A MACHINE FOR LIVING

‘A Machine for Living’ seeks to address the many failed social housing high-rise projects which are now being demolished across Glasgow. Despite their rapid disposal, there is a desperate lack of new-build social housing to replace them. Many of these sites are being developed into mixed housing schemes, which are ultimately displacing their existing populations out of the city. Moreover, the rubble from these high rises often goes straight to landfill, and the embodied carbon from the demolition of the concrete frames is astronomical. Therefore, the proposal retains the concrete frame of one of these high rises; 76 Collina Street, repurposing it to hold a series of new social housing and workshop pods. The pods themselves will be fabricated from recycled components spanning ceramic, timber and metal components extracted from the adjacent Wyndford Road towers listed for demolition. Operating as a live work scheme, the project will aim to simultaneously revitalise the industrial crafts of the Maryhill area, whilst also reoccupying the high-rise frames as a new social housing typology. The spaces between the pods can then be appropriated into a series of community spaces, including a public baths, parks and small structures for cafe’s, shops, and other necessities.