Instagram Takeover 2021 – Wib MacDonald
This week the takeover is led by Wib MacDonald – one of our Part 1 Architectural Assistants who has been with us through his studies for a couple of years. Wib brings flair, fun and creativity to all he does and I am sure that his takeover week will be exactly the same! Definitely looking forward to seeing Wib’s #WorldoftheFuture! Stay connected with Wib over on LinkedIn!
- (Images 1-4 : Below) During this year I have been a student whilst working with GLM, and have like many young people been sat at home trying to navigate the digital world that we had previously used so little of. The experience lead to me thinking of the long term impacts of the situation we were in and mulling over questions of what the digital city may look like?
In the Digital city, we are all connected to everywhere all the time. Technology has changed how we inhabit buildings and the environement around us. Why have offices or homes, when people work in home offices? Does anyone need to live in a city at all? In a era of instant global connection even previously concrete ideas of time or daily routines have become complex, as a student during the pandemic it became normal for people’s zoom windows to range from lounging with an evening glass of wine to looking bleary eyed at dawn side by side. What does this new reality mean for our public spaces, and local communities? - (Image : Top, Right) Does architecture still have to be built? In a bold response to limited options, Balenciaga released their Fall 2021 collection in the form of a video game, with avatars wearing digital outfits. Given buildings are already often sold off before completion, and sometimes even before construction has begun, is there a world in which real estate can become simply trading digital files yet to become concrete?
- (Images : Below, Left & Centre) During the wild blur of hazy lockdown one days, I committed to building a small drystone wall. The stones were taken from a derelict stone fank, with suitable permission, and reconstructed as a decorative border. As a really long process, which I didn’t totally nail first time, it gave me time to think about where the stones had come from and the different fanks, drystone walls and blunt instruments they had been in the past.
Creating buildings to be reused gives the same opportunities for the materials that make up our buildings to take on narratives and social value, as well as reduce the purely physical impact of our environment. - (Image : Above, Right) We need to reuse before any other method of disposal. Recently with Chonk.Studio I have been collecting construction waste and looking at methods of reuseing and repurposing that material for a brand new life. These doors found near GLM’s offices were otherwise left for scrap, but now will be one of the initiators of a whole new thing. The circular economy in practice.
- (Images : Below, Left and Centre) Rem Koolhaas identified the value of rural environments in the future could be one that allows for spaces built for robots. Solar energy fields, battery factories, even amazon depots are this type of mega structure that allows for us to create ever denser cities. To be more environmentally sustainable and allow for the current global population we must move from sprawling mass suburbs to dense urbanity. Not only does this raise questions about the city, but also the country side. Will the post pandemic countryside be one of more true wilderness?
- (Image : Above, Right) With the explosion of digital currencies utilising block chain technologies this year, the move towards an internet of things has seemed more present than ever before. What impact could this have on our homes and properties? Maybe in future the virtual property could be traded independently of the physical. This could create a valuable distance between the turbulent property market and the need for stability in tenant rent prices.
- (Images : Below, Left & Centre) Sat at my desk in Glasgow I have been watching the development of the Govanhill baths being renovated. The swimming pool was a well loved public amenity and when Glasgow City Council moved to close the baths permanently in the early 2000s a committed group of community members from all walks of life gathered to hold a 140 day 24 hour picket line. Even in the face of riot police the group held their ground and finally after a 20 year struggle work has begun to restore the baths and reopen for swimmers!!
Not only is it a beautiful building but also a truly inspiring moment of community activism.
Head over to our Instagram – @weareglm – and follow along as Helen Beresford (Image : Above, Right) takes over Week 14!