May 9 2022

An innovative community centre has thrown open its doors in the south side of Glasgow, delivering a happy ending to a valued facility which had been threatened by closure following council cutbacks.

The Kinning Park Complex had been operated by the local authority until 1996 before a spiralling repair bill prompted its closure. Since then the local community first won the right to rent the space and run it themselves and later bought the structure outright to safeguard its future.

That process has now reached its culmination at the hands of New Practice who have re-used and reorganised the former school to deliver flexible accommodation for workspaces, conferences, classes and events.

First appointed in 2018 the team have used intervening years to open up the double helix stairs, now joined by a passenger lift and ramp access to ensure the hub is accessible to all. New Practice creative director Becca Thomas said: “This is an extraordinary ordinary building. It was designed as a space for learning in the community and is still doing that over a century later, operating both as a radical organisation and a place of shared comfort.

"Our architectural approach responds to this variety, centring accessibility and heritage to ensure longevity."

The project was made possible by a £1.2m grant from the National Lottery Community Fund Scotland as well as additional support from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. The project team includes Armour Construction Consultants, David Narro Associates, and Max Fordham LLP. 

12 Comments

#1 Posted by Southern Belle on 9 May 2022 at 17:03 PM

my archibabble to English translator has burned out trying to decipher what this building is, what it is used for, and what 'radical organisation' and 'shared comfort' actually mean?

#2 Posted by Hampden Roar on 9 May 2022 at 17:09 PM

Isn't shared comfort a fancy way of describing a urinal trough?

#3 Posted by Odd-job on 10 May 2022 at 08:18 AM

Seems like they are offering happy endings... I'm in!

#4 Posted by modernish on 10 May 2022 at 10:15 AM

Doesn't seem to be a lot of bang for the buck. Given the extended period i wonder how what the percentage of the overall costs were for fee's rather than construction?

#5 Posted by The Heart of Saturday Night on 10 May 2022 at 10:23 AM

Perhaps I'm getting old but I just cannot be bothered by the waffle that seems to accompany stuff like this these days.

It's a community centre with some lovely pink doors and yellow railings. Shrug.

#6 Posted by Mark on 10 May 2022 at 10:25 AM

Great to see an old Glasgow School Board building being saved, as opposed to Sir John Maxwell School, or Greenfield School in Govan which have been left to rot. However, as #1 says, the blurb is archibabble straight out of Pseud's Corner in Private Eye. And if a community group providing space for classes and events in a refurbished old building is nowadays classed as "radical", then we must be living in a neo-liberal far right dystopia?

#7 Posted by another millennial softie on 10 May 2022 at 11:50 AM

I think this is great work, and that the armchair theorists should move on from critiquing the semantics used to describe what is a tasteful and community-focussed project, and instead critique the inane blonde-brick developer rabble (with a lifespan of approximately five years before it ends up looking half architecturally considered as this scheme) and soon-to-be-London-flavoured housing market across Glasgow.

#8 Posted by The Heart of Saturday Night on 10 May 2022 at 11:58 AM

Sorry #7...but what has your latter point got to do with this particular project? Can only play what's in front of you etc.

Community focussed is fair enough, but it's the tendency to try and elevate modest aims and basic building uses into some kind of 'radical' statement that's the annoyance here.

#9 Posted by another millennial softie on 10 May 2022 at 14:39 PM

The organisation is claimed to be radical in their aims, in this article the designers make no such elevated claims about their own design work and just state that they intend to house said organisation in a space of shared comfort - which, rather than urinals, I gather speaks to diverse needs and means of egress, use and belonging in a community space for a diverse group of users who require... yes, a shared sense of comfort.

#10 Posted by Mork on 10 May 2022 at 19:55 PM

Rewiring and a lick of paint, I should submit my flat refurbishment to Urban Realm. I've also made better paint colour choices. Baby pink and yolk yellow, oh dear.

#11 Posted by another millennial softie on 11 May 2022 at 09:56 AM

Sad that on 'urban realm', perspectives on urbanity here are being reduced to basic architectural aesthetics and form. There is more to architecture and the city, but by all means send in your flat refurb Mork. Heritage architecture requires a deep degree of time, care and sensitivity, and is wrapped up in complex funding and planning processess (which is why so many lay empty and derelict). It's unnecessarily sardonic to choose to ignore that reality, and focus on door colours and a few lines of copy. The community group has done well it seems to persevere and get this building saved and given a second life.

#12 Posted by Jude Barber on 11 May 2022 at 12:11 PM

#10 Collective Architecture did an initial feasibility on this building and project several years ago. So we are aware of the complexity and work that would be required to bring this building conservation and remodelling project to fruition. It was so wonderful for us to see New Practice win this commission, take it forward so carefully and deliver it successfully. Looking forward to seeing more of their work going forward - and the Kinning Park Complex (and its radical history and future) grow from strength to strength.

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