October 24 2022

A prominent architect has named Glasgow's ugliest buildings in a pushback against the blight of Brutalism and the destructive legacy of the post-war era on the fabric of the city.

Pointing to several examples of concrete carbuncles which should have stayed on the drawing board professor Alan Dunlop takes issue with an over-reliance on concrete in a damp environment and a lack of consideration for that which went before.

Singling out Kentigern House on Brown Street for its dour appearance and a shrinking violet approach to its environment, Dunlop said: “It is a building that takes everything and doesn’t give anything back to the street."

The Ministry of Defence ziggurat is one of several brutalist structures across the city to be brought down to earth, including a 1979 street-spanning building by Keppie Henderson & Partners to inspire future generations of architects.

“Ironically, the Bourdon building, the home of the Mackintosh School of Architecture where I was trained, is listed and it is one I hate," says Dunlop. "It is an interesting home for the school of architecture because as soon as you leave the building you know it is something you don’t want to design.

“Some of these buildings might have become landmarks but that’s mainly because it is so difficult to get rid of them. Concrete is a great material, but it’s also a pretty robust structure that is hard to demolish.

"Architects love concrete because of its range, ubiquity and fluidity, but in the same breath is hated by Glaswegians because it becomes rain-stained, particularly in the west of Scotland. There is no other building material that can give you such scope."

The concrete critiques respond to a new book, Braw Concrete, co-authored by Alan Stewart of Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and Peter Halliday, which paints the divisive era in an altogether more flattering light to win over hearts and minds to the idea of cherishing what we have.  

18 Comments

#1 Posted by Dave fae buckie on 24 Oct 2022 at 10:40 AM

Theres also a particuakry ghastly hotel opposite Central station on Argyle Street that should be featured on that list...

#2 Posted by John on 24 Oct 2022 at 11:07 AM

We probably wouldnt have some of these brutalist structures if the city fathers in their wisdom hadn't committed architectural vandalism and flattened a lot of the Victorian city centre

#3 Posted by Roddy on 24 Oct 2022 at 11:20 AM

I suppose if anyone's an expert on designing buildings that don't make it off the drawing board !

#4 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 24 Oct 2022 at 12:00 PM

Bourdon building -- beyond irony that it is part of an art school with an architecture department.

Whoever signed off that design was just having a laugh / at the madam / taking the p*sh / winding up the neighbours.

Absolutely honking at just about every level -- and even worse they never learned. Latest building is probably even worse just a case that it sticks to the existing street pattern.

Kentigern House in a parkland setting -- insurance company outside Stirling / Perth? -- works as a design of some merit.

Street location in the city centre -- fish on a bicycle / not good.

#5 Posted by There's nothing quite like self-aggrandisement on 24 Oct 2022 at 12:10 PM

I daresay, it just has to be spelled out - this, from someone who supported Boris Johnson's narcissistic nonsense...

#6 Posted by Honesty on 24 Oct 2022 at 19:55 PM

Brutalist buildings make for the best Architecture schools, they are honest, frugal and educational. The more pompous a building, the less you actually understand it's mechanics, brutalism plays an important role in how we construct our buildings today and are definitely worth preserving, the Bourdon is a marvel in the city of Glasgow and deserve care and consideration.

#7 Posted by Honesty on 24 Oct 2022 at 19:57 PM

Anyone who uses the words "it is one I hate" isn't really expressing an educated critique, but a subjective opinion.

#8 Posted by James Hepburn on 25 Oct 2022 at 13:06 PM

Glasgow is full of ugly buildings from the post war period when many fine examples of the Victorian period were pulled down. It makes you thing that councillors must have received some incentive to give permission for demolition. Nobody could be that stupid.

#9 Posted by Jon on 25 Oct 2022 at 13:27 PM

As Glasgow native it breaks my heart to wander the city and see the amount of cultural vandalism taking place. The town planners need to be held to account. There is a scam that's been going on for decades now. It involves buying a listed building, doing nothing to it so it becomes delapidated and then go to the council and request perm to demolish due to safety or cost. Then a once beautiful building is replaced by a glass and concrete disgrace. In the new business district there is at least 2 of these building from the Victorian era that are going to follow this pattern. There is also the mystery of buildings of value spontaneously combusting. That's another way to get rid of them. The one next to the new Barclays is a recent example from last week.

#10 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 26 Oct 2022 at 11:19 AM

@#9 It's an oddity that when criticising urban architecture that it's always 'Town Planners' that get the blame, when it's the architects that are designing the buildings. Planners don't design, and in fact are often criticised by architects for being too conservative. They do their best, but fashions, attitudes and persuasive architects often prevail (concrete modernism was of course going to be the solution to everything).

The planners could insist on traditional designs, and the government could list everything to protect it, but that would of course go down like a lead balloon and be seen as backward-looking and preventing progress.

So go easy on the poor town planner - caught between a rock and a hard place!

#11 Posted by Peter Drummond on 26 Oct 2022 at 13:37 PM

It is, in fact, possible to design precast concrete in a way which patinates well in a Scottish climate. Stirling's diagonal ribbed panels at Andrew Melville Hall in St. Andrews is a good example. The problem is that many - but not all - architects of that period didn't really understand how to design and detail the material properly. We therefore have to be careful that the proverbial baby isn't thrown out with the bathwater.

#12 Posted by Neil C on 26 Oct 2022 at 13:55 PM

St.Andews is east coast. Different climate and weather conditions effecting staining and patination.

#13 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 26 Oct 2022 at 13:55 PM

@#11 Absolutely right. It can be done right - the modernist, and brutalist, ideals were all too often let down by inadequate knowledge & detailing, and thereafter a lack of maintenance. Also, due to the possibilities offered by a fluid material, the resulting design experimentation resulted in some truly ugly forms.

There is beauty out there though:

https://tinyurl.com/Birmingham-Brutalism

#14 Posted by Neil C on 26 Oct 2022 at 14:51 PM

Poor example. Stirling was an exceptional and influential architect but a poor detailer for construction

#15 Posted by Gandalf the Grey on 28 Oct 2022 at 13:31 PM

'Carbuncle' - Funny how an expression coined by Charles III, the king architects are supposed to hate, has become the standard description for poor buildings.

#16 Posted by Gandalf the Grey on 28 Oct 2022 at 13:37 PM

...It might also be said that AD is only about 60 years too late in making his comments. This needed to be said in the 1960's and 70's when it was happening wholesale, though it is disgraceful that we are still losing irreplaceable 19th century buildings.

#17 Posted by Peter Drummond on 28 Oct 2022 at 14:44 PM

Well, I'm happy to set Andrew Melville Hall to the side for a moment and instead talk about Lanark County Buildings, where the use of precast concrete on - for example - the council chamber is of good quality. As I said above, many architects of that period didn't really understand how to design and detail the material properly.

#18 Posted by Neil C on 28 Oct 2022 at 16:43 PM

The staining on the north side of GSA Reid building is deplorable for such a new structure. Not concrete I know but deplorable detailing non the less. I guess Glasgow is not like Seattle after all. As for Lanark, agreed.

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