Demolished Slab Blocks
Basil Spence (Basil Spence and Glover & Ferguson):
Queen Elizabeth Square: Housing
Hutchesontown, Gorbals, Glasgow, 1960 - 1965/66, demolished 1993
Including the Queen Elizabeth Square Shopping Centre.
Basil Spence worked with Robert Matthew on the revitalisation of
Hutchesontown and the Gorbals, Glasgow.
Documentary film being made in 2006 re Basil Spence Hutchesontown C Tower
block
Part of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project noted on our news page on
inception in 2005
Housing by CZWG
Queen Elizabeth Square: image from CZWG Architects
Queen Elizabeth Square (Site E), Gorbals, Glasgow - CZWG Text:
Design Statement
The design of this urban block is intended to put into practice, more
than a decade later, the typology we first proposed in the Masterplan
for Crown street. The overall plan for Queen Elizabeth Square continues
the major ideas of that project, now built out so successfully. In the
intervening years the architectural quality (too easily muddled with materials
quality) has become less traditional and more sophisticated.
Queen Elizabeth Square: image from CZWG Architects
Themes
The ideas which have become the norm for the area are: All the main residential
streets to be grand wide boulevards with tree planting. Cars are confined
to parking in these streets, usually at right angles, not disrupting backlands.
The boulevards link across the communities of the Gorbals principally
from east to west. They are organised to be as continuous as possible
rather than orthogonal as per the existing Rutherglen Road. (Crown Street
was intended to be a narrower shopping street with parallel parking).
Minimum height tenemental buildings front these streets. The predominantly
four storey tenement buildings should always have the lower two stories
as maisonettes to provide housing for families with external private patios/gardens
leading to a central garden. Narrower mews streets link the main boulevards
and are characteristically fronted with lower height townhouses.
Queen Elizabeth Square: image from CZWG Architects
The scale of the urban blocks formed by the buildings lining the streets
was designed to allow enough space for communal gardens at their centres.
As opposed to public parks these gardens are exclusively for the use of
residents of the surrounding tenements to enjoy peace, quiet and hopefully
some sun. These spaces only work as something more than a visual amenity
if security against entry by others is guaranteed.
There are therefore no back lanes to threaten unwanted access to these
spaces. Glasgow’s traditional position for rubbish bin stores in
the backs does not therefore fit well with the concept. This small but
subtle impediment has in our view prevented full practical enjoyment of
the communal spaces by small children and families. Developers have then
tended to militate further against practical use and enjoyment by landscaping
with humps, (all too neatly coinciding with a saving in soil removal).
The project has happily moved from subsidised pioneering to one of great
natural demand. The insistence on building at four storeys was historically
protective. Now the possibility of higher buildings to line the wide streets
is to be welcomed.
Site E attempts to learn from the experience of Crown Street, celebrate
its continuing success and restate some original themes. The design is
in cognisance of schemes already on the drawing board for Crown Street
Sites, A, B, C & D to the south and west, some of the most interesting
yet proposed in the Gorbals by some of Scotland's leading architects.
Queen Elizabeth Square: image from CZWG Architects
Context
The site is bounded by four streets:- Old Rutherglen Road to the north,
a street that has seen and survived countless projects over the years.
The new wide north south boulevard of Ballater Place with central reservation
parking either side of a row of trees. On the other side of these two
streets continuous lines of tenemental properties are proposed. A short
length of Sandyfaulds Street to the east has a green space across the
way.
To the south the Masterplan showed a mews width (possibly shared surface)
street as a location for villa buildings.
Before working on our project we had the benefit of viewing and commenting
on Page & Park's design for Crown Street Site D in some detail. Their
idea for a development of closely spaced urban villa blocks in a quadrant
around a public space is predicated on its relationship to the magnificent
St Francis Church/centre. The circular geometry works well with the wide
boulevard of Ballater Place to terminate Errol Gardens. However it set
an interesting challenge to the relationship to the mews street and Site
E.
Response
The proposal is to create a complete urban block continuously fronting
all four adjacent streets thus enclosing an hermetic central shared garden.
The mews street is deflected around the curved geometry of the Site D
proposal and to reinforce and rationalise the curve with a building line
that mainly follows it. Also retaining 18 metres between building faces
to obviate overlooking. This southern range of our block (Building A)
is to be a continuous concave row of townhouses in contrast to Site E's
convex villas. The houses are two storey on the façade line with
a third floor set back behind the parapet and within the roof. This lower
part of the scheme to the south allows sunlight to penetrate the central
communal garden.
The original masterplannning idea of ground and first floor maisonettes
being virtual houses for families in the tenement blocks is deliberately
expressed in this scheme by allowing the curves set up for the houses
to ripple around the whole site for the lowest two floors of the buildings.
The curves of the latter parts are modulated such that the entrance doors
to the closes for the upper parts are set forward towards the pavement
whilst the maisonette front doors themselves are set back to give a degree
of privacy. The upper flatted parts of the tenement buildings restore
the convention of following the street line, emphasising the simple grandeur
and scale of the streets.
Corners
There are 14 No houses in the mews street and 8 No tenement buildings
on the remainder. The buildings follow the pavement line of their streets
including the ever-shifting alignment of Old Rutherglen Road. The Masterplan
suggests higher buildings at the corner to respond to their townscape
position. The south corner (Building B) holds the space opened up on the
north west corner of Crown Street Site D by virtue of its segmental geometry.
