Tonight: 'Unbuilt Britain' Series Begins

Tonight sees the beginning of a new architecture series on BBC Four looking at some of the ambitious designs never to the leave the drawing board. 'Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain' will look at some of the grandest and mapcap ideas ever proposed to leave us contemplating city landscapes which might have been.

The series is presented by architecture historian Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner, expert in seventeenth century, British architecture. In tonight's programme, entitled 'Glass Houses', she uses her knowledge base to explore architect Sir Joseph Paxton's controversial design in 1855 to build a ten-mile glass transport loop around the centre of London. The ostentatious, and highly-expensive design was abandoned despite a sanctioning bill reaching Parliament, due to the outbreak of cholera in the mid-nineteenth century. Intriguingly however, the plan was resurrected 100 years later by architect Geoffrey Jellicoe as an answer to solving London's congestion problems. Inspired by Paxton, Jellicoe's design for a transport green belt favoured the use of glass, even going as far as to suggest a 'glass city' which would radicalise the transport system beyond all recognition...

The Unbuilt Britain series is comprised of three programmes all looking at the influence of technology on urban planning and design. If this gets you thinking, why not also check out broadcaster Jonathan Glancey's brilliant radio series on BBC Radio 4 of the same title.

Plans to Demolish B-Listed Building For Commonwealth Development Plans

A 1907 board school designed by architects Thomson & Turnbull is under threat of demolition following plans submitted by Glasgow's Celtic Football Club to replace it with an expanded superstore. The club want to knock down the disused London Road Primary School as part of their plan to regenerate the area around the ground in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Included in the plans is the formation of a landscaped avenue paved with inscribed stones which would run from Dalmarnock Station past several key venues towards the football stadium. Due to financial budgets and time constraints, it seems unlikely the club's full plans could be realised before the start of the games, however the avenue is being heralded as a necessary development to make the area more attractive to the influx of visitors expected next year.

London Road Primary is understood to be Glasgow's sole remaining B-listed school and is a fine example of English Baroque with carved ornamental features and Venetian and circular windows in the pedimented end bays. Historic Scotland are bound to object to the proposed plans, however as the school has been unoccupied for several years, the case could well proceed on the basis of the building being structurally unsound. Councillors are in support of the club's plans, perceiving the school as an unnecessary eyesore making it even likelier that the building will eventually be razed. Indeed, it seems that the financial advantages to be gained from redevelopment in the East End will inevitably outweigh the costs of conserving some of its architecture.

"Avian Architecture" - New Library Book

We've just spotted a rare breed of book to add to the architecture lending shelves. Peter Goodfellow's book Avian Architecture describes how birds design, engineer and build their nests, deconstructing every type of nest or avian structure by rendering it in the style of an architectural blueprint and annotating its construction processes and engineering techniques. Through a combination of simple text, illustration and photography, the book reveals the science of the humble nest over 35 case studies, profiling the skills of some key bird species.

We expect our printed copy will find a cosy place to nest in the architecture lending section at 720.108/GOO when it appears later this month.

Glasgow Selected as 'Smart City'

Glasgow has won out over 30 other cities in a funding bid for £24m to transform it into a futuristic 'smart city'. Glasgow's smart city project will comprise a series of projects using real-time information about transport, energy, crime and health
to demonstrate how integrated data management can improve both the local economy and the quality of life for denizens and people working in the city. Examples include funding to connect Glasgow's network of surveillance cameras and a variety of mobile applications to improve communications about transport services across the city. The data collected aims to show how a city of the future may work.

Any cynics could be forgiven for deeming this a spin on last week's turn of events which saw plans to redesign George Square, scrapped. The announcement could be seen as a way to ensure the Glasgow public are kept onside as architects and journalists scrabbled to publicise their views. Whatever your thoughts on the handling of the George Square debacle, the funding boost can really only be considered a positive. The use of innovative technologies which better pool city-centre resources and may work to assist regeneration in urban areas is an exciting talking point for architects and urban planners. This latest announcement helps to ameliorate some of Glasgow's recent embarrassment and places welcome focus on its 'smart' future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21180007

UoG Release Town Plans of Glasgow's Queen Street Station and George Square

The most recent blog entry from the Maps, Official Publications and Statistics Unit at University of Glasgow's Library features a revised town plan of the city in 1893 around the areas of Queen Street Station, George Square and the City Chambers.

