looking at J19 of the M8 motorway, now relabeled as New Anderston Cross, Zuidgeest explains his incredulity upon first setting eyes on Anderston Station beneath. “This isn’t a joke but Initially we thought the entrance and exit to the station was a snack bar – it deserves an upgrade and entrance facing eastward that is connected to Argyle Street, which should be extended westward.” Outlining some longer term thinking Zuidgeest added: “If you put two sheets of glass either side you have the most fantastic events space that is bigger than the Tate in London.” Beyond that the Dutchman advises a rethink of the recently installed Fastlink bus lane along the Broomielaw to minimize traffic and doing more to break the asymmetry of development which has seen what regeneration there is focus upon the favoured north bank

at the expense of the south bank. To change perceptions Zuidgeest advocates a series of new bridges and repairing streets which offer connectivity to the river. Despite the many issues that remain to be resolved Zuidgeest is fundamentally optimistic about the future, stating: “People should learn to love the city again, it’s a bit rough and neglected but you have a great proposition here. Developers are paralysed by negative connotations and it’s just about overcoming these problems one by one because it’s a fantastic location with the greatest potential in the city. It’s about reappreciation and It’s not necessarily the rain which is bad. You put on jackets and climb mountains, if you had pleasant streets to walk you would do the same here.” Outlining when Glaswegians might expect this potential to be reached Graham Ross, office principal at ASL’s Glasgow studio, said: “Our intention is to work through 2017 on Central, St Enoch and Blythswood to try and build up that momentum. The challenge at the outset was to have a long-term vision beyond the tenyear horizon in our brief but also to try and ensure we

identify quick wins which might include networks and connections that enable other things. For instance, we’ve been speaking to water sports businesses who would like to gain access and activate the river to get them speaking to the right people in the right agencies to get that happening in spring of next year. We’ve had discussions with a local housing association about re-establishing a tenant’s association and join up the residents with the business community to encourage meanwhile uses for land which has long remained fallow. We’re looking to ease red tape and barriers to action. It’s vital to work out how regulatory and land ownership structures work together.” In a world where successful cities are agglomerating further as more and more people pile in on top of each other there is a danger that those cities which miss the boat will fall further behind. Glasgow’s long overdue initiative to focus on its neglected core shows its heart is in the right place but as we prevaricate and plan others are building. It needs to act now or see itself dissipate further in a slow, relative decline.

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

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

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

KINGSPAN TEK BEATS THE SNOW IN THE ALPS

WHEN IT’S COLD OUTSIDE WEBERMINERAL TF RENDER WON’T STOP WINTER WORKING

The Kingspan TEK Building System has been installed as part of a luxury ski chalet in the French Alps, helping the project to be completed within the tight schedule of the Alpine building season. The System comprises of structural insulated panels (SIPs), which are pre-cut to each project’s exact specifications, limiting on-site alterations and waste.

The new webermineral TF, a through-coloured, thin coat, decorative render finish, designed for use with multi-coat render systems, is not only rain resistant but can be applied at temperatures as low as 1°C. This cementitious, even textured render has rapid drying benefits that can prevent wash-off in 1 hour making it ideal for winter working and achieves a durable, resilient and weather resistant finish.

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

Tel: 08703330070 Web: www.netweber.co.uk Twitter: @SGWeberUK

KINGSPAN OPTIM-R AT THE MUSEUM

BUILDING INNOVATION BOARDS ACHIEVE BBA CERTIFICATION

Over 320 m2 of the Kingspan OPTIM-R Flooring System has been installed to provide outstanding thermal performance as part of a spectacular new museum in the market town of Hitchin. The Kingspan OPTIM-R Flooring System was specified for the project by Buttress Architects. Kingspan OPTIM-R panels feature a microporous core which is evacuated, encased and sealed in a thin, gas-tight envelope.

Tapered insulation experts, Building Innovation, has achieved British Board of Agrément certification for its InnoFix and Inno-Bond insulation products. The certification covers both flat and tapered board options, providing specifiers with independent assurance of the products’ performance. To attain the Agrément certification, the products were subjected to extensive laboratory tests, on-site evaluations, and quality management checks.

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

Tel: 01926 888808 Email: design@building-innovation.co.uk Web: www.building-innovation.co.uk

KINGSPAN KOOLTHERM INSTALLED ON MODEL SCHOOL

MAKING A PASSIVHAUS A HOME

Kingspan Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board has been used to insulate an ambitious open-plan school in Liverpool. Designed by Sheppard Robson, Notre Dame Catholic College combines a standardised clear-span outer shell with modular internal spaces. To maximise building fabric performance, Sheppard Robson specified over 3000 m2 of Kingspan Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board.

A stylish Passivhaus home in South Manchester has achieved exceptional levels of airtightness through a combination of careful detailing and a high performance structure, provided by the Kingspan TEK Building System. Steve and Mel Howarth hired certified Passivhaus designers, PHI Architects, to create their dream home. After considerable research, PHI selected the Kingspan TEK Building System to form the walls and roof of the structure.

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

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

BATH ST, EDINBURGH JOHN KINSLEY ARCHITECTS COMMAND OF THE OCEANS BY BAYNES AND MITCHELL ARCHITECTS

BARRETTS GROVE BY AMIN TAHA ARCHITECTS

133 CHURCHWALK BY MARTINELLI ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

DESIGN , MANUFACTURE AND INSTALLATION OF CROSS LAMINATED TIMBER (CLT) AND GLULAM STRUCTURES

WWW.EGOIN.CO.UK EMAIL:EGOIN@EGOIN.COM TEL:07981509724 EGOIN UK, 36 ST MARYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ST, EDINBURGH EH1 1SX

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