The Community Ensemble

Ruin, Fragmentation & Order

‘The Community Ensemble’ will seek to reintroduce the connection between the north side of London Road and Glasgow Green. The ‘Ensemble’ is assembled through a series of five streets informed through existing and historic routes passing through the site. Alongside each street, six characters are introduced applying the courtyard typology. The proposal is developed through a series of massing strategies to inform a different identity within each character. The identity of each is centred around the defining characteristics of the Calton and Gallowgate areas of Glasgow which have suffered a spiralling socioeconomic decline over past decades with regard to healthcare, child mortality, life expectancy, education and unemployment. The ‘Ensemble’ will integrate a programme to partially combat these factors encouraging residents to interact, socialise and engage with their neighbour and the wider community. Provoking activity within the public realm providing an incentive to enlist in a range of programmes to develop personally and as a community. The ‘Ensemble’ reflects critical buildings, landmarks and spaces within the sites immediate and surrounding proximity. Approaching from Glasgow’s City Centre, the user is met with the ‘World Famous Barra’s Market’ primarily providing local jobs, retail and commerce, secondly, a place to meet, socialise and interact. The skills school will allow the public to identify, test, develop and perfect a skills set with the outcome of gaining full time employment. A nursery and community centre are introduced providing full time childcare services to single parents and families within working hours. It gives residents a sense of place and ownership, residential quarters are staggered throughout the development. A Theatre and Theatre School are introduced to replicate the derelict Olympia Theatre which once thrived, connecting London Road to the Green. Glasgow Green Train Station is reappropriated to reincarnate the lost connection between the Green and Glasgow.