With the flagship £850m Southern General Hospital (SGH) taking shape, Govan is beginning to refashion itself anew. A well built stock of solid tenements frame a grand public avenue to the SGH down Govan Road, formidable qualities that are soon to be acknowledged through establishment of a conservation area straddling Govan Cross through Elder Park.
However Govan Cross itself is not aided by disastrous road interventions, which see through traffic routed around the town centre and a housing policy which sees high concentrations of poverty and social problems. Nevertheless Govan's relationship with the Clyde will be restored by engaging the river with housing along Water Row, accessible by public walkways and boulevard interlinking a revamped town square to the Clyde. Public art, notably a Linthouse gable canvas from Hugh Donaghy, is serving to open up a new urban dimension.
A revamped Govan Interchange is a bold attempt to capitalise on strategic location, enhance connectivity and re-establish a streetscape that is cognisant of underlying urban principles. Unfortunately a lack of cross pollination between diametrically opposed riverbanks restricts diversity of stock hampering both sides, commercial high rises are not inappropriate to an important and expanding transport hub, as is it is left to local housing associations to produce innovative solutions.
One such example will see Do Architects on behalf of Govan Housing Association and Cruden Estates creating a dramatic new terrace onto Golspie Street housing 110 new apartments for rent, sale and part sale. Broken down into smaller unique blocks using full height glazed stairwells between adjacent blocks, visually connecting street to courtyard. Change of material and varying façade depth compliment projecting bays which introduce colour to the streetscape and reference the fine ceramic tiles in traditional Glasgow close stairwells. the project isis expected to commence on site in January 2009. Down the road the best preserved pre war dockyard office in the UK, Fairfields, is to be restored by Clydeport and ADF whilst creating 60 apartments. Housing on both sides of the listed offices picks up on the ‘towers’ of the Fairfield building and the traditional corners of the surrounding tenements. The public will be allowed access to heritage elements within the site such as the wood-panelled ornate interiors and a fully-restored map-room.
Elsewhere a dramatic rainbow of patternated glass envelops mixed tenancy homes and commercial space in this feasibility study. Amenity is prioritised by undercroft parking with a raised deck and rooftop gardens affording spectacular panoramas of the river. Landscaped public space is offset to the throughfare of Govan Rd to defer authority to the "potted heid", Govan's very own pot of gold.
An application to demolish Napier House has been made by Glasgow City Council following an earlier decision to demolish Elder Park Primary, an imposing Edwardian edifice designed by Bruce & Hay in 1899 that lies just outside the nascent Govan conservation areas boundary. Set amidst several blocks of contiguous tenement streetscape, the building is nevertheless unlisted and not regarded as architecturally significant by either the council or Quarriers who propose to demolish it for a new National Epilepsy Centre.
£11.5m proposals have been submitted by Elderpark Housing Association and Anderson Bell + Christie for mixed tenure housing and offices at the former St Anthony's School. The scheme entails provision of several blocks each sharing common materials, window proportions and large ‘feature’ indentations but retaining distinct identity. A greater urban scale is afforded to Govan Road, reflecting its tenemental character and further enhanced by flicking up the parapet line towards the corner. The fenestration of the Elder Street elevation meanwhile is less formal but regular large indentations for the entrances serve to create more regular rhythm and also mirror the language of the Govan Road elevation. The Elder Park elevation is treated as a set piece and is more complex than any of the other blocks with end terrace townhouses featuring corner windows, allowing the gables to animate Garmouth Street and a new street to the north. It is scheduled to go on site in January 2010 for completion in 2011.
Elsewhere LUV, in conjunction with Do Architects, had applied to construct five business units and a cafeteria around a restored farmhouse within Elder Park. The non profit venture had secured funding from the Big Lottery Fund and tenants were lined up including The Scottish School of Herbal Medicine. However, despite mustering 88% support from residents in an exhaustive door-todoor survey, a vocal minority opposed the moves citing that £4million pounds of investment should cover the whole park, not just the farmhouse, further complaining that commercial development of the parkland was inappropriate.
