The
name at present embraces a large area, but originally applied only to Bellahouston
Hill, now included in the public park. Previously the property of the Rowans,
one of the oldest territorial families in Govan, was their last residence
in the district. The old mansion house was demolished in 1901.
“ The late Earl of Dufferin's lady is the eldest daughter of the
late Archibald Rowan Hamilton of Killyleagh Castle, County Down, whose grandsire
was Archibald Hamilton Rowan, a son of Old Holmfauldhead, as he was called.
This Archibald, a significant politician, went to Ireland, where he became
secretary to the Society of United Irishmen in 1793, in which year he came
to Edinburgh, and for challenging the Lord Advocate of Scotland to fight
a duel had to cut and run.”
We propose a single structure and landscape within the adjacent former basement
of Dumbreck House. The proposal asks visitors to engage with architecture not
only on a purely physical level. A new entrance portal, constructed from the
waste materials of the building industry, and 'the hidden garden', mark out
a physical space where we are invited to reflect upon all the other 'secret'
elements of architecture. What lies below? What hangs above? What memories
and traces of previous occupants and structures have been erased? Where do
the boundaries lie between one structure and another? How do we decide between
one way of seeing the world and another?
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