Refectory [noun]

‘Derives from Reficere [Latin]: To remake, renew or restore’

The Urban Building proposal aims to address the key issues of the Cost of Living Crisis alongside Food Poverty. Living in Agreement encapsulates the idea of cohabitation both domestically as well as in public spaces, and it is these public spaces which allow us to provide a range of services and interactions to benefit the wider community.

In the current economic climate, many people have found that they are unable to heat their homes, eat regular fulfilling meals, or access key support services in their day-to-day lives. The Refectory is a space which provides to everyone no matter their personal situation or background, and allows for the inhabitation of a space in the public realm without the precondition of needing a membership or making a purchase as is the case with many indoor public spaces in recent times.

The Refectory features a main dining and gathering hall serving fresh meals daily either for free or at a subsidised price, as well as a supplementary café below alongside an adjacent culinary educational facility providing introductory classes to basic cooking essentials. Further to these spaces, a main grocery hub acts as both a free-to-use foodbank as well as a general convenience shop for the area. This space is designed in a way to create a ‘typical’ retail environment when using the service, aiming to de-stigmatise a space which is typically stereotyped as a service to be ashamed of. Alongside these spaces, The Refectory also features a range of services such as office space for Citizen’s Advice, Local Authority Community Engagement, IT & Library Suite as well as Co-Working areas.

Society [noun]

‘A large group of people who live together in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work that needs to be done.’

From the historical tenements in its core and Victorian villas flanking the west to the post-war estates and new-builds throughout, Dennistoun presents itself as a quintessentially Glaswegian neighbourhood where families, students and professionals alike share everything from the streetscape to the stair close – each individual block, estate and close its own mini-society. As is society a diverse range of communities and people co-habiting together, so must be our housing in order to foster a healthy and balanced quality of life. No one typology will be suitable for all, however it is the tenement which has proven to be an everlasting constant in Glaswegian living. It is this variety within the individual spaces and homes the tenement provides – allowing for any and all forms of cohabitation –which has been identified as being an essential concept of space within one development which can provide the most out of living to the largest range of people as possible.

‘Glasgow & The M8: A Speculative Placemaking Framework for Intervention in the Public Realm’

This Visual Research Project set out to address the condition of the urban realm as a result of the M8’s construction in Glasgow, and begin to provide a speculative framework of ideals on how to improve these spaces at a pedestrian level. This framework was collated though the analysis of Placemaking principles explored by theorists such as Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, existing frameworks such as ‘The Power of 10+’ by the Project for Public Spaces, as well as from the investigation of real-world case studies.

This framework was then tested through the creation of a large-scale model of the chosen area of Anderston Quay for intervention, whereby these ideals were applied and analysed on their potential successes and drawbacks in the context of Glasgow. The resulting model is a large 1200mm x 600mm MDF laser cut site model of the area at 1.200 scale, featuring a proposed public park underneath the flyover drawing influence from current ongoing area regeneration projects nearby.