The proposal is to create four large silk-screen printed glass panels of different sizes within the areas above the entrances of each building. Playing on these ideas of reflection and the transition between the natural and the manmade, my response has been to transfer and translate aspects of these woodland reflections onto the Eastern facades of the buildings. Not only that, but through reflection, the images of the trees had also become part of the buildings themselves.
#ARTFUL LODGERS WINDOWS#
But as I started to look at the buildings from the woods, what was interesting was the way in which the large panels of windows seemed to draw the trees in, almost inviting them to be part of the living space. Cain identified two ideas at the root of this idea, firstly that: “…it reiterates the initial concept that the site is an intermediary zone between the natural landscape of Pollok Park and the urban edge of the city” and secondly, “…it does this in a material way through the idea of reflecting the environment.Įxplaining this creative journey Cain explained: “As I walked around the site, I initially considered the woodland area (a moderately sized beech coppice) to the West of the development by looking at it ‘from’ the buildings. Ultimately this notion was artfully realised in the form of four separate glass panels on each of the blocks, each distinguished by size, position and colour. What struck the pair about the site was the reflection of trees in glass at the other side of the building an observation which stimulated the conceptual idea for a window at the front of the building which glimpses the tree canopy beyond.
Wanting to try something “a little different” the client, Senate (Haggs Road) Ltd, staged an artwork competition won by artist Patricia Cain in collaboration with Alec Galloway, a local glass artist and head of the glass department at Edinburgh College of Art. We also split the glazing into three zones with a normal specification park side and an acoustic heavy solution where the rail line passes.” We carried out an acoustic study of the trains going past and this has informed the thickness of the walls. Pears shouted: “There’s the pragmatic fact, as soon as someone looks at the flat they ask ‘are we going to hear the train’. The second thing that hits you explains this orientation as the serenity of our afternoon perambulation was shattered by the whooshing and honking of a city bound commuter train. The building does quite literally respond to that.” This acknowledgment of setting also served to inspire the appearance of the estate with pears stating: “The landscape has informed the use of browns and ochres, green of the copper and what not. The important thing for us was the journey from the roadway into the blocks, we have different layers from a public roadway, public path, private parking, then a private path and more private parking, all interlinked via pathways through the hedge which lead to the next threshold.”Ĭonceived as five blocks book ended at either extremity and strung out along the sliver of land, the site has been transformed into a mature parkland landscape with Pears stressed that this wasn’t: “a make do and mend addition” but “very much part of the budget.” The team were able to justify a greater density by commandeering the surrounding tree canopy of Pollok Park to dictate building heights. “We are in negotiations with Pollok Park at the moment and the intention is to provide private access”, notes Richard Pears, an Associate at ZM Architecture, adding: “Full public access could bring various problems for the development and indeed for the park.
#ARTFUL LODGERS DRIVER#
Pollok Park served as a key driver for the development and as part of a second phase of development, when the final two blocks are constructed, access will be opened up. Interest duly piqued and with reputations on the (rail)line Urban Realm climbed aboard with ZM to find out if the practice were on track, or had gone off the rails.Īrriving at the development the first thing to strike the visitor is that everything is back to front so as to buffer the railway and maximise their frontage towards the park instead.
#ARTFUL LODGERS PLUS#
The Glasgow based practice have been catching the train south since 2004 and after a six year journey have finally deliver the first phase of their plans for a 100 plus flat south side residential scheme, Haggs Gate. For ZM Architecture and their latest residential scheme however a sliver of brownfield land sandwiched between rail tracks and Pollok Park became their destination. Those forgotten landscapes which crisscross our cities in tandem with our railways constitute some of the commonest sights in our cities but which, conversely, are glimpsed only fleetingly by rail travellers on route to livelier destinations.
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