Whereas Edinburgh was a dense, easily walkable city, Glasgow’s scale was noticeably larger.  The building styles were more diverse and the city certainly felt younger (by comparison).

While in Glasgow, I had the great pleasure of meeting with Ross Brown, whose Scottish Brutalism website I stumbled upon while researching Scottish examples of Brutalism.  A Master’s student at University of Strathclyde Department of Architecture, he maintains the website as a dynamic archive of the Brutalist architecture found in Strathclyde (the region including and surrounding Glasgow).

It was a wonderful opportunity to sit and talk with someone who shares very similar interests and has already spent a year working through their research.  And valuable too, to hear about his experience looking through a very focused lens at a narrow, yet still quite rich, selection of buildings in a specific region.  Given how far-ranging my travels will be, I do run the risk of looking too broadly. Talking with Ross only further emphasized the importance of engaging with regional and cultural specificity.  My hope is to create a considered balance of broad study and deeper regional investigation. 

Ross had a number of valuable insights to share, many specific to the Strathclyde region, which helped to answer and explain a number of questions that already arisen during my first day wandering about Glasgow.  Much like Edinburgh (and most other cities), a great number of Glasgow’s Brutalist buildings can be found on the university campuses.  One of the most apparent shared aspects of all these building was their material composition.  The vast majority of them were constructed primarily of pre-cast components with Rough-Cast Aggregate Panels. 

In talking to Ross he explained that these highly textured panels were popular in Scotland because they were considered to be attractive in all weather conditions.  Interesting indeed, as a frequent complaint about Board-formed Cast-in-place concrete or even Smooth Precast Panels is their visible weathering, ie the dripping discoloring as the concrete is becomes wet in the rain.  I was lucky enough to benefit from ONE(!) sunny day during my time in Glasgow and it was remarkable to notice that these buildings do in fact look much the same in wet or dry weather – save for some subtle darker tonal shifts on the wetter and rainier days.  

Ross was kind enough to describe the manufacturing process of these panels in which a retarder is placed on the surface of these panels prior to casting, so that when the panel is removed from its casting form, some of the outer surface remains uncured, revealing the coarser aggregate below.  FUN FACT: Herzog and de Meuron used a modern take on this method at their University of Eberswalde building to cast images into their concrete panels.  

For the most part, the massing in these buildings is fairly conventional. The prevalence of pre-cast concrete precludes some of the sculptural qualities more often found in site cast buildings.  Ross noted that precast construction was favored by many English architects building farther North in Glasgow given concerns for the frequently rainy weather which would have made for more difficult conditions in which to pour site cast and longer curing times.

We chatted about the potential (or lack thereof) for architectural re-use embodied in buildings of this era, and Ross admitted a lack of rich examples.  It seems the most common practice in this region is the transformation of Brutalist office buildings into budget hotels – Ross could think of at least 2 or 3 examples in the center of Glasgow.  The office buildings of the 50s-70s, especially the Brutalist ones, lack appeal as a modern office spaces given their typically low ceilings.  This limited ceiling height makes it nearly impossible to provide any horizontal servicing (ie plenums below the floor to bring data cabling, etc) which has become the standard in modern UK office spaces.  And so, it seems many of these concrete former office towers are destined for the world of 2 and 3 star hotels.

Makes one wonder what alternatives are being overlooked or have yet to be considered…

All building attributes and dates courtesy of Ross Brown and his excellent Scottish Brutalism project.