Scottish Architecture

[alta-pete]

1 hour ago, Hillonearth said:

I know somebody who worked there - I'd heard that rumour too, but they said there's only the one basement level. Apparently the blast thing's correct though, and it's designed so any external blast would travel upwards and limit damage. A lot of the corridors supposedly have staggers in them the way WW1 trenches did for much the same reason.

Back to art deco, and the Luma tower out Govan/Cardonald Way that you always see from the motorway. Think it's flats now.

Indeed. As featured here:

 

[milton75]

My favorite Scottish Art Deco buildings are the Kelvin Court flats in Anniesland:

 

 

 

 

 

[milton75]

Causewayside Garage in Edinburgh is also a treat.

 

And I drove past this place in Girvan recently. Could do with some TLC, but nice clean lines.

 

[milton75]

5 hours ago, williemillersmoustache said:

Always liked the Blade Runner feel of the former Shell offices in Aberdeen and Kentigern House in Glasgow. Admit they look a bit shit and out of place now but when growing up they looked like the future had landed. 

 

5 hours ago, alta-pete said:

 was designed for the MoD. Don’t know if true or not but  it was always said at the time that the design was to limit damage from any external bomb blast and that it has as many floors below ground as above. 

 

If I'm not entirely mistaken, the fannies at the MOD originally said they would build this on the site of the St Enoch Station and then changed their minds, but by that time the station had been demolished. I can't help feel that converting the below to a shopping centre (or anything) would have been preferable to the monstrosity that is the St Enoch Centre:

 

[williemillersmoustache]

1 minute ago, milton75 said:

 

 

If I'm not entirely mistaken, the fannies at the MOD originally said they would build this on the site of the St Enoch Station and then changed their minds, but by that time the station had been demolished. I can't help feel that converting the below to a shopping centre (or anything) would have been preferable to the monstrosity that is the St Enoch Centre:

 

Aye I read something about that while looking for images. 

[Smurph]

1 hour ago, milton75 said:

My favorite Scottish Art Deco buildings are the Kelvin Court flats in Anniesland:

Anniesland in general has some great (and maybe not so great) architecture. Almost directly across the road you have this art deco cinema, which has been converted into flats.

A little further west and you're hit with the behemoth that is Anniesland Court. Build a few years before Trellick Tower, it's Scotland's highest listed building and Glasgow's only A-listed tower block. The lift is in the bit that's separated, and despite being 22-storeys tall, it only has seven stops. Each of the floors has an a set of upstairs flats and downstairs flats. 

And then there's the old Anniesland job centre... Closed in 2017, it's expected to be demolished/set on fire and turned into luxury (surprisingly not student) flats.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Smurph

[Smurph]

Got to love the Dunmore Pineapple

[Raidernation]

The John Lewis building in Aberdeen was originally the “New Co-op”

[Detournement]

The photo Milton posted looking onto St Enoch Sq looks better than most of the city does now. It's depressing to think about the ambition and competence of pre war planners, builders and engineers compared to what followed. 

 

[Florentine_Pogen]

9 minutes ago, Detournement said:

The photo Milton posted looking onto St Enoch Sq looks better than most of the city does now. It's depressing to think about the ambition and competence of pre war planners, builders and engineers compared to what followed. 

 

Blame our love of the car. And Le Corbusier. And in Britain, Patrick Abercrombie.

[Detournement]

Just now, Florentine_Pogen said:

Blame our love of the car. And Le Corbusier. And in Britain, Patrick Abercrombie.

I agree with the car but not Le Corbusier. His buildings in Marseille are still popular, it's not his fault tinpot Scottish civil servants decided to build on the cheap. 

Berlin, Bucharest and most cities in Spain are good examples of how to do high density urban housing. In Glasgow the combination of building new housing and depopulating the centre of the city was a total disaster. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

Just now, Detournement said:

I agree with the car but not Le Corbusier. His buildings in Marseille are still popular, it's not his fault tinpot Scottish civil servants decided to build on the cheap. 

Berlin, Bucharest and most cities in Spain are good examples of how to do high density urban housing. In Glasgow the combination of building new housing and depopulating the centre of the city was a total disaster. 

I'm not referring to Corbusier's individual buildings. Granted, Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles was revolutionary in it;s time.

I was referring to his town planning ideas, in particular La Ville Radieuse, the ideas of which were exported to places such as Brazil (Brasilia) and India (Chandigarh), both new cities based on everyone having a car and living in a high-rise. Both were social disasters. Also look at Pruitt-Igoe projects in St.Louis and the exploits of Robert Moses in New York , which have left similar legacies to the damage inflicted on Glasgow.

[scottsdad]

A touch of vernacular earth construction at Cottown, Perthshire. 

[Detournement]

I've read about Robert Moses in a great book called All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Marshall Berman. 

