Daily Record reports that the shopping centre is up for auction starting at £1 million. Describes it as “troubled”, “a complete mess”, “a shambles”, “dilapidated”. Lack of maintenance is cited as a factor.
The Lawns by Gillespie, Kid & Coia
This Grade 2 listed building is for sale. It used to be halls of residence for the university of Hull, designed by the same Glasgow architects as St Bride’s church (Gillespie, Kid & Coia).
It has been empty for some time so is considered “at risk” by the 20th Century Society.
“Gradually shift the conversation from creation to transformation”
“We need to consider and also work from existing architecture – and gradually shift the conversation from creation to transformation” – Michal Kristof of studio Chybik + Kristof, talking about their redesign of Brno’s 1988 Zvonařka Bus Terminal, which was in danger of demolition.
Britain’s Best Buildings (of the Past Century)
A 2020 book where Matthew Freedman has asked 31 notable architects (including Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Ivan Harbour) and writers to give their picks of Britain’s best 75 buildings built since 1918.
“I hope the mix of working architects and thoughtful commentators expands the idea of what might constitute a ‘best building’ in interesting ways” he says. The list is meant to reflect a range of geographical areas and styles, not just the ones with the most votes.
The Architectural Digest picks out a selection in their article including the Barbican complex, Tate Modern, Shard (all in London), but our St Bride’s church sneaks in at the bottom of the page! It has a similar concrete, monolithic aesthetic to the Barbican.
Modernist architecture as a “denial of craftsmanship, human scale and decoration”
Dr. Joseph Shaw, fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Arts and Oxford scholar of medieval philosophy, is quoted in relation to St. Peter’s Seminary in Cardross (grade A listed, but decaying and unlikely to be saved) as saying that Brutalism represents the “abandonment of the entire tradition of Christian architecture in favour of something which would have been more at home in the Soviet Union”, which I presume is meant as an insult and a criticism. Furthermore,
“Modernist architecture, with its denial of craftsmanship, human scale and decoration, is fundamentally at odds with the Catholic worldview. The Church does not have a single architectural style, embracing Byzantine, Classical and Gothic, but she does believe in raising the heart and mind to God, not crushing the spirit or exalting mechanical brutality and power.”
[https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/diocese-palms-off-brutalist-albatross]
A visit to the incredible East Kilbride church regarded as a British brutalist masterpiece
From Glasgow Live – “[We] were left completely blown away by the sheer magnificence of the Gillespie, Kidd & Coia church, which was built between 1957 and 1964.
Claims it was “affectionately nicknamed ‘Fort Apache’ by the workies who built it” – which I have never heard before.
Quotes the Guardian article from 2019 which calls it “an architectural and spiritual outlier, a brooding, brutalist box, with thick brick walls, which aped the heft of medieval Caledonian castles”.
Compares it, strangely, to the Bhutanese prison Christian Bale’s Batman heads to in Batman Begins, but perhaps they are referring to the Pit in a Dark Knight Rises – similar brick work, at any rate:
End of the Civic Centre?
Next month sees a new plan for the town centre, presented by the owners of the ageing civic centre (not the council, curiously), which has potentially come to the end of its useful life span.
Suggestions so far have included using the space vacated by Sainsbury’s in the Olympia to serve up the civic centre functions.
Modernism 2022 week, Palm Springs
This week is Modernism week in Palm Springs, Southern California – “an annual celebration of midcentury modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture”.
Takes place every February This exciting festival takes place in February and features more than 350 events. There is a smaller event every autumn.
Photo shows a 1950s house you can take a tour of.
Are these houses any more special than those in East Kilbride?
Spare a thought for modernist masterpieces
“The cold reality is that no one is going to save St Peter’s Seminary [in Cardross] because there are not enough voices championing Scottish modernism. It is too vast and visually unlovely for a private collector… The odds are also shortening for the Bernat Klein Studio [in the Borders] — the climate crisis will see to that.
“Like its uglier sister brutalism, modernism divides opinion. It is unforgiving and its materials (glass, concrete, steel) require constant upkeep. But its place in built environment history is crucial if we are to understand what came before and after. It was a radical new direction at a time when the UK was healing after the Second World War. Bold. Futuristic. Hopeful. Qualities sorely lacking from housebuilding today.
“Perhaps the question to be debated is not how to create a modernist masterpiece but how to save it. Or at least wonder why, in Scotland, it is being forgotten.”
[Gabriella Bennett in the Sunday Times]
Cumbernauld
Winner of the Carbuncle aware – most unloved town, as voted for by its own residents…
One of the last new towns in the UK. 10 years after Harlow, with the building of the Gorbals in Glasgow progressing too slowly, a further new town outside of Glasgow was designated. This was a different kind of new town, with a move towards greater compactness – the site was the smallest of any new town, but it was designed to have 3 times the population density of East Kilbride.
“Concentrating all town centre activities into one central megastructure was a response to previous criticism of new towns (1953 Architectural Review called them “terrifying eternity of wilderness, punctuated by seas of concrete”), and a chance to implement daring new concepts. Geoffrey Copcutt was main architect for this. Architectural Design 1963 had feature on it.
Whole plan was for a dramatic single building on crest of hill. Crazy in retrospect, multi-storey but open to elements, so like a wind tunnel. But massive amount of under building required, phase 1 ran behind schedule and over budget. Again, businesses reluctant to take on cost and risk, esp on upper levels. So instead of sticking with plan of car park below, shops above, development continued on ground level.
Little of Copcutt’s plan built as intended, many features left out, and much now demolished. Odd glimpses remain – ramps, bridges, stained glass. Were to be penthouses on top! Now mostly privately owned, so not much planners can do.
In 1967 won international award for community architecture, beating Stockholm and Tapiola, biggest award of any of the new towns.
Lots of people who worked on town continued to live there.
In 1967 road traffic accidents were 22% of national average, due to separation of cars and people. But underpasses became unpopular so later development preferred roundabouts.
Some housing poor quality, but Seafar won awards.