Wasps would like to offer congratulations to a number of the winners at the Scottish Design Awards 2023 that are based at our buildings across Scotland, or have worked with Wasps on new developments.
Collective Architecture is the recipient of the Silver Award for Retrofit for their work on Civic House. The retrofit of Civic House, a former printworks, has created a hub of cultural and social enterprise that brings new life to a neglected corner of Glasgow. The repurposed building acts as a micro power station ? generating more energy than it consumes over the course of a year. Funded by the Climate Challenge Fund and Scottish Power Energy Network’s Green Economic Fund, Collective Architecture was commissioned by Agile City to undertake the refurbishment of the 1920s industrial warehouse located in north Glasgow. Collective Architecture created an incremental retrofit plan, ensuring it to be carried out in phases in line with available funding. Civic House is a home to a thriving community of social and creative enterprise. As an events space, it hosts talks, films, performances and exhibitions. And a Pakistani-inspired vegan canteen provides a social hub for the wider Speirs Lock creative community, other visitors from all over Glasgow and further afield. As a community-based workspace, the project aims to demonstrate that small actions can generate large-scale impact.
Collective were placed Gold for the Planning Award for their work on Coatfield Lane in Edinburgh. Nestled at the base of the A-listed Linkview House in the heart of Leith, the project aims to sensitively insert new affordable homes into the existing urban grain of the historic Kirkgate setting and Leith’s valued Conservation Area. The clients’ aspirations are to provide high quality homes with 50% being design for growing families. The project aims to create a strong sense of identity, providing a great place for people to live, work, and enjoy; creating a new thriving community that contributes and connects to Leith. The local community and wider stakeholders were instrumental in the design and development of the project and engaged with the design process at every step of the way. The aim is to provide vibrant and colourful public space, bounded by a hard and soft edge boundaries. The proposals encapsulate circular design principles throughout the project by the reuse and re-purposing of existing features wherever possible. A circular strategy is continued into the more detail proposals by not only driving down the energy consumption of the building in the aspirations to achieve Passivhaus Low Energy Building Standard but also by reducing the embodied carbon within the building materials.
Collective won Gold for the Master Planning Award for their project on Ladyfield in Scotland’s first NPF4-ready masterplan. The Ladyfield Masterplan takes a holistic, aspirational approach to placemaking and is designed to serve the wellbeing of the people that live in Dumfries now and in future. The masterplan sets out a vision for a place planned for people that addresses the climate emergency. Collective responded to the Scottish Government’s objectives to create nature-focused, sustainable communities through the recently adopted National Planning Framework 4. Ladyfield will promote a sustainable neighbourhood, and a diversity of housing is critical to its success. Homes will be proposed that improve affordability and choice in the local area by being adaptable to changing and varied needs and allow people to age in place, to encourage mixed communities that grow together over time. The heritage of this part of Dumfries is linked to the story of The Crichton, who have been innovating in health and wellbeing for over 150 years. The masterplan takes cognisance of the existing trees, protecting these whilst strengthening the green-blue infrastructure for the long-term benefit of existing and future residents. It will open up parkland for the community as well as enhancing the site’s biodiversity, promoting active travel and increasing well-being opportunities for all, within a well-connected neighbourhood rooted in The Crichton Quarter. With flexibility at the core, this masterplan aims to address the housing needs of an intergenerational community, now and in the future. Providing future-focused homes that meets people’s needs, will support people living life in a place for the long term, enabling encounters across generations. A burgeoning community, comprised of a range of households, will boost local amenities and assets, enhancing localism by offering people more choice to stay, travel and live locally. The Ladyfield Masterplan is shaped by policy, driven by need and powered by people.
Collective is working with Wasps on The Briggait Clydeside Market Halls project, which is set to commence on-site in July 2023. For more information on this development and Collective’s designs for the dynamic new events spaces, click here.
