St Andrews Crescent, Glasgow

The refurbishment of two linked 1970 built housing blocks of 24 units each for Southside Housing Association. Approximately one-third of the units are privately owned with the remainder being socially rented accommodation.

Date

2013

Client

Southside Housing Association

Value

£2.7m

The exterior elevations have been given a more homogenous look to replace the “bands” effect horizontally, and the Mansard roof has been broken up to create a visually improved aesthetic more sympathetic to the original sixties-style of architecture.Internally, three of the flats were extended into the roof space with the potential to extend the remainder in the future. These created four-bedroom flats that are beneficial to the housing association. All flats had gas central heating installed to replace electric storage heaters. The deck access areas had a new, slip resistant and durable screeded floor installed and heavy duty cross corridor doors for fire and smoke separation.

The deck access areas and the balconies were enclosed with a ventilated glazing system, which enables them to be enclosed against the weather but opened up as necessary, particularly useful in terms of the individual balconies to each flat.

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The Challenge

The “Deck Flats” at St. Andrew’s Crescent, part of a once fashionable and desirable housing scheme from the 1960s, in recent years had become seriously affected by technical and performance issues.

The Solution

The purpose of the refurbishment was to externally insulate the buildings, with rendered insulation and rainscreen cladding to the lower levels, and re-roof the buildings to ensure a watertight and fully insulated envelope, all in accordance with current Technical Standards.

The Outcome

A “rendered thermal jacket” to exterior walls; gateposts and a beech hedge around the defensible perimeter gardens space, coloured lighting and graphics to stairways; doorways and punctured openings; timber slatted spaces created by opening up existing concrete drying areas; tinted patterned glass; and essentially enlarging the internal floor space of flats by enclosing balconies within them.