“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” (Jane Jacobs, 1961)

Located on the Broomielaw, Glasgow’s Architecture & Town Exchange Building (GATE) is a civic building that supports public, professional, and educational engagement with the city’s built environment. It acts as a platform for discussion and exchange, bringing together citizens and institutions to collectively shape Glasgow’s future.

The project responds to its historic context by mediating between Oswald Chambers and the Clyde Port Authority Building, using locally sourced sandstone and contemporary construction techniques to establish a dialogue between past and present. The façade draws on the memory of the “forgotten city” referencing lost urban forms and typologies once embedded within the site.

Influenced by Rachel Whiteread’s ‘Ghost House’, the design explores absence and imprint through abstracted forms, reinterpreting historic pub and merchant architecture. Strategies of “copy-editing,” inspired by Édouard François, produce a façade that echoes its context while allowing flexibility in window placement and floor levels.

GATE houses multiple institutions, including the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, whose archive is publicly accessible and embedded within the building fabric. Exhibition spaces further promote public engagement with Glasgow’s architectural heritage and future development.

Constructed from Locharbriggs sandstone, the building repositions stone as a contemporary, low-carbon structural material. Abundant in Scotland, it offers a sustainable alternative to more carbon-intensive methods, positioning GATE as a prototype for future regional loadbearing stone construction.