‘Prescribed, despised and demolished’ is probably the best way of characterising the life cycle of design in Glasgow. Whether it be tower blocks, new towns, or an inner city motorway, Glaswegians have been stuck with failing design left over from the city’s flirtation with radical postwar modernism.

The focus for this project was the M8 motorway, which cuts directly through Glasgow’s city centre. Over the course of the project a plan was formulated for the M8’s closure and ‘bridging the chasm’ that the motorway’s construction created.

The project is 'The Charing Cross Theatre'. The building sits in an area of the city where for years the M8 has not only physically divided areas (it sits within a cutting, with limited pedestrian access across it), but has also created a social separation. Residents to the west of the M8 are healthier and businesses more prosperous. The building provides both a physical pedestrian link across the chasm between the city’s two cultural districts. It also intends to spark better social cohesion between the two districts on either side of the motorway.