The streets of Govan may not be paved with gold but if do architectures plans had been realised the buildings would. Gold copper alloy makes virtue of vice by contrasting with Glasgow's predominantly leaden skies, this architectural alchemy promises to sparkle on even the grimmest winter evening producing no fools gold and rather heralding a new Govan gold rush, sadly replaced by brick as a cost cutting measure. two bookend blocks at Aboukir Street provide 24 apartments including 12 homestake shared equity homes for first time buyers.
Do Architects have also produced a set of proposals for former sub-stations which originally served the Govan shipyard, these may soon be transformed into a community hub. LHA and the LUV Project are working together to create artist’s studios, gallery space, small office units, an aluminium recycling facility accessible by the public and a community enterprise to provide meaningful employment.
Gordon Cullen: The Potential of Glasgow City Centre (1985)
The Cullen report is important for distilling the scattered threads of new thinking in urban planning into a well illustrated blueprint that mapped out step by step policies to be pursued in a bid to allow the city to escape industrial decline. Though entirely unbuilt as imagined the vision for Glasgow proved massively influential to a generation of architects and planners, providing a manifesto for physical and political change that called for:
Closer links between business and government
Beautification of the city centre through re-engineered public realm
An entrepreneurial environment
Promotion of these efforts in a national and international context
Key to the vision was enhancement of the city centre to become a honey pot, thereby luring in outside investment, trade and peoples by creating an environment conducive to retail, leisure and business. The strategy proposed called for implosion, much as stellar evolution, Cullen called for contraction and upped densities to rekindle the flame of urbanity. The central artery of this new heart would be Buchanan Street which would act as central spine flanked by the culturally discrete districts of Blythswood New Town and the Merchant City. The street would become a new civic promenade delineated by grand public squares terminating at the riverfront which would itself become a "sequence of places" breeding diversity and coalescing a chain of distinct destinations.
Cues to the central cities importance were to be highlighted by strategic "bastions" or high rise structures immediate to the motorway edge as it scythes through the city centre. Contrasting landscaping on opposing edges would create clear visual distinction of inside and out. Grand archways would signal arrival and departure from the central district commanding key gateways at Sauchiehall and Ingram St's.
A riverside chain would conjoin destinations of individual identity, a "string of pearls". By stressing such inter connectivity no element or place can be considered in isolation, all are chess pieces in a wider strategem, terminated by the "full stop" of encircling bastions.
Buchanan St is polarised through establishment of defined uses, a leisure area at St Enoch Yard, an "urban village "enclosed by an arcade comprising glazed vaulting and space deck roof. The centre of gravity in the street is punctuated by Gordon Sq, to command the Ingram St axis into the Merchant City. Key focal points such as this would be protected by glazing accentuated by projecting arched bays. With an emphasis on entertainment to extend vitality beyond business hours. Thomson's Caledonia Rd Church would be transplanted to a new civic space at Caledonia Sq, a citadel of culture situated upon an elevated, level podium providing formal articulation of the knuckle between Buchanan & Sauchiehall St's.
Following the then government's policy to encourage greater involvement of private enterprise in regeneration the body known as 'Glasgow Action' was established, founded on the principles of Gordon Cullen's report. By 1988 the board, composed mostly of local businessmen, were able to report that the polar buildings of the Buchanan Street axis were under construction with proposals in hand for realisation of a new Broomielaw commercial quarter. The precursor to todays International Financial Services District.
ISIS, the property regeneration specialist,namesake of the Egyptian goddess of rebirth, have teamed up with the city council in a partnership of shared interest aimed at rejuvenating a three mile stretch of canal from Maryhill in the north through to Speirs Locks at the city centre. The 15 year plus development program will accommodate approximately 1,000 homes, businesses and cultural facilities in a promised long term commitment comparable in scale to The Merchant City or International Financial Services District. Inaccessible, derelict and contaminated land will be transformed into a canalside destination, via a critical mass of activity, interest and identity.