Six storeys (plus mezzanine in roof) rise slightly above Site D's five
storeys.
The intersection of two wide boulevards Ballater Place and Old Rutherglen
Road (north west) make a large urban space. To emphasise the corner the
proposed six storey building (Building D) has relatively shorter ( 18
m) elevations to each street. Buildings on other sites opposite are also
intended to have higher elements to enhance the scale of this place.
In the north east corner the historical disalignment of Sandyfaulds Street
and Waddell Street across Old Rutherglen Road gives our site the role
of terminating the vista south down Waddell Street all the way up from
the River Clyde (and interesting
long views from our building back). An eight storey building is proposed
at this point to raise the visibility of the Queen Elizabeth Square project
from Ballater Street, the river and Glasgow Green as well as up Old Rutherglen
Road from the east across the open space.
Cantilevers
The rectilinear upper floors overhang the curves of lower floors symmetrically
such that the waves of the facades are alternately in advance and behind
the upper floors building line on street and garden sides. At the corners
the lower parts tend to sweep round the bend while the top floors continue
to the site extremities to emphasise the urban block and reduce oversized
gaps between it and other buildings.
Materials
The brick colour chosen for the building is warm hued cream. The doors
and windows are to be paint-finished timber. Those of the lower two floors
are combined into double height assemblies on the street side to lend
scale to the base of the building and provide a vertical counterpoint
to the horizontal emphasis of the brickwork. Balustrades, railings and
other ironwork are also to be painted in contrast to the monochrome of
the brickwork.
The upper parts of corner buildings D, H, & J all cantilever to varying
degrees beyond the curved wall of the ground and first floors to emphasise
the continuation of the street block (as above). That of Building B however
is additionally supported by two inverted pyramids of steel structure
which are externally finished in opaque toughened glass set on concrete
bases. These glass forms will be back lit at night to form dramatic street
beacons.
The vaulted segmentally curved roofs, which provide exciting internal
spaces, are finished externally in raised seam pre-colour coated steel
with matching coloured soffits.
Internally
A typical four-storey building is 24 m wide and consists of four maisonettes
on ground and first floors with 3 No flats on second floor and 3 No duplex
penthouses at third and fourth floors.
Maisonettes
Each maisonette has its own street front door, set back from the pavement
behind a railing and planting area. The ground level has a through space
with living, dining and kitchen areas. The kitchen window overlooks the
street, the living room has large French windows leading to a private
garden. A feature of the design is the sliding wall panels that can divide
the dining and living areas to choice. The front hallway gives access
to a mobility standard lavatory and the stairs to the first floor. Upstairs
are three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one an en suite shower room).
Flats
The front door to the close is in the outward curving centre of the building
flanked by the bin store doors to form a timber screen. The close leads
through to the shared garden to allow access for all upper floor residents.
The stairs are on the street side of the building. The flats are arranged
in a U Shape around the stair, 2 No 2 bedroom flats flank a single bedroom
flat. The two bed flats have a though living room/kitchen arrangement
the full depth of the building. The one bed flat is single aspect. The
aspect is always towards the communal garden to south, east or west. All
flats therefore receive some hours of sun in winter and summer. All flats
have the external amenity of a terrace or a balcony as well as use of
the garden.
Penthouses
The penthouses repeat the arrangement of the flats around the staircase.
They have an additional mezzanine floor in the roofspace allowing double
volume living rooms and flexible bedroom/study/playrooms. These penthouses
also incorporate external terraces.
Variations
The other (corner) buildings have variations on the theme set by the typical
buildings. A lift is introduced into the core. The flat plans against
party walls are similar to the standard blocks. The building ends are
re-arranged to benefit from extra sun, light and views. The end elevation
of Buildings B, H, and J are characteristically glazed with projecting
balconies to enjoy their excellent multi-directional views. In townscape
terms they imply continuation rather than termination of the street blocks.
Building D turns the north west corner with a special corner flat with
corner balcony for emphasis. Closes of all corner buildings have access
to the central garden.
Houses
The houses are similar to each other in section but varied in their arrangement
of rooms. This is intended to give choice to all potential purchasers.
Each house has a hardstanding for one vehicle in front and a specimen
tree. A common characteristic is a workroom/small garage on the street
front next to the entrance door, bin store, hallway and downstairs lavatory.
The living areas and kitchen/dining vary between direct access to the
private garden or the south facing roof terrace. All houses have three
bedrooms and two other bathrooms/shower rooms (with the exception of one).
Queen Elizabeth Square (Site E), Gorbals - Text: 2005
Adjacent buildings on Crown Street
Glasgow page
Glasgow housing - image © adrian welch
Also by CZWG Architects in Glasgow:
Cochrane Square
CZWG Architects - Edinburgh building:
This Edinburgh Park (A4) building page also contains general background
on CZWG
Architects
Queen Elizabeth Square - original Housing Architects:
Basil
Spence
Robert
Matthew Architect
Clyde Salvage Site Housing, Waddell Street, Gorbals
2007-
Page\Park Architects
48 units; 4-7 storeys
Modern
Architects
Scottish
Architecture: best scottish buildings of the last three decades
Buildings in Glasgow
Glasgow : back to index
RFAC Report:
Crown Street - residential development - CZWG Architects
www.royfinartcomforsco.gov.uk/oct02.htm
To the north of the Crown Street Redevelopment area is the emerging Tradeston
quarter south of the River Clyde