Reimagining Egyptian Halls
Summary.
The objective of the competition is to invite innovative, imaginative and purposeful design solutions for the reuse of the A-listed Egyptian Halls, a warehouse building completed in 1872 on Union Street, Glasgow by the celebrated, nineteenth-century architect Alexander Thomson (1817-1875).
Union Street is one of the Glasgow’s busiest commercial thoroughfares, a major route extending from Renfield Street south over Jamaica bridge and the River Clyde, channelling vehicles, pedestrians and numerous bus routes to the southern districts of city. Opposite the building is Central Station, the daily point of arrival and departure point for thousands of commuters as well as being the nationally and internationally linked rail terminus, the gateway to and from the south. To the east Buchanan Street daily attracts throngs of people, shoppers and street entertainments.
Despite its Category A listing, the majority of the building has effectively lain dormant for the last 40 years and, although structurally sound, has suffered damage through water ingress and lack of adequate or appropriate maintenance. A number of proposals have been developed for the building over the years, but none have been successfully delivered. Currently the Union Street façade is screened by a full height scaffold, extended across the pavement width and enveloped above in a protective sheath of fabric displaying an image of the upper façade. Whilst the upper levels are vacant, the ground floor shops, although occupied, suffer as does the entire street from the deleterious effects of decay and lack of occupancy. There is little doubt that the reuse and restoration of the Egyptian Halls would contribute greatly to the regeneration of Union Street and its environs.
The competition is now closed, the entries can be viewed here.
Competition Launch
12th May 2019
Earlybird Registration Deadline
Midnight on 12th July 2019
Extended to 19th August 2019
Submission Deadline
5pm on 4th October 2019
Extended to 5pm on 6th October 2019
Submission Requirements.
There is an urgent imperative to the competition and serious ideas are needed to raise the profile of the building’s predicament which is of increasing concern to, not only the Society but other conservation and heritage groups and the city council. The Society invites entrants to generate concepts for alternative uses for the Egyptian Halls and as such wants to provide little limits to entrants creativity. The conditions applied to the competition are as follows:
- The completion is open to all
- There is no access to the interior and entrants are requested to respect this condition
- The Union Street façade and the rear facade to the lane must be retained and restoration assumed
- The internal cast iron structure may be retained or adjusted as a matter of judgement
- Roof top additions are to respect the appearance of the building from the street
- Two/three A2 square sheets (420x420mm), laid out to be exhibited one above the other
- Orthographic drawings, digital or hand drawn, are to be to scale
- Three dimensional drawings and views are encouraged
- 1x A4 sheet (min 11pt font) with a description of your concept
Submissions will be reviewed on the basis of:
- Quality of submission
- Strength of concept
- Integration with Thomson’s original fabric
- Response to the wider urban context of the site
The announcement of the awards is to coincide with the opening of a public exhibition of all the entries received.
Designs
2 or 3x A2 square sheets
Concept
1x A4 with description of concept
File Format
Submit in either JPG/PDF format
Further Information.
We are pleased to confirm that the panel of judges for the competition will consist of:
- Richard Murphy OBE – Head Judge
- Dr Susan O’Connor – Chair, Scottish Civic Trust
- Prof Robin Webster – President, Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland
- Isabel Garriga – President, Glasgow Institute of Architects
- Mark Baines – Chair, The Alexander Thomson Society
The owners of Egyptian Halls and the Morrison Partnership have kindly given permission for use of their scale drawings and photographs of the building as it currently stands, as well as supplying scans of archival drawings. The Alexander Thomson Society have used this information to prepare an rough shell 3D model to assist entrants, this has been prepared in Graphisoft Archicad and exported to Sketchup and IFC format.
When you register for the competition you will receive the password required to download the competition files, which include:
- Site Photographs
- Drawings: PDF / DWG
- Archive Scans
- 3D model file: SKP / IFC
During the course of the competition The Alexander Thomson Society will be publishing short blogs on Egyptian Halls exploring its history and significance, links to these will be posted here as they are published:
Terms and Conditions.
The Competition is being co-ordinated by The Alexander Thomson Society (ATS). ATS retain the right to publish any entries received online, in print and in exhibition.
Eligibility
The competition is open to all. Those who are participating as members of the judging panel are excluded from submitting an entry, as are those involved in the organisation of the competition.
Identification of entries
All entrants are to select a random 5 digit number to be included on each of their submission sheets. No other markings which might allow the entrant to be identified are permissible.
Submission of entries
Entries are to be uploaded to the Society using the form below.
Questions
Questions relating to the Competition Brief and Conditions must be submitted to ATS at info@alexanderthomsonsociety.org.uk before close of business on Friday 27 September 2019. A FAQ section will be maintained as part of this website.
Disqualification
Entrants will be disqualified in the event that they:
- Disclose their identity on their submission
- Try to influence the decision of the judges
- If their entry is received after the deadline
- If their entry does not comply with the brief
Site visits
The building is currently on the buildings at risk register and not accessible to the public, it is not anticipated that access to the building will be made available during the competition.
Copyright
Copyright for the ideas and concepts generated within the competition rest with the original author, as per the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. However, the Alexander Thomson Society reserve the right to publish submissions to the competition on their website, social media pages, in their journal and through a public exhibition of the work generated. Any further publication of the work will be with the permission of the author.
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Alternative Submission Method
If you are having issues using the form uploader above, please download and complete this excel file and upload it along with your files directly to our dropbox account by clicking here.
To upload your files please use the dropbox link below: