Architecture Fringe gives insight into the future of public spaces with exhibition of radical designs

3 Jul 2017

Reading time: 3 minutes

New Typologies for The School, Town Hall, Community Centre, Public Toilets and Town Square are an invigorating vision of the future of Britain’s buildings

In a special exhibition as part of the Architecture Fringe 2017, a collection of architects were commissioned to reimagine our shared civic infrastructure and how it will exist in the future, if at all. The results are bright, bold and playful. New Typologies is one of over 50 events at the 2017 Architecture Fringe programmed to help broaden our understanding of architecture, how to engage with it and improve our lives in Scotland and beyond.

New Typologies asks: ‘How will our town halls, public parks, sports facilities, schools, community centres and libraries function and what will they look like?’

The exhibition running from 1 – 23 July at Civic House, Glasgow will present the following works by the New Typologies research teams:

The Community Centre by Dress For The Weather

The Arena by Fala Atelier /

The Public Convenience by Akiko Kobayashi and Jack Green

The Town Hall by Adam Nathaniel Furman

The Health Centre by McGinlay Bell

The School by Stallan Brand

The Town Square by Mark Donaldson

To support the exhibition a series of quick-fire talks on our shared civic future will be hosted by the New Typologies research teams on Wednesday 12 July at Civic House.

All of the participants will present their work and the ethos and agenda that has inspired each of the design proposals. Their presentations will be followed by a public debate facilitated by Tom Wilkinson; History Editor at The Architectural Review.

Speaking at the opening of the 2017 Architecture Fringe co-director Andy Summers said: “Within Scottish towns and cities our civic typologies are increasingly redundant as both function and architecture; The market has been superseded by the mall/supermarket, the public bath becomes the leisure centre, the town hall becomes the regional council office and the activity and architecture of democracy and public life becomes ever more distant from those it is meant to serve.

“This project provides a platform for established and emerging practitioners from Scotland to make the case for a new civic language and an evolution of civic function.

“This group is complemented by the input of Adam Nathaniel Furman and Fala Atelier placing the project within the context of a wider national and pan-european perspective on architectural language and the role of civic infrastructure.”

The theme for the festival which has both a core programme and events sourced from an open call is The Infrastructure of Architecture: public life, perception and practice. As a result the 2017 Architecture Fringe explores how architecture permeates everything and affects us all, how we view and experience architecture and finally the industry and discipline itself.