Glasgow Mackintosh School of Architecture MSA Stage 5

Rebecca Robertson

Rebecca Robertson completed her Diploma in Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in 2021, and previously gained her undergraduate MA(Hons) degree at the University of Edinburgh. Her architectural pre-occupations predominantly surround the relationships between architectural form and the natural landscape, strongly influenced by her upbringing on the rural West Coast of Scotland.

Contact
rebeccarobertson95@icloud.com
@rebeccalouiserobertson
Projects
Post-industrial Re-mediation of Scotland’s Coastal Condition

Post-industrial Re-mediation of Scotland’s Coastal Condition

The thesis considers the architectural relationship between the built and natural environment, and looks at the forgotten industrial remains left upon the landscapes of the Western coastline of Scotland, that helped create the industrial powerhouse of Glasgow, without reaping the same levels of post-industrial regeneration. Considering Patrick Geddes’ concept of the “region city”, the thesis examines the possibility of elevating and connecting smaller places related on a regional level to cities, which mutually binds the city and region on a level out-with conventional boundaries – enriching both rural and urban conditions. It further references local poetry of place through the poetry of Raasay’s acclaimed Gaelic poet Sorley Maclean, acknowledging the intrinsic links between culture, nature, and existing architectural remains.

Observing the Isle of Raasay’s unbalanced relationship between Glasgow’s post-industrial artefact left on the island and the island’s natural ecosystems, whose fragility is exposed by the threat of climate change, the thesis questions the future re-purposing of this industrial mining scar as a Rewilding centre coupled with regional underwater energy generation as a method of re-establishing equilibrium – between rural and urban, land and sea, industry and nature, and today’s consumption and climate change.

West coast of Scotland and its energy connectivity
Isle of Raasay map
Town connectivity to architectural ruin
Proposed Rewilding and Energy generation centre plans
Rewilding and Energy centre Section - demonstrating natural remediation, industrial remediation and proposed architectural remediation
Proposed Thesis intervention upon existing architectural mining scar
Land and Sea elements of architectural programme, language and structure
Technical implementation of environmental and sustainable material palette: local concrete aggregate mixed with shellfish lime, and Raasay Larch cladding
Exterior visual - energy centre visitor walkway
Internal Visual - Community assembly hall within existing concrete structure
Exterior Visual - Rewilding centre embedded into landscape, with concrete structure behind
Interior Visual - Underground research and archive facility with inverted lightwells
Interior Visual - Rewilding and community centre atrium
Exterior Visual - view of thesis embedded into existing ruin's linearity and landscape
Technical implementation of environmental and sustainable material palette: local concrete aggregate mixed with shellfish lime, and Raasay Larch cladding
Technical implementation of environmental and sustainable material palette: local concrete aggregate mixed with shellfish lime, Raasay Larch cladding, and existing concrete mine structure
Historic Raasay iron mine and pier photograph
Historic Raasay iron mine photograph
Existing ruins of Raasay iron mine
Existing ruins of Raasay iron mine
Landscape of the Isle of Raasay