Enjoy a Well Earned Break! Happy Christmas and All the Best for 2021
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In our final post of the year we want to say a massive thank you to our incredible team in Berlin and Glasgow. Everyone has worked so hard this year and made the best of what has been a strange time, to say the least. Though we’ve had to face nine months (and counting) of extended physical separation through working from home, everyone has thrown themselves into the challenge and worked with good grace, good humour and a ‘can-do’ spirit.
Despite the difficulties, we’ve enjoyed working on a range of fantastic projects from Langside Halls in Glasgow to Ulster Museum in Belfast and Museum fur Franken in Marienberg, Germany. We’ve navigated the new challenges of working on site in 2020 with our teams on the Scottish National Galleries in Edinburgh and at George Street in Glasgow as well as others. Indeed, as Greenock Health and Care Centre - under construction for NHS (Greater Glasgow & Clyde) - was designated an essential project, site activities continued throughout and, with other essential sites throughout the country, provided the foundation for learning that helped bring all other construction sites back on-line.
Achievements this year included winning our first new work from an online interview process during the first lockdown and, though many of the industry awards have been postponed, several did go ahead resulting in a number of uplifting award wins for the practice to end the year. We were particularly delighted to see Aberdeen Art Gallery recognised with the judges’ Supreme Award at this year’s GIA ceremony. A testament to the hard work and vision of the whole team.
Although times have been tough, it’s been another successful year working with our dedicated clients and consultant teams. We’re lucky to work with some amazing people who’ve all pulled together to meet the challenges brought by the pandemic head on. It’s been inspirational to watch the creative community come together this year.
So, Happy New Year everyone (when it comes), and while putting 2020 behind us we’re embracing 2021 and a lot of rewarding things on the horizon: next year will see the completion of some projects close to our hearts including Greenock Health and Care Centre and David Livingstone Birthplace. We’re eagerly anticipating our major projects in both Germany and the UK moving forward with big milestones to come in Marienberg and on our North East Hub project in Glasgow, as well as some other fantastic projects currently in their early stages. We’re also planning some exciting developments within Hoskins Architects and look forward to sharing these with you as we go through the year.
Jen Guillain
Director of Finance and Development
(on behalf of all our directors)
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This year, as for most, we were unable to enjoy our normal, always eagerly awaited festive celebrations. However, carrying forth the attitude we developed earlier in the year we didn’t let that get in the way of coming together and sharing some social time. Everyone received a small package of delicious treats to enjoy as we undertook the obligatory (but great fun) Zoom activities. Thank you to everyone that put so much effort into making this, and all the other social interactions throughout the year, happen.
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Berlin team receiving their Christmas lunches
Berlin lunch package, Berlin lunch menu
Glasgow team lunch packages
Glasgow team virtual Christmas lunch
Langside Halls: Study to find sustainable future for ‘A’ listed venue
Langside Halls Trust (LHT) is delighted to announce the appointment of award winning, Glasgow-based Hoskins Architects and culture & heritage management consultancy, Jura Consultants to undertake a 20 week feasibility study of Glasgow’s magnificent ‘A’ listed Langside Halls. The study is tasked with producing a viable Business Plan and costed design and conservation proposal to enable the Trust to seek the capital funding necessary to refurbish the Halls and realise its vision.
Kevin Kane, Chair of Langside Halls Trust said:
“Our aspiration is to breathe new life into Langside Halls by creating a financially and environmentally sustainable future for the Halls. We want to expand the Southside’s current cultural and leisure “offer” and working with our Consortium partners – Glad Café, Southside Festival and Southside Film - and others, our ambition is to create a regular cultural and social programme at the Halls, use them as a platform for existing and new organisations in the Southside and continue their traditional role as an affordable community-venue-for-hire.”
The Feasibility Study has been made possible by funding from Glasgow City Council Area Partnerships (Southside Central, Langside and Pollokshields), Glasgow City Heritage Trust and Architectural Heritage Fund Scotland.
