Egyptian Meeting Rooms

Reimagining the late Alexander Thompson’s Egyptian Halls in Glasgow.

Egyptian Halls, Glasgow

Photographs © Charles Palmer

The Alexander Thomson Society of Glasgow invited designers to develop ideas for the adaptive re-use of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s Egyptian Halls. The competition was launched to raise the profile of the A-listed building and to generate concepts for alternative uses. The design brief stipulated only that the historic Union Street facade must be retained and restoration assumed.

Here we were inspired by two works of Zaha Hadid; Antwerp Port House (2016) and the (scrapped) proposal for the Cardiff Bay Opera House (1994), interposing a latticework of structural floors, walls and ceilings between the existing building and newly constructed monolithic stacks and pillars.

Art and Design by Dwg. Design by Charles Palmer. Art by Charles Palmer.

The proposal seeks to establish a collection of meeting rooms within a semi-enclosed public space. The programme contains a variety of room types, including 1) open computer labs, where computer chatter is absorbed by the general ambience of public space 2) controlled-lighting spaces, suitable for lectures and film screenings and 3) semi-open meeting rooms where access to daylight and air circulation are valuable assets. In addition, an open-air atrium, courtyard and rooftop garden provide powerful respite from the world of work and study.

Further developments to this design concept will include a framework to showcase construction details, including structural plate glass, curtain wall and bespoke masonry configurations.