The studio’s Candleriggs project is set to deliver a series of new public spaces and street connections to radically improve the Merchant City ‘experience’. With a new porosity, the project will fuse together disparate parts of the City that have been blighted for over 50 years.
The Candleriggs Square represents a new phase of the location's regeneration momentum after a spell of stasis brought about by the wider-reaching global market and economic downturn. Glasgow’s prospects are exciting and the Merchant City location is appealing to a new wave of build-to-rent residential, contemporary work & maker space, and a wide array of arts venues.
Glasgow’s Merchant City, once occupied by the houses of eighteenth-century tobacco merchants and the supporting buildings of commerce in the 1800s transitioned to become a burgeoning warehousing area in the nineteenth century.
By the mid-twentieth century, the Merchant City was in decline, yet its locational advantages due east and south of the City Chambers meant that wholesale clearance, like other areas of the City, was never entertained.
Since the early ’80s, this historic quarter of Glasgow has slowly regenerated to become a vibrant mixed-use residential neighbourhood, with a definite cultural and arts vibe.
Merchant City is uniquely planned within a historic ‘offset’ urban grid where street vistas are closed by churches and important buildings, to create an intimate and visually interesting street scene. Our design intelligently stitches into this dynamic townscape to contribute to the location's architectural character.
