Urban Housing – Sociable Housing

The urban housing retrofit, and new build project was influenced by Typology and Inter-sectional Urbanism. The aim of this project is to encourage interaction between the various types of inhabitants both in the new build and the surrounding area. Having the new build act as a hypothetical bridge or conduit between the pre-war tenements and post war maisonettes of Cardross Court in Dennistoun. Dennistoun is home to a wide variety of occupants with varying ethnicities, cultures, professions, and living arrangements. The once friendly and neighbourly feeling that came with multistorey dwellings such as the tenements seems like a time long passed. Isolationism and closed social circles are becoming increasingly more common in these types of dwellings. To encourage neighbourly interactions the stairwell or “Social Close” in the newbuild is the hub for circulation and interaction. The thresholds to the apartments have alcoves, creating a semi-private space for the inhabitants to rest and communicate to their neighbours, a larger landing allows for interaction in passing and offers a view across the proverbial street to the intervened existing flats. The glazed conservatory spaces both in the new build and retrofit look to one another prompting further interaction. In the intervened maisonettes the same pattern can be seen with social alcoves at the thresholds of the apartments and generous landings in the round robin staircase for interactions in passing. On the outside, communal allotments and re-wilding bushes can be found, to both help the areas biodiversity and provide the community with a common goal.

Urban Building – Learning and Development

This proposal is to be a Learning and Development Centre which is to fill the neglected space of Wellpark on the western edge of Dennistoun. From the outside it aims to populate the currently barren site of Wellpark, and reform a streetscape, between itself and the long standing sandstone church turned business centre on the opposite side of the street. Dennistoun has in many ways been left to it’s own devices, with the commercial industry that once made Duke Street a bustling hub slowly fading out. In Dennistoun there are few places which encourage social interaction, learning and skills development. The proposed building aims to plug that gap and by Eric Klinenberg’s definition create a ‘Palace for the People’ of dennistoun promoting a safe space place to gather and a place to learn. The proposal provides areas for people to socialise, attend classes, develop skills, and utilise workshops giving people a space to embrace their creativity and access to tools and materials they might not be able to afford. The centre also contributes to the areas economy, offering jobs, low priced goods, and a store for creatives to sell their works. Taking the benefits of combining well-being and nature together, a safe nature garden is also proposed which will help contribute to the biodiversity within dennistoun as well as provide for the different spaces within the Learning and Development Center. Site developments include the relocation of existing trees, a better testiment to the wellpark monument, and a revived Tenents History Mural on the sites western perimeter.