Whiteinch Cross

Placemaking in the urban periphery

GROSS. MAX. first built project was one of the Five Spaces project commissioned by Deyan Sudjic, then director of Glasgow 1999 City of Architecture and Design. According to Deyan Sudjic: “The Five Spaces project was an exploration of the possibility of bringing art, architecture and landscape together to create new places that could provide a focus in the contemporary landscape”. The idea of working with the urban landscape was one that Barcelona had explored from the end of the 1980’s onward.  Each of the selected  ‘gap’ sites in Glasgow was linked with a housing association. Our allocated site was Whiteinch Cross with  Scotstoun Housing Association. The Square is spatially defined by means of careful position of two free standing walls, a transparent galvanized steel frame and a twelve-meter-high tower of light. The free-standing wall are clad with Cor-ten steel plates; the material reflects on Glasgow’s heritage of steelworks and shipbuilding. The tower of light, designed by light artist Adam Barker-Mill, is illuminated from the inside with a blue filtered light source creating an ever-changing effect due to the ambient light intensity. The tower act as beacon for the area and can be seen from far away. The square is subdivided into two levels. The upper level is paved with honey coloured Clasach sandstone slabs, taken from a quarry on the Moray Firth. The lower level incorporates the existing cherry trees in specially designed elongated tree grilles of cast iron. Chairs of angled geometric forms are scattered in informal groups. A curtain of water rushes down a Corten wall over 8m length. The galvanized steel frame is covered with Wisteria climbers which will provide a cascade of lilac flowers in early spring.