Speirs Locks is the centrepiece of the Port Dundas Canal Link which reconnects the Forth and Clyde Canal to Port Dundas Basin with a 100ft wide floodlit waterfall over granite, showcasing the development to M8 travellers. The site has been subject to much design work in recent years, none of which has yet left the drawing board. Initial designs from RMJM and Bradford Robertson comprised a copper/brass alloy designed to prevent oxidisation in the atmosphere. Although this merely dressed a drab dark grey terracotta, zinc and acrylic render tower block which presented an unfortunate blank wall to the canalside. These were discarded and a competition established for the site. Gary Watt of ISIS explains: “There was great pressure on the values that could be generated on individual sites. Ultimately, never any criticism of the architects involved, but ultimately as a client we looked at it and thought, does that really meet the aspirations of the community? Is that really the benchmark we want to set? Is this something that we could be proud of and we thought, no. That’s why we withdrew the original application. That’s why we went back to the masterplan to provide a more innovative and inspirational proposal.“
A model (wooden) illustrated the grand scheme of things including Rotterdam Wharf's (larger) successor phase.
The aim is to engender a self sufficient community within the locality via provision of a healthy mix of hotels, homes and businesses. Their approach emphasised building identity through art, not just object art, but initiatives such as New Phoenix Park that will reconnect Great Western Rd through the existing landscape of Port Dundas and Sighthill. Gary confides: ”One of the reasons we picked them was that they said they would try and grow the place even before the first bricks and mortar had been layed. They were the only entrants who proposed a combined framework of architecture, urban design and art.”
“Twelve months ago there was nothing, now moorings are provided around the basin and we put in a new pontoon outside Speirs Wharf last year. It takes time for people to gain confidence. This was very much part of the city centre but construction of the M8 has scarred it in a way, it’s really disconnected it. So the main goal was to try and get people from the city to the canal, aware of the canal and using it.”
Twenty design principles were agreed in May with the community, forming a basis from which Make came back with design proposals. A consultation in March put forward three approaches to an active group of residents, retailers and industrial tenants. This allowed the design team to ascertain reaction to different approaches, what did people like? What did people not like? The first option was a traditional courtyard and tenement approach, but this was considered too traditional and uninspiring. The second contemplated fingers of development at 90 degrees, unfortunately this was regarded as too alien and was felt to be a bit unnatural and forced on the area. Option three had a different mass with roof terraces that helped to differentiate it and please the eye. The third option came clearly on top and certain features from the others were taken forward. Gary says: “We tried to come up with a very good concept rather than a camel, it wasn’t just taking bits out of each.”
The masterplan is orientated primarily on the north/south axis, working with the topography of the site which is steeply sloping. A spread of green fingers cascade down the slope of the site, punctuated by taller elements to signal the presence of the canal to the city. Terraces run along the contours not against, tying in with orientation to maximise sunlight from the south. This lets the morning and evening sun penetrate between fingers of development, passive environmental measures will be taken in offices to minimise reliance on air conditioning. The intention is to grass over some of these green roofs, the rest would be terraces and usable amenity space so that people are actively engaged with the roofscape. The varying levels of the site allow 3 levels of parking to be tucked in below grade. But Gary says: “Over time we’d expect to reduce from 100% parking significantly, you’ve got Cowcaddens tube a five min walk away, you’ve got city car club, cycle tracks, canals. We’d look to get that to 50% but to kick it off people will want to use their cars but we’re trying to discourage that.”
One of the justifications for establishing taller elements was the Cullen Report which called for bastions of height around the M8. In response to this views from the towpath to key landmarks were identified with view cones devised to establish precisely where high rise development was appropriate. Lisa said: “We had looked at having an element of height toward the back of the hill but quickly came to the conclusion that whatever you put on that site is going to be prominent. It doesn’t need to be 18 stories high. So we decided to lower the scale of that building. The idea is that the whole building sits upon a green plinth accommodating café units to address the basin, we tried to create a great space here so as you come up the motorway this is the great arrival point of the masterplan. Built development along the motorway screens this space and acts as buffer to noise and pollution.”
Ewan Anderson, now of 7N, reveals: “The key to the first phase is getting the quality right on the connection through the M8 underpass so that people are quite happy to walk through the underpass and rediscover the canal, because not everyone knows it’s there. It’s quite bizarre really I mean you don’t expect a canal to be at the top of a hill. We’re proposing to combine the footway with the eastern slope, to become one continuous surface to open up the space and make it feel like a much safer route to take. The intention with the red surface is to give the space some identity, something that can continue to Cowcaddens and along to Garscube Road. We looked at how we can address the scale of the place, the structure of the M8 is really quite monumental. What we really wanted to do was enliven the underside of the carriage and we looked at the idea of Phoenix Park which used to be on the site and was destroyed for the M8. We could have illuminated flowers clung to the underside.”
