THE architects behind the £3.2 million ‘Box’ at the Hill House in Helensburgh have been brought in to work on the latest attempt to revive the former St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross.
Carmody Groarke has been appointed to work with the Kilmahew Education Trust and landscape architect Dan Pearson Studio on its plan to breathe new life into the derelict building in Cardross, according to trade news site The Architects' Journal.
The Trust took on the property, which is said to be one of the best examples of ‘Brutalist’ design in Britain, from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow in July.
Completed in 1966, St Peter’s closed as a seminary in 1980 and has lain increasingly derelict ever since as attempted restoration projects have failed to reach a successful conclusion.
Most recently, arts charity NVA decided in 2017 not to proceed with its plans for the building.
The Scottish Government declined a request from the Archdiocese last year to take the site into the care of the state, leaving 'curated decay' as the only likely option – until the Trust came forward.
READ MORE: Scottish Government rejects plea to save former Cardross seminary
Carmody Groarke was responsible for the design of the ‘Box’ around Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House, which opened in June 2019.
The structure, consisting of an aluminium frame and roof with a chain-mail mesh around the sides, is aimed at protecting the building from the rain and salty seaside air which have eaten away at the Hill House's exterior walls for virtually the whole of its life, while the property’s owners, the National Trust for Scotland, work on a solution to keep the building wind- and water-tight in the long term.
The ‘Box’ – described as the world’s largest chain-mail structure – was nominated earlier this year in the 2020 Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) Awards, which have since been deferred until 2021.
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