South Block design agency fourtwentyseven won Gold for the Print Design Award. Their publication Fifteen celebrates the last 15 years of creative work at Fourtwentyseven. It is a publication designed to be a celebration of what has been achieved since they opened the doors but also an opportunity to be expressive and inquisitive through our process. The book has been shared with some of their clients and suppliers that they have worked with over the years. Delving deep into their archive system, they have dug out 15 of their most interesting projects, blew the cobwebs off them and got to work re-inventing each from scratch. Using these projects as their basis they have taken the elements from each one, de-constructed the constituent parts and then re-assembled them in a new form, while maintaining their core essence. As well as being a retrospective we wanted this piece of work to create a new perception of how we approach design and we have specifically created a more artistic representation of each project. Fifteen is designed to document how we are able to push boundaries and engage in conversations through creativity and design. This publication highlights aspects of our studio’s award-winning work that are well known and some of projects that might otherwise go unrecorded or unexplored, but it also allows us to document our creative process and gives space to record past and recent trains of thought.
SouthBlock-based design agency Form Digital won Gold for the Web Design Award for their work on Harley of Scotland’s new website. Pioneers of exceptional Scottish knitwear since 1929, Harley of Scotland have gained global recognition for excellence and progression in their advanced knit technology. Harnessing almost a century of textile knowledge and technical expertise spanning three generations of the Harley family – Harley of Scotland are market leaders in seam free whole garment knitwear. Their challenge was to design and build a website that would function as a contemporary celebration of a brand rooted in rich history and passionate, premium craftsmanship that the family-run business prides themselves on. Having established the branding, they worked to digitally translate this to a platform that would best showcase their exquisite, luxurious product range, drive brand awareness and collaborations, and cement their global position as leading producers of seamless knitwear. Their challenge was to design and build a website that would function as a contemporary celebration of a brand rooted in rich history and passionate, premium craftsmanship that the family-run business prides themselves on.
Braw Talent CIC – based at South Block, Glasgow – were awarded Silver for the Design for Good Award for their Delivering for Families? series of short films. It is a compelling series of animations that shed light on the harsh realities faced by vulnerable children and their parents in Scotland. Braw Talent was commissioned by Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Save the Children to transform a report in response to the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan into captivating visual narratives. Their collaborative efforts with the team aimed to convey the report’s key findings and stories in three crucial areas: childcare, benefits, and the cost of living crisis. Our goal was to resonate with individuals experiencing these hardships while evoking an emotional response and fostering a desire for change among policy makers and the general public. Stop motion animation as a medium enabled them to create scripts that encapsulated many stories and characters, respecting the anonymity of participating parents while granting them a sense of ownership. By using recycled materials and papers, they took a tactile approach that added a human and personal touch, heightening the vulnerability of the characters. They invited participating families to provide voiceovers for the film, further emphasising that these narratives belong to real people within our communities.
South Block-based Pim Pam design agency won SIiver for the Design Effectiveness Award. Bature Brewery are Nigeria’s first craft brewery, and pioneers of their craft in West Africa. With a deep connection to the vibrant art, music and culture scene in Lagos, Bature are bringing their own approach on the craft beer movement to a completely new audience — powered from their taproom, bar and brewery on Victoria Island. Pim-Pam have partnered with Bature Brewery to develop and deliver the next chapter of their story — to educate, collaborate and establish themselves as one of the best craft breweries in Africa. With a large percentage of their audience unfamiliar with craft beer, a key role was to not only introduce their products as part of a movement, but to reinforce and establish the core values that Bature Brewery want to communicate to their following. Passion, flavour, innovation, culture and collaboration using local ingredients — while partnering with West African artists and musicians to tell their story. A strategic and creative led project, we worked across design, digital, photography, film and printed collateral to start bringing this idea to life. From creating out-of-home product campaigns and developing their online presence through website, shop and social materials — to creating a library of photography and film collaborating with local creatives that tells their story and works as an education tool on what craft beer is to them, their methods of making it, and serves as a tool for introducing their products to a completely new market.
Click here for the full list of finalists for each award at the Scottish Design Awards 2023.
