NORD Architecture

For three years NORD have been driving the potential re-use of Glasgow’s Victorian public conveniences. There are 33 redundant and 10 operational public amenities within the city that form a network of different spaces and potential uses. NORD propose to return some to working toilets whilst many are to be given new life through such uses as street cafes, kiosks, Internet touchdown points, public laundries and holistic centres. As well as inhabiting the existing unused space within the public convenience the space around the structures are activated by the introduction of canopies, terraces and public seating areas.

Kelvingrove Park Public Convenience

The existing public toilets are built into an embankment at the periphery of Kelvingrove Park, one of Glasgow’s finest Victorian green spaces. On the street side the toilets face onto Woodlands, a large residential area of the city where tenant occupied flatted housing exceeds owner occupied dwellings. To service this area it is proposed that a communal facility is introduced in the form of a laundry or ‘Steamie’ as they were called historically in Glasgow. Before launderettes and washing machines were widespread, Glasgow’s housewives met up at the ‘Steamie’ to wash the family laundry and exchange gossip; they were places of communal activity and vibrant social interaction.

The laundry will provide a much-needed amenity for the local tenants where existing commercial laundries are already overstretched to meet the demands of the community.
On top of the existing building a new structure will be built to house a holistic centre providing health and therapy classes for the local community.

The Woodlands area is one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse areas of the city and the holistic centre will provide a vital meeting place for these communities. The centre will be split between an internal area including a library and multi-use workshop area for therapy activities and seminars and an external area for fair weather classes and activities. The two areas will be connected by a large steel canopy providing shelter throughout the year that also functions as a water collector providing grey water for use in the laundry below.

The floor of the holistic centre internally and externally will be heated utilising the most up-to-date sustainable technology, via a borehole and closed circuit pipe work absorbing heat from the ground. Excess heat will be utilized to pre-heat the laundry water.