Argyle Street, Phase 2

Completed in December 2009 for Margaret Blackwood Housing Association, 670 Argyle Street is the first building to be constructed as part of a major regeneration of Anderston, which will reinstate the original street pattern and tenemental scale to the area. Built on a brownfield site which formerly housed a single storey industrial shed and car parking, the new building comprises 24 flats arranged over 6 stories, 23 of which have 2 bedrooms and 1 which has a single bedroom. The flats have all been designed for residents who are wheelchair users or who have a variety of other physical disabilities.

The building is constructed from a restrained palette of materials, primarily a buff coloured facing brick to the main elevations and to the perimeter boundary walls, anthracite zinc to the inhabited mansard roof, and treated timber cladding to the balconies.

The flats have been designed to accommodate the residents of the neighbouring Ballantrae Court development, which is to be demolished, and which is institutional in character and design. Margaret Blackwood Housing Association’s brief for the new flats was to provide residents with the opportunity to live more independently, with care individually tailored to residents within their own private homes. The main front and rear doors to the building and each of the flat entrances doors are provided with electrically assisted opening to facilitate access, whilst underfloor heating, whole house ventilation, and kitchens and wet room bathrooms designed for use by residents in wheelchairs are provided in each of the individual flats.

The building employs both simple and technical ways of addressing issues of sustainability, and has achieved an EcoHomes ‘Very Good’ rating. The building is well insulated to reduce energy consumption and power bills, whilst the south elevation has large areas of glazing to absorb the sun’s energy in the winter, with the deep balconies providing shade in the summer. Windows onto the north elevation are reduced to a minimum to reduce heat loss. Underfloor heating brings efficiencies both in terms of energy and use of internal space.

Collective Architecture completed a second larger scale housing project for Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association which sits alongside this development in April 2014, on the site of the former Ballantrae Court. This can be viewed within the residential section of the website.