Saltire awards

10 Jan 2007

Three score and ten The Saltire Society housing panel celebrates its 70th birthday this year. To mark the occasion, it is producing an exhibition reviewing housing in Scotland over the last seven decades, and revisiting Saltire Award winning homes to ask residents and experts if past winners have stood the test of time.

Our homes hold an increasingly central role in the operation of our private and sometimes public lives. It is fascinating to see how, over the decades, social and individual attitudes to housing have changed. Over the last three generations we have seen the expansion of public housing, the development of the new towns, the rise and fall of the tower block, the right to buy, the rediscovery of the tenement, housing stock transfers, inner city loft living and the growth of the private suburban housing scheme. We are all very familiar with the stories about happy tenants moving out of Victorian slums into high-rise deck-access blocks, only to discover a few years later that these ‘streets in the sky’ have their own problems. The character of what we consider to be ‘good homes’ shifts with each generation and its expectations. At the 2006 Saltire Housing Panel Awards ceremony, Miles Glendinning gave a presentation on 20th-century housing in Scotland. He talked about the significant role the Saltire Housing Panel, and its leading members – such as Robert Matthew – have played in providing a framework for a broader debate on public housing and place-making. He described an approach to development that emerged over the past 70 years that was underpinned by an interest in contextualism and found clearest expression in the place-sensitive low-rise developments influenced by the Townscape movement of the 1960s, the conservation work of 1970s and the tenement rehabilitation of the 1980s. In conclusion Glendinning said: “The Saltire Society has shown a consistency over the years. It has consistently argued for buildings of genuine diversity. Some, like Charles Jencks, say this diversity can’t be safeguarded in the face of globalisation. “We now face a world in which every housing project is trying to be its own Maggie’s Centre, crying, ‘Look at me.’ I believe there is no reason why that diversity can’t continue. It is the idealism and consistency of the Saltire Society that we should be celebrating in 2007.” The Saltire Society was established in 1936 to conserve and promote all aspects of Scottish cultural life and to help to recapture “Scotland’s position at the centre of European civilisation”. The founders were strongly influenced by the work of Sir Patrick Geddes. Under the leadership of Robert Hurd, the society established an award for housing design, the first in the UK. Hurd believed buildings in Scotland should reflect the character of the Scottish environment. Since 1937, with the exception of the war years, the Saltire Housing Award has continued, going from strength to strength, adapting along the way to reflect the changing patterns of public investment and economic activity, home ownership and planning policy. The Saltire Housing Design Awards panel is made up of practising architects, planners, housing providers and commentators. Over the years some of Scotland’s most accomplished architects, including Robert Hurd, Hugh Wilson, Alan Reiach and Robert Matthew, have sat on the housing panel. To celebrate the work of the last 70 years, and to provide a platform that will allow the housing panel to move forward, Saltire has decided to stage an exhibition about the last 70 years of housing in Scotland. The housing panel’s role has always been to assess the quality of new homes, initially on behalf of public sector tenants, but more recently its role has extended to the private sector. The 70th anniversary exhibition will be called The Test Of Time, and it will provide an insight into the changing qualities of housing in Scotland over the past 70 years. A central component of the exhibition will be interviews with residents of award-winning schemes over the past seven decades. The assessment of tenants and home-owners is not the only measure of good housing, but also an important one. These interviews will be set against a backdrop of contextual material explaining housing policy, patterns of house building, the locations of development, and the changing character of domestic life. It will also provide material that gives a strong sense of what the architects, planners and clients hoped to achieve through their designs and whether the occupants feel if these lived up to expectations. The exhibition will include a range of information, from film interviews to original Saltire submission panels. The aim of the show is to provoke public discussion about contemporary approaches to urban and housing design by highlighting good practice and illustrating the relationship between current approaches and previous design solutions. The exhibition will be curated by Penny Lewis working with Miles Glendinning at the ECA Centre for Conservation Studies and Diane Watters of the RCAHMS which holds the archive of all the Saltire panels submitted over the years and is in the process of cataloguing them. For each decade the exhibition will include film footage of interviews with the occupants of the Saltire Award-winning projects. One or two projects have been selected to represent the key concerns of each decade. This information will be set against a backdrop of information on location, house type, ownership, material on housing policy and figures on homes and occupancy levels. There will also be information about debates that took place within Saltire at the time. The written archives of the society are held by the National Library of Scotland. Letters between society panel members, such as Robert Matthew or Alan Reiach, and reports from judging visits make for fascinating reading. _____________________________ Award winners 2006 This year’s Saltire Awards received 34 entries and the panel shortlisted and visited 20 schemes. Karen Anderson, the chair of the panel, explained that while the Saltire Awards had historically been given to social housing, the panel had in recent years tended to focus its attention on private sector where most volume house building was talking place. However, this year a number of social housing landlords were recognised in the presentation which was undertaken by Rhona Brankin MSP. Richard Murphy picked up four certificates for his work that ranged from large suburban homes to the conversion of small mews blocks to form light and tidy homes. Commendations were given to Murphy’s projects at Circus Lane, Regent Terrace and Deanbank Lane. The Holm, Friary Court and Seabank also received commendations. The winners and highly commended schemes are listed below. The shortlisted entries for this year’s awards were: The Holm by Crallan and Winstanley; Seabank in Girvan by ASL; Signal Station House by Icosis; Affordable Housing in Swinton by Oliver Chapman Architects; 3 Seton Mains, Longniddry by Paterson Architects; Friary Court by Page/Park Architects; Paisley Mills by JF Stephen Architects; 10A Circus Lane by Richard Murphy Architects; Deanbank Lane by Richard Murphy Architects; Cramond Phase 1 by Richard Murphy Architects; 10 Regent Terrace by Richard Murphy Architects; Glasgow Harbour by RMJM; QE3 by RMJM; Greyfriars by Lee Boyd; Lorretto Housing at Paisley by Gareth Hoskins Architects; George Terrace, Loanhead by Arcade Architects; White Cottage by Crichton Wood Architects; A House in Banchory by Gokay Devici; Paragon by CZWG; and Ravelrig House, Balerno by Gareth Hoskins. _____________________________ Winning schemes This year the Saltire Housing Awards Panel received more than 30 entries and visited 20 schemes. The panel gave a record number of certificates having generated a new ‘Highly Commended’ categoryto accommodate the range and high quality of the work submitted. Commendations were given to Murphy’s projects at Circus Lane, Regent Terrace and Deanbank Lane. The Holm, Friary Court and Seabank also received commendations. The winners and highly commended schemes appear in this panel. Signal Station House, North Queensferry ICOSIS Architects – AWARD Three Seton Mains, Longniddry Paterson Architects – AWARD Cramond, Glasgow Richard Murphy Architects – HIGHLY COMMENDED Paragon, Queen Elizabeth Square, Glasgow CZWG Architects – HIGHLY COMMENDED White Cottage, Ballintuim Crichton Wood Architects – HIGHLY COMMENDED ________________ above Ravelrig House conversion by Gareth Hoskins . top Paisley Mills by JF Stephen. middle George Terrace by Arcade Architects. bottom Saltire panel members.