50 Graham Square, Glasgow

Near the Gallowgate in eastern Glasgow are the remains of the former Meat Market. Our site consists of the former Market Hotel where traders lodged attached to a surviving impressive market archway. The building was totally derelict but B Listed with the centre section in danger of collapse. We were asked to provide flats for Molendinar Park Housing Association and we elected to replace the original central block with a new 3 storey structure set back from the original building line. The two wings to the north and south of the central block were reconstructed to retain their frontages to Graham Square. This arrangement creates a private courtyard with the entrance from Graham Square through the old hotel entrance now remodelled as a gate in the partially demolished front wall of the old central block.

From the courtyard access to the flats is gained either directly - via a pair of external stairs beneath a glazed canopy - or through a new common stair in the larger south wing. The south wing itself makes use of split-level dual aspect planes to take full advantage of the building volume whilst maintaining the important Graham Square frontage.

With the glazed canopy uplit at night the effect is probably more hotel like than the original. Whilst the architecture might be relatively quiet the social experiment of replacing the usual tenement 'common stair' with an external stair within a common courtyard has been a great success with tenants already populating the courtyard with plants and seats. Car parking to the rear (where a traditional back drying green would have been) connects through to the courtyard to the front so that the ambivalence regarding front and back where greens are similarly converted is avoided.

The scheme provides a total of 17 one and two bedroom flats and was completed in 2000.Link to Housing at Melbourne Street, Glasgow