Still Here. Stories that shape Glasgow – MA Architecture Studies students, Glasgow School of Art

A public exhibition from Project in the City 2026: Values at Risk, exploring the past, present and future of Glasgow’s historic buildings, with a focus on sites currently listed on the Buildings at Risk Register.

Some buildings fade slowly. Not from memory, but from use. Across Glasgow, structures that once shaped daily life now stand quiet. Their walls still hold echoes of movement and gathering, their façades remain stitched into the city’s streetscape. They have stood for generations, long enough to become more than architecture. They are part of how the city remembers itself. Though marked as “at risk”, they are not empty of meaning. They carry stories, attachment and identity.

Developed through Project in the City by Master’s students at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art, the exhibition brings together research, archival study and analysis of the buildings’ material stock with proposals for adaptive reuse. Each panel explores the story of a building—its history, its role in the city, and its value as part of Glasgow’s existing fabric—while also recognising these sites as a significant store of embodied carbon. Repair and reuse are therefore not only cultural choices, but environmental ones.

Through mapping, analysis and design proposals, the work examines how these buildings might be repaired, reactivated and reconnected to the life of the city.

They are not ruins.
They are stories that shape Glasgow.

With support from Glasgow City Council and Hopkins Architects, and with contributions from SAVE Britain’s Heritage and Glasgow Building Preservation Trust.

Students with work featured: Stuti Dhannawat, Yuyang Du, Zonghan Hou, Ziyue Hui, Mingyue Li, Mufan Li, Shuhan Lin, Yujue Ma, Alex Maestas, Yawen Mu, Yu Rao, Yutong Song, Gabrielle Urquhart, Zizhuo Wang, Ke Wang, Yu Zhai, Xinyue Zhang, Xiaojie Zhou, Zelin Zhu, Junyi Zhu, and Shulong Zhuang. Curatorial Team: lsha Girish Pasad, Kayonga Luc Norbert Akira, Ziyue Wang, and Julia Underwood. Technical Support: Joe Cherry, Jack Bishop, Sam Currie, Craig Laurie, Andrew McIntyre, Andrew Burke Anastasia Kropova, Gerry Reid and Ben Williams. Project Lead: Dr Luca Brunelli