North Gate, New Gorbals Housing Association’s milestone Crown Street development, has won the Architecture: Affordable Housing Gold award at this year’s Scottish Design Awards.
Providing a powerful and elegant gateway to the Gorbals, North Gate is located at the gushet junction of Laurieston Road and Crown Street. The building itself marks the completion of the Crown Street Regeneration Project which began in 1990.
North Gate was one of only two Housing Association projects recognised at the awards and the only social housing project to achieve a Gold Award.
Head of Development Simon Metcalfe said of the win:
“We are delighted that North Gate has achieved this Gold Award, as a development that combines stunning design with high-quality housing for the people of Gorbals.
“North Gate shows that building high quality social housing for our tenants is consistent with achieving great design merit.”
The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 29th June at the Double Tree Hotel by Hilton on Cambridge Street. The Scottish Design Awards recognise the very best of Scottish Design with a judging panel made up of leaders in UK Design.
North Gate was designed by Page\Park architects and was built by CCG (Scotland) Ltd. The project was funded by Glasgow City Council in partnership with the Scottish Government, with New Gorbals Housing Association contributing £2.4M private funding obtained from The Housing Finance Corporation.
Standing at seven storeys tall, North Gate has 31 dwellings that are a mixture of one and two bedroom flats, with a large common facility on the ground floor for the use of tenants and the wider community. The building’s dramatic north-facing elevation makes a grand entrance to a regenerated Gorbals, and it provides a robust street frontage to Crown Street, reinforcing its urban character.
North Gate homes are also highly energy efficient. They are extremely well insulated, and make use of both solar voltaic panels, to generate electricity, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery to ensure heat is not wasted. Additional internal sustainability features include enhanced water use efficiency such as low flush toilets and restricted flow rates taps and showers.