Melanie Hay, of Hoskins Architects said:
“We are delighted to be working with the Trust to develop their vision for the future of Langside Halls. Our study will focus on improving circulation and accessibility for all, identifying key building fabric improvements and assessing the functionality of the existing spaces to develop a sustainable plan for the Halls. With Jura Consultants, our aim is to develop a robust strategy that ensures the longevity of this exceptional building as a vital asset for the local community and a hub for cultural events in Glasgow.”
An integral part of the Feasibility Study will be a community consultation around a range of options, where community organisations and individuals will be able to input to help identify a final, worked up and costed proposal. Given current Covid restrictions this will likely take place online, and will be announced via the Trust’s website at www.langsidehalls.com.
To realise the Trust’s ambitions, the Study be will used to launch a Capital Fundraising Strategy in 2021.
Laagberg Memorial and Learning Site - Competition Win
In September 2020 Hoskins Architects, working with landscape architects guba+sgard and exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates, won the competition to design the new Laagberg Memorial and Learning Site in Wolfsburg.
In 2017 the remains of former prison barracks, that formed an outpost of the Neuengamme concentration camp, were discovered in the district of Laagberg. In this location, a new place, suitable for remembrance and learning will be created – a site of communication.
Our approach seeks to take an observational position, highlighting the tensions between silence and liveliness (the forest and residential area), processing and forgetting, coercion and self-determination. From an external viewpoint and with historical distance, we ask ourselves how we feel about the present and future handling of the culture of remembrance.
Positioned between a supermarket and a petrol station, the new centre of remembrance and learning is conceived as a "Stolperstein" or stumbling block and a marker of its time. At the place where an electric fence once bordered the camp, a display of memories tells the stories of the individual inmates. The design expands the site via a raised timber walkway along the historic edge of the neighbouring forest. This path defines the measurements of the former camp, making its dimensions tangible via a transverse and a longitudinal axis and allowing the visitor to engage with that which is no longer visible.
Hoskins Architects and Ralph Appelbaum Associates have a long history of successful collaborative working including on projects such as the Doolan Award winning National Museum of Scotland, Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre, Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna the Ulster Museum Masterplan and the Museum für Franken in Würzburg, Germany. Together with guba+sgard the team developed an approach that tightly integrates landscape, architecture and exhibition design an aspect that was highly commended by the judging panel.
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©Hoskins Architects, guba + sgard Landschaftsarchitekten, Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Lockdown Sketch Club; March-September
On the hunt for social activities we could maintain during lockdown, we decided to trial a remote version of our office Sketch Club.
In the past, a group had been out to draw the city at lunchtime, so for our first session at the start of lockdown, we began by sketching the views from our respective home-office windows. We ran a group video call so we could sketch and chat at the same time and bring together colleagues from our Glasgow and Berlin offices. Everyone’s contributions were gathered at the end of the session, including drawings by staff and their families which we then collaged in to a collective ‘view’.
Since then, we’ve drawn favourite items of furniture and objects from our homes, and most recently we’ve been simultaneously streaming the Royal Academy’s life drawing classes together. It’s been a wonderful reminder of the creativity of our colleagues, and the sheer unpredictable joy of sketching.
During remote design reviews and charrettes since March, we’ve also noticed a surge in hand-drawn sketches. Putting pen to paper remains an evocative and powerful communication tool, whether it’s a quick scribble snapped on your phone, or an elaborate mixed-media presentation drawing. Drawing is now more valuable than ever as a substitute for some of the nuances of face-to-face conversation and collaboration, and we hope to keep this momentum going when we return to the studio together.
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(views from home-office) Laurence Misick, Thomas Bernatzky & Sophie Logan
(favourite furniture) Lucie Peacock, Vas Piyasena & Rory McCoy
(Royal Academy's life drawing) Chloe Fawcett
Chloe Fawcett
Architect, Hoskins Architects 2020
The Hidden Stories Map
For Glasgow Doors Open Day Festival (GDODF) Hoskins Architects brought together a range of collaborators to work together in response to recent global events and produce a beautifully illustrated, educational and accessible digital walking tour, aimed at young people.