The map is intended as an ordnance survey of Glasgow, however on closer scrutiny it also reveals hidden details of another era in the city's urban development. The 'Night Asylum', 'Electric Lighting Stations' and 'The Western Club' captured the imaginations of the staff at University of Glasgow (UoG) who provide some historical context to explain the city's demand for these buildings in the late nineteenth century. The assimilation between social conditions in Victorian Glasgow and urban planning are exposed by reading more about the buildings' past on the blog.

It is possible to zoom and pan-in on the map by clicking here.

The excellent resources available from UoG are worth keeping in mind for researching local urban development and town planning. The unit of Maps, Official Publications and Statistics can be found on Level 7 of the Library building which GSA students can access by presenting a student card to security staff at the Library entrance. For more information on this specific blog, see UoG's blog entry at the link.
http://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/town-plan-of-glasgow-queen-street-station-and-george-square/
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/library/aboutthelibrary/departmentsandcollections/mapsofficialpublicationsandstatisticsunit/

'Bomb Sight' Project Documents The Blitz.

Bomb Sight is a free, online, and interactive map of every recorded bomb site during the heaviest eight-month shelling of London in World War II.

Compiled by the University of Portsmouth and The National Archives using census data taken between October 1940 and May 1941, the map documents the scale of the Blitz in a new and visually arresting way. A proliferation of red dots marks the spot where each bomb landed. Previously, this information could only have been viewed in written format via the Reading Room at The National Archives. The locations of the bombs have been combined with photographs from the Imperial War Museum and memories taken from the BBC's WW2 People's War Archive to enable anyone to research the stories of those involved and affected by the war.

Architects interested in post-war urban-planning may be interested to learn that there is an Android app which, when a phone is pointed at a street scene, will display the bombs that fell nearby.
http://bombsight.org/#15/51.5050/-0.0900

Shortlist of Architecture Firms for George Square Re-design

Six architecture firms have been shortlisted in the design competition to redevelop Glasgow's iconic George Square. The £15m project attracted 35 international submissions from far flung places including Australia and Sweden. The winner will be commissioned with the crucial task of redesigning Glasgow's most famed urban space. Given the scale of the proposed transformation, all statues and monuments with the exception of the Cenotaph could be removed, at least on a temporary basis. It is anticipated that the project will be carried out in two stages with the first stage being completed before the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Details of the finalists can be found at the link below. All six designs are expected to be displayed in the Lighthouse, Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture, in early January.
http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/NR/exeres/72027756-AC38-4923-AC26-C53D4A696530,frameless.htm?NRMODE=Published

Foundations for a New Future in Housing

Hot off the press, the Future Homes Commission have released the findings of a year-long national inquiry into the quality of newly built housing in the UK. 'Building the Homes and Communities Britain Needs' calls for more investment into high-quality architectural design to help drive the recovery of the housing crisis and increase the well-being of British homeowners. The report proposes the UK can be lifted out of recession, thousands of new jobs generated and the housing shortage problem solved by a complete overhaul of the way new housing development is funded, built and marketed. RIBA, who launched the inquiry in September 2011, are supportive of the Commission's proposals for income to be generated from within local authority government to finance a three-fold increase needed in new home constructions. The focus on good design for the future with consideration to the needs of the homeowner is a central aspect of the pioneering report which is freely available as a pdf document via the RIBA website. 

http://www.architecture.com/Files/RIBATrust/FutureHomesCommissionLowRes.pdf

Glasgow's George Square to get makeover

A design competition is to be held later this year for Glasgow's George Square, which will receive a £15m revamp to create a new day and night public space that supports creativity. The BBC's story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-19585290 provides an interesting reminder that the Square began life as a garden with trees, lawns and fences. Take a look at the books on public space in GSA Library at shelfmark 711.55 if you fancy entering the competition and are looking for ideas!

Merchant City Festival 2012

Glasgow's 11th four-day Merchant City Festival kicks off today with a wide range of performances and events throughout this historic quarter. The Merchant City Initiative website has a link to several interesting new online leaflets on the area's history and its public art. In addition, and as part of the Merchant City public art programme, author Louise Welsh and Jude Barber of Collective Architecture have collaborated on an audio trail which uses a series of soundscapes to explore Glasgow’s involvement in the tobacco and sugar industries, and contemporary responses to the the transatlantic slave trade.

Rehousing the American dream

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has invited five teams of architects, planners, ecologists, engineers and landscape designers to develop proposals for housing that would open new routes through the mortgage-foreclosure crisis that continues to afflict the suburbs of the US. The results of the teams' ideas for new models of housing, not only of its physical form but of the systems of infrastructure and finance that support it, can be viewed on the MoMA website.

E-books from Springer

We've added several dozen more architecture e-books from the well-respected German publisher Springer. Titles include:

• Manhattan skyscrapers (Nash)
• Exit-architecture: design between war and peace (Truby)
• Resilience of cities to terrorist and other threats (Pasman)
• Visions of heaven: the dome in European architecture (Stephenson)
• Conceptions of the desirable: what cities ought to know about the future (Pearson)

Full details are on the SpringerLink website and the GSA Library catalogue.

Skateboarders 'essential' for cities

'The Independent' has a summary of a lecture by urban commentator Iain Borden in which he makes a plea for practices and spaces that are more creative in their engagement with cities, and which go beyond the shopping mall and the piazza. The Library here at GSA has a good selection of Borden's thought-provoking writings, including his 'Skateboarding, space and the city', which reflects his passion for the sport.

Whose plan is it anyway?

On the evening of 5 March, Glasgow City Heritage Trust and the Scottish Civic Trust are holding an event which seeks to demystify the planning process and examine the do's and don'ts of community consultation and participation. For an example of the complexity of the issues and their potentially long-lasting impact on a community, have a look at this interesting online discussion about the new Scottish Epilepsy Centre in Govan, which replaces a controversially-demolished Victorian school sited just outside the Govan Conservation Area:
http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/3345/Scottish_Epilepsy_Centre_commences_construction.htmlabout

Conversations on Glasgow

The Glasgow Urban Lab at the Mackintosh School of Architecture has just published a report by Professor Ann Markusen on Glasgow's past, present and future, which looks at some key issues including health, the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, and the arts and culture. The online report, 'Conversations on Glasgow' is a result of Professor Markusen's tenure at the Lab as Fulbright Distinguished Chair during the 2010/11 academic year.  

Report from Mary, Queen of Shops

Retail expert Mary Portas has just published her review of the future of Britain's ailing high streets, which was prompted by concerns about a doubling of town centre vacancy rates in just two years. Her review makes a number of recommendations which, if implemented, would have an impact on the built environment and public space in town centres.

New design in historic settings

A new joint publication from Historic Scotland, Architecture and Place, and Architecture and Design Scotland explores how the standard of new design in historic settings can be raised. The guidance sets out some broad principles and illustrates them with reference to examples of good practice from around Scotland. These include St Aloysius Junior School, Glasgow; the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh; the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness; the Lotte Glob house, Sutherland; the Culloden Visitor Centre; and Glasgow's Cathedral Precinct.

Bertrand Goldberg and Marina City

We've just added a new book, 'Bertrand Goldberg, architecture of invention' to library stock. It's the catalogue of the exhibition currently at the Art Institute of Chicago, which itself is accompanied by a website showcasing some little-known material. Anyone wanting to find out more about Goldberg's Marina City development might also be interested in a 'A city within a city'; an original brochure about the complex that we hold in our store.

New architectural acronym

As a fan of acronyms, I was delighted by a new book which has just arrived in the Library, entitled 'HOPSCA'. This is a new form of mixed-use development which has originated in China, comprising a complex of Hotels, Offices, Parks, Shopping malls, Clubs and Apartments. The term appears to be read as "hao bu si ka" in Chinese. The book we have purchased seems to be the only one on the subject so far.

Imagination Playground

New York architect David Rockwell has designed Imagination Playground, a portable polyethylene foam children's playground in kit form, which gives children themselves the freedom to choose how they play and what they play with, and teaches them basic design and construction concepts.