Commendation for best apartment building
Artist in residence
Do Glaswegians have better artistic and architectural taste than the residents of most other UK cities? Perhaps it is because the city is associated so comprehensively with one of the pioneers of modern architecture, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, that its approach to architecture and art is more sophisticated than most. Sassenachs who only thought of the Gorbals whenever Glasgow was mentioned began to change their minds when the council brazenly promoted the city with the slogan “Glasgow’s Miles Better” in 1983.
That campaign won many awards for the advertising man who thought it up, John Struthers. So when the Glasgow Garden Festival was staged for five months in 1988, and Glasgow was declared European City of Culture in 1990, the jibes and sneers began to turn to reluctant admiration, and there was almost unanimous approval when Glasgow was declared the UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999.
This change in public appreciation of the arts may be judged by the fact that The Matrix, an unashamedly modern development with its in-your-face colourful facades, was not only welcomed by the planners, but is now described by local estate agents as “this landmark development” and “the most talked-about development in the city centre.”
When Glasgow City Council sponsored a design competition for its triangular site in a neglected area on the Northern edge of the city centre, which fronted onto two busy roads and a major traffic junction, it attracted 36 entries The development brief specified a maximum of seven storeys and a mix of flat types, with car parking to be provided (instead of being barred, as in most city centres these days), and the opportunity for retail and commercial units to be incorporated on the ground and mezzanine floors.
The competition was won by Abbey Projects Limited (subsequently taken over by AWG Residential Ltd) who gave Davis Duncan Architects a free hand to create a scheme that maximises the site’s potential both in terms of its architectural impact and its commercial return. By taking the building line to the edge of the pavement on all three frontages, it was possible to create the haven of a landscaped garden in the central courtyard designed by Rolf Roscher, and underground parking for 54 cars entered from McPhater Street at the back.
This outstanding mixed-use development has three elements: the colourful seven-storey Cowcaddens Road block of 41 apartments; the Port Dundas block of 24 apartments, whose red-brick façade relates to the red sandstone of adjacent tenement blocks; and three separate units on McPhater Street consisting of a four-bedroom three-storey house with its own private courtyard garden, a twostorey block containing three mews apartments under a sensuous curving roof, and a four-storey block of four apartments. Prices ranged from £84,950 for a one-bedroom apartment up to £600,000 for a three-bedroom duplex penthouse.
The Cowcaddens Road block has two internal, naturally lit and ventilated streets serving the six floors above ground level, inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles.
The colourful design of the façade is the result of a collaboration with the artist Richard Wright, enabling the development to be marketed with the slogan “Art to live in” and the tag “God is in the details,” which is a quote from Mies van der Rohe. This is the first time Richard Wright has worked on a new development, but it is unlikely to be the last.
The final mark of public acceptance was when the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust included The Matrix in its list of significant buildings opened to the public as part of its annual Doors Open Day last September with the comment: “One of the most distinctive and certainly the most colourful contemporary housing development in the city.”
HomeBuilder: AWG RESIDENTIAL LIMITED
Orchard Brae House, 30 Queensferry Road, Edeinburgh EH4 2UJ
Tel 0131 200 4611 Fax 0131 200 4480
Contact: David Kennedy, Regional Director
Email: david.kennedy@awg.com
Website: www.awg.com
Architects: DAVIS DUNCAN ARCHITECTS
20 Royal Crescent, Glasgow G3 7SL
Tel 0141 333 0594 Fax 0141 332 7549
Contact: Grant Robertson, Director
Email: grobertson@davisduncan.co.uk
Website: www.davisduncan.co.uk
Architects: CITY DESIGN CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED
4 North Court, off St Vincent Place, Glasgow G1 2DP
Tel 0141 204 3466 Fax 0141 221 7746
Contact: Rolf Roscher, Director
Email: mail@citydesign.coop
Website: www.citydesign.coop
Artist : RICHARD WRIGHT
(c/o The Modern Institute Gallery, 0141 248 3711)
Photography : KEITH HUNTER (0141 886 4503)