Emotion Recollected in Sustainability - Carbeth's Hideaway Huts

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise... that's if like me, you've only just discovered the eldritch charm at Carbeth. The huts made the news when Carbeth Hutters Community Hutters were granted a loan which is helping the community to buy their land.

The development of huts in the area north of Milngavie has existed since 1919. During the second world war, families from Clydebank stayed at Carbeth to escape the bombing of industry on the Clyde. Gradually, more huts were built and a small community was formed. Today, Carbeth is part of The Thousand Huts movement, which aims to promote hutting as a sustainable way of living that gives city-dwellers contact with the countryside. Around 140 self-powered cabins, huts and shacks form the collective, all of which rely on water standpipes, solar panels and wind turbines to sustain the inhabitants. 

In an age of convenience and energy expenditure, Carbeth makes a useful case-study of our relationship with place and how sustainability ethics inevitably stand to influence the future of design. It is intriguing to reflect that the community's original settlers may only have been searching for a calm oasis outside Glasgow when they began hand-building the community 80 years ago. Perhaps unbeknown to them, they were in fact laying the foundations for an eco-friendly ideal which today, is actively supported by people enjoying the same tranquility in the wooded retreat.

Architects such as Torsten Ottesjo show that improvisation and functionality are common concerns in the architecture profession. Surprising that the values of self-reliance and responsibility for fuel-use should take root in communities like Carbeth.

See also artist Frances McCourt's photography works like the one above compiled for an exhibition at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow.

http://www.carbethhuts.co.uk/

Geothermal Glasgow - Mining for Heat

For those of us raised in Scotland who were ever threatened with work down the mines at a young age, the latest BBC News is sure to raise a wry smile.

It has been widely reported that Glasgow's labyrinth of disused coal-mines could soon be used to generate up to 40% of the city's heat. A study of the city's hidden tunnels is under-way at Glasgow Caledonian University where researchers are hoping to find reservoirs which can be pumped to create geothermal energy. The hope is that Glasgow will become the third city in the world behind Stockholm and Hamburg to have under-street heating.

Using the blueprint developed by the research team, ground-source heat-pumps could be installed to begin extracting heat from the water. This untapped resource could then be used to warm homes. Sustainability experts and Scottish Power (who are part-funding the research) are championing the project as a solution to fuel poverty issues prevalent in some areas of Glasgow, particularly those with a mining legacy hidden beneath their feet.

A pilot scheme of the plans has been running in Glenalmond Street in Shettleston for the past ten years in  which time, the sustainable design initiative 'Sust' have deemed the scheme a success.

Read the news article, and the Sust report below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21443745
http://www.sust.org/pdf/glenalmond.pdf

Government Release 'Create Streets' Report

In recent times, the demolition of high-rise buildings in Glasgow has become accepted as a necessary and inevitable means of improving social living conditions for the city's population. The findings of a recent report from Policy Exchange (a Tory think tank geared at developing and promoting policy ideas to enhance public services) take this supposed catalyst for regeneration one step further by proposing the demoltion of high-rise flats and their replacement with low-rise flats and terraced houses. The 'Create Streets' report suggests this should help deal with the health and social problems associated with life in densely populated areas.

Radically, the report claims that terraces have the potential to achieve the same density of housing as high-rises and advocates the building of 260,000 new homes in London in seven years through the demolition of tower blocks.

Perhaps concerned about the calculations and the implications for housing design, critics have pointed out the problem of the capital's housing shortage and say that this is not the time for change. The debate may catch on in the Scottish Parliament with the demolition of Balornock's Red Road flats in Glasgow for example, now fully underway. Download the report and form your opinions at the following link: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/item/create-streets?category_id=24

Springburn Public Halls Demolished

Christmas tends to be a bad time not just for turkeys, but also for listed buildings in Glasgow. This season's victim has been the prominent B-listed Springburn Public Halls, designed 1899-1902 by William B Whitie, architect of the city's Mitchell Library. The halls had lain derelict since 1985, but were unceremoniously razed between Christmas and New Year due to safety concerns; fortunately some of the statuary from the facade appears to have been saved. There are some fascinating images of the building and its interior on the aptly-named '28 days later' website at
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/70731-SpringBurn-Public-Hall 

Architecture on UCL Lunch Hour Lectures

University College London's (UCL) 'Lunch Hour Lectures' are worth keeping an eye on for topics on architecture. The lectures take place at the university each day between 1pm and 2pm, are streamed live online, and can be watched from 2 weeks after the event on the website or via UCL's YouTube channel. The lectures can also be downloaded from iTunes U. 

The content covers the entire scope of research areas in UCL and is exceptionally varied as a result. There is the odd architectural gem to be discovered however, such as 'The Metaphysics of Concrete' from February 2012 which looks at the Western world's growing consumption of concrete as building material and questions of design to which such consumption inevitably give rise. 

The link to this particular lecture is given below. We'll continue to blog about others of interest to GSA students in future.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/streamed/

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/Spring2012/09_21022012

Glasgow's Urban Realm of Alleys

A brief article looking at Glasgow's back-courts, alleys and hidden spaces features in the current issue of 'Urban Realm' a journal specific to the architectural design industry in Scotland. The article is largely pictorial and discusses the untapped potential of the city's substantial network of lanes which obscure the architectural quality of some of Glasgow's most prominent buildings from view. With little written on the subject, this snippet is a good example of the types of local discussion found in the journal, famous for its Carbuncle Award. Urban Realm is available for browsing on level 1 of the GSA library alongside the current issues of periodicals. Back-runs of the journal under its previous title 'Prospect' can also be found at the back of the ground level.
http://www.urbanrealm.com/index.php

The Future in the Past

Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) will be presenting three artists' reflections on the rise and fall of the city's fascination with high-rise housing. The event takes place at the CCA at 7pm on Wednesday 19 January and will include a film screening, a photographic project, and the discussion of a new form of drawing specially developed to represent life in this type of housing.

ArchitectureChicago Plus blog

Intelligent blogs devoted to the architecture of a particular city can be a tremendous source of up-to-date information and a good reflection of the prevailing architectural climate in a specific place. One such is 'ArchitectureChicago Plus', which has been run for over five years by architectural writer Lynn Becker. Wry, well-illustrated and wide-ranging, it's an excellent place to find out what's going on in the architectural community of this great city.

Lowernine.org

Lowernine.org is a charitable organisation dedicated to rebuilding the ravaged Lower Ninth-Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana which due to its proximity to the Industrial Canal levee breach, was one of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Lowernine.org are aiming for a holistic rebuilding of a community, through such projects as a home rebuilding training program whereby essential skills such as carpentry, electrics and plumbing allow neighbours to work together to build a safer, greener and cleaner area for them and their children. In addition to rebuilding houses, new projects such as the community garden overcome logistical issues such as a lack of amenities in the area as a result of the widespread devastation. This kind of grassroots development demonstrates how in the face of disaster, communities can change for the better.