Elisabeth Mahoney 

Anatomy of the House

Lighthouse
  
  


In a delicious moment during this engrossing exhibition about Scottish domestic architecture, an architect describes seeing an oil refinery near his worksite in Grangemouth and romantically thinking that it looked like fireworks in the night sky. He got talking to a local man, however, who said bitterly that the plant was spewing poison into the atmosphere. "We realised," the architect admits, "that locals might not want to look at the refinery from their homes." Seemingly, nobody had thought of this before, or taken note of it in the design of public housing in the area.

Though it is rich in deftly handled historical information, this is really an exhibition about the present and future. Through a study of five projects, each representing a type of Scottish architecture (urban, suburban, castle, croft, settlement), we see the improvement to familial and societal relations brought about by the commissioning of imaginative projects, attuned to local needs.

On Skye, a practice specialises in affordable housing, based on traditional croft designs, for the people priced out of the local property market. In the east end of Glasgow, every convention of social housing has been flouted in the Graham Square project, to make an eco-sensitive building that looks uncompromisingly modern. In Greenock, a housing project for families with children offers lashings of space and privacy. "We feel like a proper family now," a mother comments. They have never had room for the family of six to eat together around a table before.

This is more than a showcase for utopian rarities in the field of domestic architecture. Stealthily, the exhibition draws us in using footage of architects and dwellers from each project, alongside samples of materials used and historical documentation. Its trick is to blend the theory and experience of living in these buildings into a tantalising narrative.

· Until May 26. Details: 0141-221 6362. Then touring across Scotland.

 

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