Introductory diagrams
This project began by looking at the half stepped floor slab as the main separator of space within a living unit. The proposal is based upon the psychological divide this creates. The apartments provide the user with a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, with the half step as the only pre determined separator.
Location within the city
Like the masterplan developed previously in this project, where an outer edge contains the historic grid, the proposal conceals and hints at a hidden world inside the scheme.
Masterplan
A master plan was developed prior to the design of this scheme. The main ambition was to maintain the historic grid in Glasgows city fabric, utilise the surrounding vistas to create new ones and provide spaces for informal knowledge exchange in key spaces placed in the new vistas designed. We called these spots ”beacons”, to help visitors and passers by navigate through the neighbourhood.
Ground floor plan
Through chamfered corners, new vistas and narrow lanes, the proposal stays true to the outlines decided upon in the masterplan, and opens up at ground floor level into a semi private courtyard through a series of hour-glass shaped openings in the building fabric.
Sections
Section and cross section showing the dialogue between housing and public space, as well as its relationship with existing building heights.
Typical plan
Each flat has a unique layout and consists of several half stepped floors, with the only constant being the stacked load-bearing cores providing plumbing and services for the kitchen and bathrooms.
Axonometric section
The language of the elevation is kept deliberately neutral to refrain from indicating what a certain room designated usage is.
Apartment plan
The inhabitant chooses what spaces to divide, to what degree and with the materials they themselves prefer. It is not up to the architecture to determine what a certain space should be used for. That is for the inhabitant to decide. The line between labour and domesticity is drawn by each user according to their own needs.
Axonometrics in context
The undulating roof scape is a response to exposure, with the tallest parts facing the outside and the lower parts facing either a square or neighbouring buildings in the masterplan.As the proposal sits within the inner part of the masterplan, the decision was made not to design taller than the buildings surrounding the site, to retain a sense of intimacy.
Views within the proposal
Three moments in the scheme showing: 1. Entering the semi private courtyard. 2. Approaching one of the new public squares through the masterplan. 3. A view of the southern elevation approaching from Argyle Street.
Models
Left: a collection of study- and massing models used to progress the design. Right: a presentation model exploring a section through the scheme, showing the relationship between building and courtyard as well as the incorporation of vertical circulation.
The Bourdon at forty
Photo essay for MacMag 45 documenting The Bourdon Building, home of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
The Bourdon at forty
Photo essay for MacMag 45 documenting The Bourdon Building, home of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
The Bourdon at forty
Photo essay for MacMag 45 documenting The Bourdon Building, home of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Scenes of an imaginary past
Personal project investigating how nature slowly engulfs manmade environments, invoking scenes of an imaginary past. The history of the place becomes emphasised and amplified.
Scenes of an imaginary past
Personal project investigating how nature slowly engulfs manmade environments, invoking scenes of an imaginary past. The history of the place becomes emphasised and amplified.