Paisley: Scotland's Architecturally Infertile Town

Whilst in Dundee and galavanting around Scotland viewing modernist marvels, I've become a little out of sync with the architectural happenings in my home town of Paisley. In a previous post I discussed the concrete monster that is the Renfewshire Council Headquarters. It turns out the North Building has subsequently been demolished, and it's replacement, named The Cloisters (a sympathetic slap in the face to the 12th Century Paisley Abbey that sits adjacent), is a housing development, taking architecture to new extremes of banality.

At least the North Building meant something within the context of post-war modernist architecture. This uninspiring lump simply follows a tick-box exercise in building yuppie kennels. It is almost forgivable with some of the out-of-town-beside-a-shopping-centre developments such as Ferry Village, but this is in the heart of Paisley. For those not in the know, Paisley is a large settlement (think 5th largest in Scotland) seven miles from Glasgow (which it borders to the east), that has suffered the torments of the gravitational effects of Glasgow's economy and out-of-town developments. The town centre is desolate, and all in all, Paisley doesn't have much going for it. Developments like the above further undermine the chance of Paisley being anything more than a burgh of Glasgow. Renfrewshire Council appear to have a short-sighted approach to town planning that sees anyone willing to build anything awarded the contract. I'm not suggesting the North Building should have been kept, I'm simply suggesting the Council need to develop a little vision in building a New Paisley.

Dundee gets the V&A, Paisley gets a 2nd rate housing development and a new Tesco. Fail.

Renfrewshire Council HQ

I am a little out of focus. I've been looking at modernism in Scotland, however this feels too vague, and I'm going through the motions of deciding what matters to me. In such situations I tend to take a step back, and work from what I know: drawing. I enjoy the juxtaposition between some modernist buildings and the natural landscape they inhabit. A nice example can be found in my hometown of Paisley, nestled between the White Cart River and the historic Paisley Abbey, this concrete bruit pierces horizontally through the landscape.

Curiously, the Council have opted to refurbish this concrete monster in a slightly less offensive "plastic" looking cladding. Perhaps the concrete was too expensive to maintain, but this solution wants to please the harsh realities of the original structure in a much more understated way. I think it looks awful. That said, at least the building has been preserved in some form.

The above photograph was taken in 2006, and my abhorrence to this building is apparent from my comments: "Horrible grey box rising from the greenery. Quite a nice contrast. Not the most interesting subject matter, but I like the strong horizontal lines." Fascination is a concept I looked at in a short Contextual Review task for the Research Skills and Methods module, examining Toby Paterson's "fascination" with post-war modernist architecture (link). This ambiguous quote by Gartside (2003) sums the term up nicely: "fascination is a sense of being draw into something that cannot be fully explained or analysed."

So, still not fully understanding my fascination with modernism, I've been drawing, and think this building could be the subject of a painting. I will update with some scans from my sketch book later on this week.