Matt ☀️

A thread of some awful houses out there on Rightmove starting with this west end tenement flat that for some reason has a suspended tile ceiling fit for an office... (HRV £135k)

Glasgow City Council has told the Scottish Government its policies favour demolition of a section of the M8 motorway through the city centre. Full story: glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/26103805.…

@GarethDennis @samofsamshire We'll be doing a tour of it soon, a lot of focus on car-free streets and provision for active travel. I'll reach out when we have a date set

@_mattmccallum @samofsamshire yeah I'm looking forward to it finishing!

It’s taken us 100 years but we’ve finally relearned now to mass produce beautiful homes. Well done Welborne 🌳

@GarethDennis @samofsamshire And this just round the corner from Derwenthorpe!

@samofsamshire yes this is gorgeous, as is:

@RuairiKelly_ @joe_yer99 No, me neither but that does surprise me. I haven't seen the plans but presumably there's a strategy for the south-west facade's access. Seems the developer is leaving developable area on the table by not closing the gap above ground level at least

@_mattmccallum @joe_yer99 I was unconvinced about the reasoning but I'm not a fire safety engine🤷‍♂️

What the actual fuck is that bollox at the end of this proposed new student build. Something that looks really shit, would look better than that.

@RuairiKelly_ @joe_yer99 Fair, I wondered if that may have been the case

@_mattmccallum @joe_yer99 It's about leader access to more than one side of the building I believe

@RuairiKelly_ @joe_yer99 Surprised that an underground hose feed wasn't accepted as an alternative like you find on backland sites etc

@joe_yer99 The developers, and I, would have preferred it was continuous street frontage but fire service say because of the hight they require to be able to get an appliance down the side.

@mynnoj @breadandposes @lowerformofwit Wait till you see what we're building in York

@breadandposes @lowerformofwit This is better in every aspect than building a fake 160 year old house, because it's required the architect to have ideas

"Beautiful" eg dull anacronistic nostalgia only available to middle class buyers and devoid of any or all architectural innovation. They don't even have the character of the houses they are aping

@gemlpaterson @SCP_Hughes None that I can offer I'm afraid but recommend finding a way to shadow some Quantity Surveyors/Project Managers at the likes of T&T, G&T, Mott Mac etc

@_mattmccallum @SCP_Hughes Would love to - any in Glasgow that would be open to the public?

Why do new buildings seem, on average, uglier than old buildings? We discuss some options: - Survivorship bias: only the beautiful old buildings have survived (we reject this option); - Cycles of taste: everyone always finds new buildings uglier (we mostly reject this too); - Ornament became too expensive because of rising labour costs (we reject this); - Ornament became too cheap because of mechanisation and then became low status (we reject this); - Some sort of Protestant or Puritan anti-beauty inheritance (we are doubtful); - Some kind of elite status game, perhaps a response to democratisation or elite overproduction (we think there is promise here, but serious work is needed on the details). I discuss this and more with @Aria_Babu and @bswud. Apple podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/did… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2pIka6… Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=qvueKt…

@gemlpaterson @SCP_Hughes On value vs. viability. Private development must be profitable and have an IRR higher than sticking it in a fund/stocks. Also less money being invested locally vs. International markets. Glasgow's merchants pumped their money into the city, today's capital is less tied to place

@_mattmccallum @SCP_Hughes Yeah I can agree on that - value isn't accounted for well. Tbf the labour time on lime mortar is significant - I can see why contractors without investment in an area wouldn't care :/

@gemlpaterson @SCP_Hughes And just to show a bit of precedent, we're always championing for good design (and succeeding) in our work. Come to a meeting where an ovet budget cost plan is disected... x.com/createstreets/…

@gemlpaterson @SCP_Hughes There's often lot of critique on technology and training but never enough on finance, markets and viability. Often it's a fight between architects and Quantity Surveyors/Contractors just to use lime mortar (vs. Cement mortar). Not enough finger pointing at Value Engineering

@OssianLore Good move and well needed, now to develop above the Subway station

This doesn't look too shabby at all 🧐 Who wants to make a prediction about the upcoming objections... 😏

Do you want Transport Scotland to test a scenario where a motorway no longer slices through Glasgow city centre? Ask them to test APPROACH 3 and add a working boulevard/repaired street grid/other creative replacement movement network. Today is the last day of the consultation.

@GlasgowCC Exciting news!

Regeneration funding will help Meat Market project take next steps, further transforming this key site in the East End. Find out more 👉 ow.ly/CRUK50YtlPo

@ReplacetheM8 Do you have an estimate of how many hectares of developable land would be unlocked just by removing the viaducts? It's a very quick calculation to understand the potential number of homes based on urban densities and then extrapolate Gross Development Values. Pays for itself

We simply want Transport Scotland to thoroughly test the remove viaduct option PLUS model a C21st best practice corridor . It's the cheapest, it could open up development land, reconnect communities. Let's see if it works like it does elsewhere.

Housing Professionals: We're hosting site tours at our projects in York on the 1st & 2nd October. Net-zero carbon housing developed by the council. Striking balance between delivering high quality at-scale and affordability, send me a message if interested in joining.

@MurphyNiallGLA @Glasgowdodf @GlasgowHeritage @savestvincentst @AThomsonSociety What a shame!

Just wanting to get the message out there but, sadly, Alexander Greek Thomson’s St Vincent Street Church, one of the most important Classical Churches in Europe, and a major building at risk in #Glasgow and #Scotland will no longer be open for the @Glasgowdodf tomorrow (Sunday 21 September 2025). It’s a last minute decision which is a great shame as Thomson’s interior is superb and well worth a visit as is a trip up the clock tower which is straight out of Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ 👀👇😢!

A large central family home or a series of dual aspect 1 bed flats, both above a commercial unit that could add vitality to the street and bring in a stream of rental income - I think Glasgow City Council need to review their existing assets and make them sweat a bit more.

I often walk by Green hairdressers and think that it would be the perfect infill development site for a developer starting out if City Property (Glasgow) LLP would sell it.

Two gap sites in Glasgow. One is selling for over half a million pounds, the other has been empty for a decade. Guess which one is owned by Glasgow City Council? There is so much potential in the city for housing on council owned sites - and so many sites sitting empty.