Firstly, thumbs up!

Interesting that this ‘motorway building’ should be so close to an exemplar!

Ah ‘motorway buildings’: ten a penny now along the highways/autobahns of Europe, but relatively absent around Glasgow.

Have a look on Google street view at was the earlier 'motorway building' in the vicinity. The Luma Tower.

This building captivated me as a child coming home from Paisley occasionally on the former Clydeside [now Arriva] single-deckers, especially when the front seat was [thankfully often] spare. It’s opposite this proposal on the A8, the precursory motorway running parallel.

Here’s a link to some info on the former light bulb factory; Caravanland; and now [multi-awarded] flats:

http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/65/luma/tower.html

What captivated me about the Luma at this age?

Form, I recall!

Slightly westward were very orthogonal mid 1970s distillery buildings that hadn’t grabbed me excepting a massive Johnny Walker logo.

That said, the early/mid 1970s ‘Miesian’ Daily Record building was another motorway building that I’d look forward to from the Kingston Bridge. I’d blanked absolutely everything else out around it, despite it not being achromatic with a garish logo red on its spandrels. [I wonder how Eurocentral or Edinburgh Park equivalents would fair if they weren’t achromatic.]

See amongst the images here: http://urbanglasgow.co.uk/archive/pics-of-glasgow-early-1980s__o_t__t_1147.html

Having glimpsed Toronto as a kid in 1976 would not have helped in my appreciation for the International Style no matter what the colour. Thanks to the Daily Record for testing!

Would the proposed design likewise qualify as a ‘motorway building’ despite not being in a C20th vein [as an architected industrial building] and will it prove to captivate aspiring architects if it's built?

I’d say ‘it could do’ depending on how it’s detailed and finished.

Don't think I've seen a building quite so grotesque.

An example of an un-architected motorway captivator would be the Inverkip Power Station on the A78.

Here’s a view from sea:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3004540

When passing in the car, I’d always be intent in the very fleeting visual moment of the skyscraping chimney’s alignment to the opening between the twinned glass boxes in the foreground, i.e. when the car was exactly perpendicular to the road, for a mere millisecond.

Don’t get me wrong, I would momentarily, before and after; want to feast my eyes on the intriguing glass boxes too.

I’m sure I won’t be alone there!

Don’t try looking on Google Street view as the foliage has blocked the view, perhaps deliberately due to the engineering spectacle.

In my architecture dissertation, I’d posited architected examples of grain silos to highlight a distinct difference from the norm. Architects in lieu of engineers would simply obscure the already mysterious typology.

I wonder what the comparisons between architected and/or engineered energy centres will reveal through time (?)

The South Clyde Energy Centre proposals appear to symbolise a process, not with giant boxes representing wasted space, but with economic forms instead. Therefore perhaps the energy centre typology is one that should remain in the architects' camp rather than the engineers'.

More info on the South Clyde Energy Centre proposal is conveniently here:

http://www.peel.co.uk/scec

Oh: another Glasgow example of a ‘motorway building’ to add to the mix would be the mid 1960s Clyde Tunnel ventilation buildings, which might have been jointly by architect/engineer in equal measure (?)
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Erratum: the word ‘what’ was missing from the following paragraph:-

Have a look on Google street view at “what” was the earlier 'motorway building' in the vicinity. The Luma Tower.

Kevin Toner, you have made may day but I must correct you on one point. Inverkip was in fact "architected" by the now much maligned RMJM.

Keep up the good work!

And I mean....,are you serious.......!!!!?
It is brutalism with big ‘B’. It is horrific; I don’t know what has possessed them to come up with this mishmash of shapes and materials!

It's not brutalism, but don't worry you'll learn about all that if you decide to study architecture.

Many thanks ooctopus for pointing out that correction.

The fact that Inverkip was architected does make the debate more interesting.

Kevin toner- you're ma hero

I am surprising that there are a few negative comments about the architecture on here already. I reckon it's a great, welcomed 'interesting' building rather than the usual industrial box with a large stack that would normally be proposed and delivered.

I am surprising that there are a few negative comments about the architecture on here already. I reckon it's a great, welcomed 'interesting' building rather than the usual industrial box with a large stack that would normally be proposed and delivered.

great looking building.

Like a burst ball

incidental 'gigantic tiny rubber band' part of the mix!

No offence:-

I remember unconsciously invoking a possible file cabinet typology adjacent to a giant toaster for my Stage 3 Interact project.

No, it wasn't shortlisted!

Metaphor, whether meant or not, usually comes in handy in the ubiquity of nicknaming.

Apologies for going halfway, but can't think of a metaphor yet for the taller element: the 'giant tiny rubber band' & what... (?)

The giant toaster was already built - yes the Clydesdale Bank at Charing Cross!

That said, the elastic band typology has mileage, for motorway expectations, whereas the toaster modelling [generally 1980s banks and commercial] would leave more to be desired!

#14: 'giant tiny rubber band’ with 'complimentary stapler/mini-staplex' is the closest that I can get to the ubiquitous nickname call for this one I'm afraid!

I’d guess that the rubber band symbolises the ‘conveyor belt’ or ‘chain’ cycle that would in turn reflect the cyclic nature of the centre’s Recyclables Recovery Facility (RRF) element, distinguishing it from the interlocking Energy Recovery Facility (RRF) element to which it relates and interacts with.

Looks ok from the car park view, but from the roadside it's a bit of a car crash. Pun only slightly intended.

Hi everyone. Sorry, been on holiday for a bit but back now - 'normal' service should be resumed.