Pubfab – Makerspace
Pubfab is a public access fabrication facility in Glasgow City Centre. The project aims to create a hub to facilitate the act of making, democratising the equipment of industry to the common maker.
Located in the Cowcaddens area of Glasgow, the facility occupies the former Glasgow Savings Bank: a wedge-shaped Edwardian Baroque building with long splayed facades and two curved corners. The site’s unique shape is echoed by the triangular paved island it sits on, emphasising its monolithic appearance.
The proximity of the site to GSA’s campus offers the possibility for a relationship with the institution, with potential for it to serve as an extracurricular facility for students to use alongside the public.
The spatial arrangement of the site is structured around a conceptual process established early in my research; the ‘3 Steps of Making’. This is a common process applicable to all disciplines within ‘making’ – the three phases a maker inhabits on any given project: Ideation, Making, and Made. All projects start with an idea, and the facility aims to provide a space for makers to see these ideas become real, tangible things. This linear narrative was applied to the site’s verticality, the journey starts at the top of the space with Ideation, and finishes at ground level with the Made. This takes users through the journey in reverse when circulating the space, promoting chance encounters between users of different disciplines, as well as providing an inspiring route past adjacent workspaces.
The proposal is comprised of two angles: the bespoke and the universal. The bespoke refers to the interventions that are a specific response to the host space, such as the creation of the void and curved partitions, which react directly to the building’s existing forms. The universal alludes to interior elements that are adaptable to almost any given space. In keeping with the typology, the use of standard materials and basic construction methods ensures accessibility in the realisation of the design proposal, or indeed the replication of the design in another space.
Please view the ‘Project Folio‘ linked below to see the project in its entirety. Also linked is my ‘Design Journal’, documenting my research and development process in this final year of study.
