The Glasgow School of Art

Architecture, Literature and the City
Perspectives of Glasgow by Seven European Schools of Architecture

Book launch Thursday 6 March from 6pm, Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art

Featuring round table discussion with Prof Christopher Platt, Mark Baines, Johnny Rodger, Donal McLaughlin and Andy Campbell.

Rivers, hills, railways and motorways, distort and define Glasgow’s abstract grid. Like most European ancient settlements, Glasgow’s cityscape has been moulded by the evolution of moods, attitudes and ideals. In 2013, over 140 students from seven architectural schools in Europe worked with a series of sites across the city to design a Literature Institute. In a world of global practice, architects must be ready to make sense of the unfamiliar. Glasgow, perhaps more than any other European city, needs these discussions in the pursuit of redefining its role in the post-industrial era. Literary pieces construct emotional landscapes that affect the perception of place. Architecture and literature are intertwined, like in the pages of this book, where essays, fictional pieces and architectural responses try to shed light on the not-so-straightforward anatomy of the city.