The Sustainable Glasgow Landing

The Sustainable Glasgow Landing

Bringing life to a vacant riverside site during COP26 hosting local and global organisations responding to the climate crisis

New Practice is committed to circular design and ecological care - as central principles of our design approach. We are signatories of ‘Architects Declare’, a network of architectural practices committed to addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency and regularly support education and industry conversations about the climate crisis.

In 2021, New Practice delivered The Sustainable Glasgow Landing and The Landing Hub - a large scale outdoor exhibition arena showcasing green technologies from vertical farming to Passivhaus technologies, sustainable power generation and active travel solutions as part of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

In collaboration with Inhouse, a Glasgow based events management company, and in less than 8 weeks prior to the conference, the project brought to life a significant and prominent vacant site on the riverside of The Clyde and created a flexible and accessible space for hosting local and global organisations responding to the climate crisis.

The Landing Hub was a vibrant, welcoming space where the climate and social justice movements meet the arts. Audiences of all ages were invited to connect, share and dance for 17 days and nights as our team hosted local and international collaborators for an exciting programme of screenings, workshops, performances, talks and parties; with everything from The COP26 Coalition’s People’s Summit to Climate Grief Karaoke with Katy Dye and Penny Chivas.

Formerly home to a Petrol Station in the late 20th Century, the vacant site for the exhibition arena underwent an ambitious transformation led by our mutli-disciplinary creative team. This project was temporary in nature and hence there was an increased imperative to consider the afterlife of materials used to create The Sustainable Glasgow Landing and The Landing Hub. The project worked hard to avoid the ‘build and burn’ approach, whereby materials end up in the skip and landfill after a project is decommissioned.

Hardcore and bark were used to make level pathways, other than this the only virgin materials were plywood boards affixed to the scaffolding structures to form a securitised, but colourful, edge treatment. These elements of the works were planned for recycling and reuse through the city post-COP26, including, as components for a suite of structures to be installed across nearby neighbourhoods of Garnethill & Woodside as part of separate commission to our team from Glasgow City Council.