GLASGOW +EDINBURGH

2011

Clyde Auditorium - S.E.C.C.Foster + Partners 1997

Foster’s auditorium is shiny, very shiny in-deed. As misplaced as a bauble on a slag-heap, it says nothing of the industrial pro-cesses which preceded it. Neither does its Utzon-builds-Halfords design give any clue to its usage.

Visiting in the morning, the building was closed to visitors, so the best we could do was crane our necks to admire its shiny curvi-pointedness. Hidden from most angles of approach, this would-be show-off building is sadly nullified by its context.

‘World Class’ architecture lurks furtively behind a hedge

Radial at the ends - Vertical length-ways.

If, as Mies reckoned, God is in the detail then Zaha Hadid’s Riverside Museum should be in line for veneration. Elegant touches such as recessed handrails, the seamless plastic clad-ding in the entrance-way and the unifying use of repeating circular motifs spell out that this is a building of quality.

Riverside MuseumZaha Hadid 2009

Recessed handrail Circular motif on bridge Echoes of Hadid’s Leipzig BMW plant

Pedestrian approach to the museum

However, not all is rosy on Clydebank. As with the Clyde Au-ditorium, this is clearly meant to be an iconic building, and its brash facade signifies nothing of place or content. Most sin-fully, it hogs the waterfront, an obstruction to the river it was meant to celebrate.

Clear signposting of window

BBC ScotlandDavid Chipperfield Architects 2009

This is a clever building, one could almost call it smug. Externally its expression is a simple as can be - a large glass box punc-tuated only by the constant rhythm of the window frames. In a built up environment it could be completely anonymous, but here amidst the brown-fields of the Clyde it has a reassuring weight and solidity.

Inside is where everything changes. The foyer leads onto an internal atrium trans-formed into a stepped canyon, covering the studio-space below and creating a relaxed, open circulation space.

Kelvingrove Art GallerySir John Simpson 1901

As a museum and art gallery, Kelvingrove has to offer a vari-ety of spaces to be used in a flexible manner. This has been achieved by use of an almost fractal lay-out. Large full-height spaces are bounded by balconies with successively smaller surrounding rooms.

Whilst the layout provides for flexibility and simple navigation, the rich ornamentation gives the building an air of refined quality, enhanced, rather than diminished by age.

Glasgow School of ArtCharles Rennie Mackintosh 1901

Mackintosh shows a surprising degree of eclec-ticism in this building, yet it fits perfectly with its rather more drab and dour surroundings.

Entering through Japanese inspired railings, overlooked by softly curved masonry, we as-cended an elegant square-based staircase to an exhibition space dominated by well-propor-tioned arts and crafts roof joists.

Sadly we were unable to access the rest of the building - the elegant library being tantalis-ingly close, but off-limits.

Glasgow Bridges

Glasgow’s bridges range from the prosaic to the elegant, an assortment of footways, rail-links and road bridges.

Despite their diversity, they provide a unifying and wel-come relief to the largely barren banks of the Clyde - knocking it down to a human scale and asserting thatlife still flows across the river, even if the trade that once flowed down it is so clearly curtailed.

Museum of ScotlandBenson + Forsyth 1999

I must admit to finding the Museum of Scotland project-ing a sense of unease.

Perhaps I found the the exter-nal juxtaposition of traditional stone and bold geometry too grating or that the shapes used seemed rather arbitrar-ily arranged.

Within the building, though, a sense of order begins to emerge.

Inside there are some im-pressive, airy spaces, but it is the roof terrace that steals the show with an impressive panorama of the city. Here, cut-outs and features on the roof-top align with land-marks on the horizon.

Whether by design or acci-dent, this confirms the space as an integral part of the city.

Dance BaseMalcolm Fraser Architects 2001

There’s something lively and welcoming about Dance Base. The entrance leads on to a long side-lit corridor, which preserves the historic wall, then to stairs and land-ings and on to the dance studios.

The landings provide the highlight here. Playful and utterly appropriate, they combine frostd glass and con-cealed underfloor lighting to gently illuminate the floor.

The real fun happens below, where shadowy footprints dance above the observer’s head.

Princess Street & Gardens

Every city needs its lungs, and here, where once was the most foul lake of filth, sits a genteel landscaped park.

The placement of the gardens between Edinburgh Caslte and Princess Street has lead to the unusual, but very pleasant phenomenon of a major shopping street with only one side of shops. This allows shoppers a clear view of the castle and relieves the normal claustrophobic atmosphere of the city.

Fruitmarket GalleryRichard Murphy Architects 1993The Fruitmarket Gallery is craftily squeezed into a heavily built-up area, dominated by multi-storey buildings and a busy road.

The upper floor consists of a gallery space with small ancillary room to the side. This floor is accessed by a flimsy feeling fold-up staircase. Using a steel I beam as a hand rail was a poor choice in the first place, but now, caked with a decade’s worth of white emulsion, it is a repulsive as it is uncomfort-able.

The ground floor is shared between gallery and café, and whilst the gallery sits empty, the café is evidently doing great business as a drop-in centre for the hipper than thou.

Scottish Poetry LibraryMalcolm Fraser Architects 2000

Here’s a building that just feels right. the Scottish Poetry li-brary manages to be a contemporary building that repects its surroundings, incorporating an existing ancient wall. At the same time it makes a special place for itself.

By stretching the the first floor over only half of the buildiong’s area, the whole library can be well lit from the large front win-dows and the high continuous strip at the rear. Bookshelves are spaced for easy access without seeming too cramped, yet it is sufficiently cosy to allow one to get lost in the poetry.

Scottish Parliament BuildingEnric Miralles & RMJM 2001

Debating Chamber

Concrete Blast-wall

Use of Gabions

Hammerbeam Inspired Roof

The Scottish Parliament is a complex and somewhat confusing building. In terms of materials and decoration, Miralles seems to have thrown everything available at it. Externally, it is de-signed to blend with the natural landscape, a factor that ren-ders it impossible to frame any sort of façade in one’s mind. It becomes a cypher rather than a symbol, an anti-icon against Westminster’s iconic clock-tower.

Yet throughout the building, iconography abounds - symbols of Scotland are cast into the fabric of the building with such frequency and insistency that they become overwhelming and symbolic of nothing. Perhaps time and usage will mellow this place, but for now, aside from the grand and imposing debat-ing chamber, it makes little sense to the visitor.

Flying Buttresses Echoes of IgualadaVariety in Cladding

TARDIS sightings

We were supposed to look out for Glasgow police boxes - the ones that look the way we know they should, the old type 40, built on Gallifrey. As far as I can tell, they’ve all dematerial-ized with a wheezing, groaning sound and are now nowhere to be seen.

We did spot some of their cousins in Edinburgh, a strange con-coction of Greek temple and garden shed. They still stand, in a gentle state of decay, proud and dignified whilst the life of the city bustles about them.