andrew melville hall, st andrews

it has been a month since we last have updated our blog and even longer since we last had a little tour of brutalism… so it is time to get out of hibernation now and get the boots on for some well-due concrete hugging. don’t worry, we’re not going very far - in fact, staying right here in east fife, as we visit one of the student halls of the university of st andrews.

surrounded by lots of greenery in the north haugh, it is a short walk away from the town centre and the golf course. it was designed by james stirling and it opened in 1967 - it is a beautiful brutalist gem in a town and university that’s rather renowned and cherished for its mostly much older architecture going back to medieval times. it was judged to be 12th in urban realm’s top 100 scottish modernist buildings, and it has been category A listed since 2011 - it is a popular building that’s here to stay.

the building has an V shaped plan of two large wings, embracing a relaxing, wide green space in between. (this one thing is often misunderstood about brutalism - the stereotype is always grey concrete, but the balance of the green is always equally important in real buildings and that’s probably why they feel so relaxing.) the elevations of both wings incorporate the increasing ground height as the hill beneath slopes upwards. it has a striking, hypnotic rhythm to the modular facade - the zigzagging row of windows only reveal themselves from the east.

upon close inspection of the facade, the 45 degreed texture on the concrete reveals itself, rotating between the tessellated facade modules, forming a two dimensional zig-zag print on top of the spatial form. with the weather-worn effects in between the lines, it does look like a directional texture applied to the building - apologies for the pre-occupation of the concrete surfaces - this is a textile design blog afterall and i certainly don’t read buildings like an architect. i always look for the repeating geometries and the reduction of form somehow and it is always the pattern that i first notice on them and that subtle details in texture difference is what makes each of these buildings so unique to me.

it is a busy-looking unit with lots of life - housing approx 250 students divided across five residential blocks. the original plan was for 1000 students but the other buildings planned never came to be.

i did not study at st andrews so i have to rely on the university’s own website for a peek inside. it is much loved by students - partly for its rich social life, but also the quirky, octagonal room layouts. the building’s wikipedia page mentions that the stairwells of three blocks have glass enclosures for natural light, student crowd rates it 7th out of 17 halls at the university and i’d like to think that the architecture plays some role in it too.

if you liked this short tour, stay with us for more inspiration as we plan to visit more sites in the near future and bring you more posts and photos about them - and of course subscribe to our newsletter to be always the first to read! until next time!

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links:

university of st andrews - accommodations - andrew melville hall

urban realm

andrew melville hall on wikipedia

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zitozza at the V&A dunde and bowhouse markets!

we’re pleased to gather you around today, ladies and gentlemen, with a few more announcements to make. zitozza has been selected for the line-up of this year’s tea green festive market at the v&a dundee. zitozza will be there for one day only, on the sunday 7th november, but the event itself takes place on the whole weekend with a whole bunch of brilliant designers and i can hardly contain myself! it will be amazing to be exhibiting at this most prestigious venue and meet fans and makers of high quality contemporary design made in scotland. really cannot wait!

but before that, i’m going somewhere much more local, finally here in the east neuk of fife, at the bowhouse market (also thanks to tea green events) also on sunday only, on the 10th october. there will be three of these in total though, with weekends also in november and december, all with a fabulous line-up of scottish makers, music and all sorts of great stuff here which i love and as a fifer, close to the heart! (and oh my god, the food! THE FOOD!)

so we’ll be looking forward to meeting you all and showcase the latest hand block printed jute stuff to you - please think about christmas in advance to ease the pressure on the poor delivery folk! let’s make shopping an event, treat your home (and yourself) to some beautiful decor and at these fairs - shop local, discover an army of local creatives, and… did i mention the food?

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links
tea green events
v&a dundee
bowhouse fife

the co-op and the kingdom (an architectural journey through glenrothes pt. 1)

for those of you in fife this will be the familiar - yup, this one will be about glenrothes. i’m really into this town (the only new town on the east), so much so that i’m going to split my photo blogs into groups and go through this in more than one tour - please come with me for the first one through the town centre.

glenrothes is a new town in scotland, designated in 1948 and built and developed throughout the following years. the area has a history of industry in paper mills, and the new town was largely built for workers of a new coal mine, which, only after 7 years of operation had to close in 1965 due to technological difficulties. some industrial presence continued in the town though and fife council also moved their headquarters there.

as one of the earliest new towns in scotland, glenrothes was built and developed with a mixture of ideas leaving their visual impacts on its surfaces. the town won the disputed “carbuncle award” muiltiple times however glenrothes also received multiple awards in the beautiful Scotland competition - perhaps as a response to the negative publicity (and because the many open spaces and roundabouts are indeed quite floral)

the intention of my walks here is usually to find source of joy and inspiration for my textile designs. i know a few locals, who find humour and affection in their upbringing in this setting and i basically just aim to show the fabric of this place in a positive light. i have a lot of material though so i’m going to start right at the centre.

the town centre itself is a small pedestrianised area for shopping named “kingdom centre”, consisting of concrete alleys and arcades. the “old” town centre was once busier with shoppers, however, many of the premises today are unoccupied - like everywhere else, glenrothes has welcome suburban supermarkets on its outskirts and the car-friendly layout of the town has infact probably made it more attractive than elsewhere in the area. as in most brutalist new towns, roads for motorists and pedestrians were consciously separated, which resulted in many roundabouts and underpasses (the latter now a canvas for artists - official and unofficial ones alike).

out of albany gate at the main street of the kingdom stands the co-op building, an old department store opened in 1964. i’m not sure if this was built by separate architects or not - the kingdom centre and much of the town’s architecture is a product of the glenrothes development corporation which employed many architects at the time (with glasgow-born peter tinto as chief architect.)

the co-op this is also now empty and is destined for demolition although the plans were scrapped later. partly because of its asbestos problem (it’s now unsafe to enter too.) it’s also really interesting (in an obviously bleak way) to look at the decaying surfaces and imagine what they may have been like in the past.

it’s not my past and these are not my memories, yet i think i would miss this building a little bit, because i find it genuinely and objectively beautiful. (lord knows i hate the word “eyesore” and i find it so insulting and cheap.)

hey look here instead - the coffers on the concrete ceilings of the arcades was what inspired the co-op tileset. it’s a futuristic and human centred pattern with those edges rounded down. and the geometry of its upper facade is shiny and colourful, busy and geometric - playful and orderly at the same time. it was built for this town and its people and somehow these buildings still radiate the optimistic vision of its creators some decades later. i’m not a preservationist though and i believe in embracing the present - if it’s unsafe and unsuitable now to how we live, we can change it or make something else of it. but even if the building itself isn’t worth saving, perhaps the ideas that built them should be.

with the demolition halted, the future remains to be seen. there are now calls to use the building as murals for public art - something glenrothes has form on (i might just have an idea of a future blog post) for now, some works have begun on improvements to the exterior to make it safer while the long-term future remains to be seen. i hope you are now curious to continue this walk - stay tuned for the next tour!

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links:

co-op demolition plans spark regeneration hope for fife town (by the newsroom, 15 march 2017, fife today)

planned £1m demolition of one of fife’s worst eyesores scrapped, leaving its future in limbo (by neil henderson, 20 dec 2019, the courier)

get involved with discussion about the future of glenrothes (by the newsroom, 11 february 2020, fife today)

work to finally address one of fife’s worst eyesores set to begin (by neil henderson, 2 july 2020, the courier)