Gary adds: “There are 16 connections to Glasgow over, under and across the M8 and not one of them is particularly impressive. It’s probably something that affects not just this scheme but it affects all the areas just outside that M8 corridor, so hopefully we’re one of the first to actually do it that makes people feel safe and want to use it.”
The routes up to the canal are based on already existing streets, tree lined to the north to maximize the sun, part of the public realm strategy is to terminate these streets with a series of public steps and ramps. The whole canal and the retaining wall itself is a scheduled monument but an external lift could be provided at the shallowest rise, where there is a break in the retaining wall. On the canal itself the idea is to layer over timber decks that lead out to these pontoons that rest on top of the towpath.
Existing arts facilities will be remodeled as a new cultural quarter comprising Scottish Opera, the Glasgow Academy of Music Theatre and Arts and the National Theatre. Lisa says: “We didn’t want to hinge the masterplan on them moving because they are in custom built recently created facilities. We’re looking to try and expose the Scottish Opera building, turn it inside out, try and create a cultural heart to the site, the front of the block will be reskinned so it’s got a new face connecting the old and new together to define the streets as a place. A periscope building will be created from Scottish Opera to a new café and visitor centre that leads to a floating stage for performances, hosting various events that would draw people in.”
In addition it is proposed to transform Garscube Road into a boulevard or High St as opposed to the present 4 lane highway out of Glasgow. The difficulty though as Lisa describes is: “ there is no built development to the west, it’s always going to be one sided but the intention is to have a strong building line to reinforce that street. The intention is that it is not so traffic dominated as it is now, that there is much more space given as breathing space.” Gary advises: “The idea isn’t to put businesses out just now, there is enough vacant and derelict land for 7 years worth of development to come forward. The units will change over time as the land values change. The expectation is they will be able to go somewhere and reap some value from their holding then. I don’t think any CPO’s will be required, I hope regeneration has moved on from that. It’s not about booting everybody out from day one. There are some great businesses there that could probably stay and contribute to the area.”
Commenting on the present market difficulties Gary said: “There’s a range of housing types from studios through to town houses. So in the jargon we’ve been tenure blind in terms of the designs but I think in terms of going forward at Maryhill our 1st phase is social housing funded by Maryhill Housing Association, I think there will be a change in how people fund housing it wont be quite the old either your social rented or homes to buy I think there will be a mix of private rented, shared equity and rent to buy. It’s going to be different in the next few years. Necessity breeds invention.”
The Speirs Wharf framework will go to the council this September, the 1st phase going on site next year with the landscaped link and a gateway hotel.
Carrier Vessel Future (CVF) : Published 12/07/2008
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced 4 July that HMS Queen Elizabeth & HMS Prince of Wales are to be commissioned securing the future of dockyards across Britain, amongst them BVT Govan & Scotstoun. Flagships of the Strategic Defence Review the carriers are the latest phase of a program that sees the fleet reduced in absolute terms with a refocussing on technology and force projection. The carriers will be escorted by a compliment of 6 Type 45 Destroyers and up to 7 Astute class submarines, each vessel capable of fielding 36 F-35B Joint Strike Fighters (a strategic partnership between the US and UK militaries).
Twin Queen Elizabeth class vessels will re-establish the United Kingdom on the front tier of naval powers providing an independant expeditionary capacity 2nd only to that of the U.S. In honouring her duty as mature democracy Britain will possess the capability to safeguard national and global security from the manouvres of increasingly ugly emergant regimes.
Glasgow 2037, city of the dead. The abandoned city lies before, a vast sprawling ghost town. Most of the city is made out of burned-out shells, stretching for miles and miles. There are signs of looting crowds looking for food and water, birds nest in the grand hallways of St. Andrews Hospital, all of the buildings have succumbed to nature's onslaught. From fungus to ivy, to grass and weeds, nature has reclaimed its authority over this urban wasteland.
