City Centre Office Building, Glasgow

We drew upon our familiarity with both the history and the existing urban condition of Glasgow to inform our proposal for the redevelopment of this city centre site

Date

2015

Client

Undisclosed

Value

Undisclosed

This proposal for a new office building in Glasgow was the product of an in-depth analysis of modern working patterns and trends, and the continued rapid advances in technology which have dramatically affected the design of the work place today.

Building in the centre of any city requires a working knowledge, and a familiarity with the existing urban condition and an awareness of how a new building can make a contribution to the development of the city and add to the architectural heritage of the 21st century city.

These influences were brought together in a high quality design proposal which provided highly flexible commercial space to suit a wide variety of organisations with an array of bespoke working patterns.

Our design process for the proposal was driven by the following criteria:

To provide a building which respects the historic grid and respects the urban block, but in its creation, makes a new open space, a new kind of street condition that would stimulate activity – and create a “breathing space” within the tight urban fabric.

To create a building with a unique and distinctive character, yet a building informed by and responsive to the existing urban order.
To design a building that is highly attractive to “blue chip” tenants – that is efficient, and that will maximise flexibility in floor space.

The design achieved this by developing the form of the building through a number of compositional manoeuvres which were tested against the surrounding building heights, responding to orientation and view corridors, observing how the building created new corner conditions in response to the neighbouring buildings, and finally settling on a massing that we felt enhanced the site and the city.

The Challenge

The patterns of place and architecture within Edinburgh’s Old Town have been determined by many different factors throughout the life of the city, which have, in turn, generated an enormously complex urban condition.

The Solution

In understanding the historic patterns and processes of the Old Town, we have created a site specific response which celebrates the unique qualities of the City.