I don't think you can blame one architect/planner for something like Brasilia. It's the same as places in America like Houston the people doing the planning also want to sell cars and petrol. Car and oil companies to this day spend fortunes lobbying against public transport and even pavements in America. 

[welshbairn]

Just now, Detournement said:

I've read about Robert Moses in a great book called All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Marshall Berman. 

I don't think you can blame one architect/planner for something like Brasilia. It's the same as places in America like Houston the people doing the planning also want to sell cars and petrol. Car and oil companies to this day spend fortunes lobbying against public transport and even pavements in America. 

Big moves by others to stop improved public transport for black areas that would give them easier access to tourist and entertainment centres that the whites consider their own, despite having to commute there to do much of the work. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

5 minutes ago, Detournement said:

I've read about Robert Moses in a great book called All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Marshall Berman. 

I don't think you can blame one architect/planner for something like Brasilia. It's the same as places in America like Houston the people doing the planning also want to sell cars and petrol. Car and oil companies to this day spend fortunes lobbying against public transport and even pavements in America. 

At the time (early 1920's), Corbusier was at the vanguard of creating a 'new world' after the catastrophe of WW1. His large-scale town & urban planning ideas were cutting edge at the time and were adopted pretty much globally. Patrick Abercrombie's New Towns blueprint was a good example of this.

It's easy to 'blame' someone for groundbreaking ideas with 100 years of hindsight. 

 

[Boghead ranter]

5 hours ago, Hillonearth said:

I know somebody who worked there - I'd heard that rumour too, but they said there's only the one basement level. Apparently the blast thing's correct though, and it's designed so any external blast would travel upwards and limit damage. A lot of the corridors supposedly have staggers in them the way WW1 trenches did for much the same reason.

Back to art deco, and the Luma tower out Govan/Cardonald Way that you always see from the motorway. Think it's flats now.

Caravanland.

1 hour ago, Smurph said:

A little further west and you're hit with the behemoth that is Anniesland Court. Build a few years before Trellick Tower, it's Scotland's highest listed building and Glasgow's only A-listed tower block. The lift is in the bit that's separated, and despite being 22-storeys tall, it only has seven stops. Each of the floors has an a set of upstairs flats and downstairs flats. 

There's a big block of flats in Leith that's exactly the same - all the front doors on the same floor, every third floor.

 

[milton75]

30 minutes ago, Detournement said:

I agree with the car but not Le Corbusier. His buildings in Marseille are still popular, it's not his fault tinpot Scottish civil servants decided to build on the cheap. 

Berlin, Bucharest and most cities in Spain are good examples of how to do high density urban housing. In Glasgow the combination of building new housing and depopulating the centre of the city was a total disaster. 

 

23 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

I'm not referring to Corbusier's individual buildings. Granted, Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles was revolutionary in it;s time.

I was referring to his town planning ideas, in particular La Ville Radieuse, the ideas of which were exported to places such as Brazil (Brasilia) and India (Chandigarh), both new cities based on everyone having a car and living in a high-rise. Both were social disasters. Also look at Pruitt-Igoe projects in St.Louis and the exploits of Robert Moses in New York , which have left similar legacies to the damage inflicted on Glasgow.

If you look at the drawings for New Towns, and indeed for some of the high-rise complexes (including their associated shopping precincts etc.), you can get a sense of why they thought that these spaces would be something positive going forward. Open spaces, clean lines, defined zones... It is a shame that so much of this was misguided; it turns out that people do respond better to organic growth and mixed-use, and as a social experiment they do seem to have failed in the main. I don't have anything new to add to commentary on breaking apart communities that hasn't already been said 1000x before in any case.

WRT Le Corbusier, I think there's a practical issue to consider, and it's as basic as raw concrete looking better after 20 years in Marseille sun as opposed to in Lanarkshire rain. Using cheaper concrete didn't help of course.

[milton75]

1 hour ago, Smurph said:

Anniesland in general has some great (and maybe not so great) architecture. Almost directly across the road you have this art deco cinema, which has been converted into flats.

A little further west and you're hit with the behemoth that is Anniesland Court. Build a few years before Trellick Tower, it's Scotland's highest listed building and Glasgow's only A-listed tower block. The lift is in the bit that's separated, and despite being 22-storeys tall, it only has seven stops. Each of the floors has an a set of upstairs flats and downstairs flats. 

 

 

Cheers - I never knew that about the lifts. Great tower that one.

[Detournement]

12 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

At the time (early 1920's), Corbusier was at the vanguard of creating a 'new world' after the catastrophe of WW1. His large-scale town & urban planning ideas were cutting edge at the time and were adopted pretty much globally. Patrick Abercrombie's New Towns blueprint was a good example of this.

It's easy to 'blame' someone for groundbreaking ideas with 100 years of hindsight. 

 

Aye but the ideas of a single architect aren't to blame for all that. History develops out of social relations and production not ideas. If it wasn't Le Corbusier it would have been someone else.