Glasgow Doors Open Day Festival is a brilliant, eclectic celebration of the city we love, and in which we live and work. In 2020, festival organisers, Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, overcame the obstacles COVID-19 presented by making their event entirely accessible online, with the timely theme of Untold Stories.
During lockdown, we witnessed worldwide protests in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd, which led to a global debate on how society addresses structural racism. Part of that debate focussed on how we think about the statues and street names historically connected to slavery and racist ideology. In the late 17th century notions of racial superiority were developed and even codified into law, in order to justify the enslavement of African people.
The story of how Glasgow was shaped by the Transatlantic slave trade is fascinating, as is the lack of discussion and formal education around it. Understanding our history and these ideologies is imperative, as it will help us better understand and question racist ideas that continue to affect people’s lives now.
Hoskins Architects invited Stuco Design, the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) and veteran political campaigner and community activist Cllr. Graham Campbell to collaborate on the project, bringing together a diverse set of skills with wide-ranging experience. All involved share a belief in the fundamental role the creative arts and design have in telling these important stories in an engaging way.
The Hidden Stories Map is an interactive, digital walking tour aimed at young people, incorporating challenges and stories that reveal the connection our city has to the Transatlantic slave trade. Brought to life by the beautiful illustrations of Stuco Design and the voices of a diverse group of school children, the tour is designed to encourage young minds to explore and interrogate the built environment around them.
You can access the tour by downloading the GuidiGo App and searching for ‘The hidden Stories Map’.
App Store / Google Play
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(map) Hidden Stories Map
(people) Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass & Cllr Graham Campbell
(building) Glasgow City Chambers
(C) Stuco Design
194th RSA Annual Exhibition
In February 2020 the Royal Scottish Academy (of Art and Architecture) ran their pre-selection process for the 194th Annual Exhibition. The two pieces of work that Hoskins Architects had submitted were selected to progress. The process of curating and installing the exhibition was then completely disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic; the introduction of lockdown measures meant the Academy had to move to an online platform. The work below formed part of the online exhibition, which ran from early April until the end of May.
'Building On'
For our studio, making meaningful projects always begins with a deep understanding of what came before; of what—physically, historically, culturally—we are building on.
(1/2) Aberdeen Art Gallery
Aberdeen Art Gallery occupies a building complex designed and substantially extended between 1873 and 1926 by A. Marshall Mackenzie. By 2009 the complex no longer met the demands of the institution or did justice to the extraordinary collection. A rigorous process of research clarified the relative significance of the parts of the A-Listed complex. It offered new insights into the original architectural intentions, the historical context for the incremental alterations, and extensions to the complex over time. This allowed a clear view of the various compromises and detrimental impacts accumulated over a century of ad hoc modification and refurbishment and helped crystallise a strategy with two main threads: one of careful repair, and the other of bold addition.
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(above text) Artistic rendered section by Chloe Fawcett, Architect
Entrance elevation showing new rooftop extension
Central sculpture court; new extension & rooflight above
Front range cafe space with entrance beyond
Sculpture court study model
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(2/2) Weltmuseum Wien
Weltmusuem Wien is an ethnographic museum housed in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. The core of the collection traces back to the purchase of a part of the Captain James Cook collection for the Imperial Natural History Cabinet. A layout diagram for an 1885 display case was found in the museum archive. It suggests the rich and challenging curatorial context for an ethnographic museum reflecting at once on the artefacts themselves, the history of their collection, and the history of their interpretation in the charged context of the Imperial Hofburg Palace. Our work there between 2013 and 2017 was focused on improving visitor facilities, a new shop, education and temporary exhibition spaces, and the complete renewal of the exhibition design.
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(above text) Sketch of Exhibition case c.a.1885
Entrance elevation showing new multifunctional cube
First Vestibule; newly designed reception area
New museum shop integrated within Columned Hall
Hoskins Architects' project team enjoying the museum on completion