The Anderston Excavation

Fifth Year Thesis Project

My thesis project explores the non-linear development of a post-industrial city with a building/program that inserts ‘historical continuity’ in a place in which communities and urban fabric were torn up and disassociated during the onslaught of modernist city planning. The site is beneath the m8 underpass in Anderston, Glasgow.

The programmatic response to the broken historical continuity is the ‘Glaswegian Museum Archive’, which combine scientific research and preservation with public accessibility and engagement.

The architectural response is an ‘excavation’ of the railway station and an integration of the institution into everyday life. The building[s] make up a node - a ‘cross’ which ties together the city centre and the west end. The underpass is integrated in the archive as a structure that suspends containers containing artefacts with a park going along it all the way down to the river, while the buildings surrounding the station contain shipping, preservation, educational and public programs.