Recognition for architect of Scotland’s ‘carbuncle’
DESIGNED to great fanfare in the 1950s as a town centre consisting of “one huge multi-storey building” the architecture of Cumbernauld “carbuncle” has been subject to fierce criticism in the intervening years.
Opened by Princess Margaret in 1967, the vast concrete structure built over a dual carriageway housed shops, apartments, a hotel, an ice rink, a bowling alley, a health centre as well as police, fire and ambulance stations.
Historian Rosemary Wakeman called it a “colossal living vessel” intended to “elicit new codes of community behaviour”, but in 2005 the structure was voted Britain’s most hated building in a poll organised by the Channel 4’s programme Demolition. It was also twice named Scotland’s worst town centre by the Carbuncle Awards.
Now the life of one of the key architects behind the building is to be documented in the latest update to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, alongside other individuals crucial to the transformation of urban Britain in the years after 1945.
Geoffrey Copcutt, who was born in Yorkshire in 1928, was the driving force behind the eight-storey structure, which has now been partly demolished due to weather damage to the concrete.
Writing in 1995 two years before his death, Copcutt recalled that he had conceived a “central infrastructure of highways and walkways, layers and ledges promising shelter, warmth and family freedom”.
However, the new dictionary entry notes: “This futuristic vision was only partly executed. The designs were simplified, and only the first two of five intended phases were built.
“Problems of concept, execution, and management were soon apparent. The Scottish climate did the concrete finishes few favours. Partly demolished ... Cumbernauld town centre was voted Britain’s most hated building in 2005.
“Nonetheless, it was a significant early megastructure. It was also a key early example in Britain of the climate-conditioned indoor shopping centre with integrated parking and servicing, a type that was to become commonplace.”
Another architect to be featured in the new edition of the dictionary is Percy Johnson-marshall, who was born in India in 1915 and worked as an urban designer and regional planner across the UK.
In 1959 he took a post as senior lecturer at Edinburgh University and was appointed Professor of Urban Design in 1964.
As the university’s planning consultant, he produced proposals for the reconstruction of the city’s George Square, looking also to the surrounding area of Newington and advocating a larger comprehensive development which would have involved the demolition of existing buildings and their replacement with a new town on an elevated deck above the traffic.
The Oxford Dictionary entry states: “These structures, in accordance with the planning fashions of the early 1960s, were to be connected by a pedestrian deck elevated above roads and service areas.
“The scheme was controversial and remained largely unbuilt. However, JohnsonMarshall’s proposals for the reconfiguration of the area adjacent to the university’s Mcewen Hall were carried out, resulting in a new pedestrian plaza of Bristo Square.” Today Mr Johnson-marshall, who died in 1993, is perhaps best known for being the main architect of Celtic Park in Glasgow.
Dr Alistair Fair, a lecturer in architectural history at Edinburgh University, argues that the context in which these architects were working is crucial to understanding their ideas.
After the Second World War, Glasgow was suffering from a chronic shortage of housing and poor housing conditions, particularly in areas such as Gorbals.
As a direct result, the 1946 Clyde Valley Regional Plan allocated sites where satellite new towns were to be built to alleviate the problem.
Cumbernauld was designated as a New Town in 1955, the third to be designated in Scotland after East Kilbride, Glenrothes and followed by Livingston and Irvine.
Problems of poor housing, congestion and pollution were also a concern for planners in other major Scottish cities, including Edinburgh.
Mr Fair said: “What is important to understand is that, if we go back to the 1950s and the 1960s, what these planners were trying to deal with was the challenge of how you made modern cities. Partly they were being stimulated by the growth of car ownership which rose rapidly through those decades as people became more affluent and cars became more affordable.
“There was a very real fear that cars were choking British towns and cities and traditional urban planning had never taken account of this congestion and pollution.
“They were also embedded in a bigger debate which hinged around the idea that older towns and cities were worn out, that they often had large areas of slum housing, that this was unacceptable in the 20th century and that it was the duty of the state to intervene and to either plan new towns, like Cumbernauld, or improve existing cities, such as Edinburgh.”
The Oxford DNB is a record of those who have shaped history, worldwide, from prehistory to the year 2015.
The dictionary now includes biographies of 63,261 individuals, written by 10,000 contributors.