Chaos reigns as the British government is forced to rebuild Hadrians wall, entombing Glasgow and its people within a barren northern hinterland. No, mercifully this isn't the SNP nightmare but consequence of the no less cataclysmic "Reaper Virus" the primary plot mechanic synonymous with Doomsday, a big budget Sci Fi/Horror flick. Filmed on location in Haghill, deemed believable approximate to a post plague society and glimpsing a very different future for 110 Queen Street alongside a bizarre classicised City Chambers, masquerading as the fictitious St Andrews Hospital. Bit of fun but a reminder that continued ascendency is never a guarantee.
City Palace is a distinctive twisting form housing civic registry offices alongside commercial office space, the design of which is touted as a unique Russo-British collaboration of 3 key talents
Tony Kettle: UK Director, RMJM
Karen Forbes: Head of School of Painting at Edinburgh College of Art
Philip Nikandrov: Russia Director, RMJM
This arrangement marked a conscious effort to explore a world beyond the purely functional response. As consequence to this approach no design elements can be said to draw the hallmarks of any one contributor, the entirety of minutiae apparently a fusion of influences from the team. Very democratic and somewhat dubious but the line was firmly held for the camera's in the face of some incredulity.
But City Palace is significant beyond its powerful architectural symbolism for the structure sends forth an equally strong message in the economic sphere, that of Russia's newfound wealth and prosperity. The tower defines a growing sense of dignity in the Russian people brought about by a flood of petro dollars to a once moribund nation. Politically too the project marks a rare example of Russian/British collaboration within the context of a deteriorating relationship at leadership level. City Palace may illustrate a new found freedom of architectural expression but it does so within the confines of an autocratic society and associated climate of fear.
The site benefits from favourable vantage within the "Moscow City" district of the Russian capital occupying a key position alongside the Moskva river and enjoying direct line of sight to the historic centre some 4km distant. Marrying undoubted artistic and negotiating skill with perseverance through fraught economic cycles have seen RMJM win the competition not once, not twice but thrice in a tale stretching back to 1998.
Benefitting from a client keen to push boundaries the scheme is a reaction to the fall of Communism and product of the resultant groundswell of public disgust at a modernist movement foisted on the city by Soviet overlords. The resultant spiral geometry cleverly stacks commercially favourable square floor plates around a circular core purportedly redolent of a whole raft of natural, architectural and biological influences, ranging from a couples embrace, intertwined ribbons, the double helix of DNA and the swirling onion domes of the Kremlin. Everything it seems but the true genesis of it all, Malmo's Turning Torso. Such superficial similarity is however brushed aside by well rehearsed argument detailing localised symbolism of "marriage" and "family". Is this archi babble froth or product of detailed local research of culture and use? The evidence is to the latter but an honest admission of influential rivals would not have gone amiss.
Fittingly for a nation with highest rates of marriage (and divorce), City Palace will contain a wedding chapel as part of its planning gain, the resultant civic space funded from the commercial tower. Keen to dignify what can be a conveyor belt of identikit ceremonies, the hall will employ the powerful visual presence of the tower above to awe those below through glass skylights. The resultant downpouring of light is promised to be in constant flux such that no two weddings will experience the same quality of light. Presumably overcast day's will be reserved for divorce.
From inception light has played an integral role in shaping the design and focussing thought. Each facet of glass is offset against the next and each floor is rotated through 3 degrees. The resultant sheath of rippling glass produces a unique kaleidoscope of refracted and reflected light that traces the sun's trajectory deep within the office interior. It is perhaps appropriate then that a stray ray of sunlight should have illuminated RMJM's display at a critical planning session. Whether divine inspiration in a religously freed society or fortunate astronomical conjunction this foretaste of the refractive power of light proved illuminating for the flamboyant mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov. Having seen the light as it were he was prompted to remark "looks like a beautiful woman in a sea of men". Lack of familiarity with Yury's past flames mean this comment cannot be accurately contextualised but cursory looks at some of the abortive neighbouring plots suggest the Moscow planning office may benefit from the installation of additional glazing for the enlightenment of subsequent meetings.
futureglasgow would like to thank Tony Kettle and Karen Forbes for taking the time to detail their plans and explain their vision to an, at times! hostile audience. It was both a unique occasion and a successful one.
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