Description

Peter Foggo, 1965, Ove Arup and Partners. Single storey, 10-bay, square-plan Modernist office block with central courtyard. Trabeated construction; concrete walls punctuated with large, square, recessed tinted sheet glazing; flat roof with fascia board on exposed overhanging I-beams; horizontal clerestory glazing under deep overhanging eaves. Projecting splayed base course set on brick plinth with coordinating steps and access pathways. Central glazed double doors to N elevation. Temporary portable building with corridor linking to E elevation. Lying in extensive grounds; linked to 19th century walled garden to earlier Scotstoun House (now demolished) to N.

INTERIOR: formal axial-plan layout with continuous corridor dividing office space to outer walls; services to central courtyard. Vertical timber boarding to walls; modular built-in shelving to outer concrete walls.

COACHHOUSE: earlier 19thC single storey coach house, formerly two ranges, that to the S substantially demolished with west wall remaining. Ranges linked by central archway leading to courtyard.

W ELEVATION. 5-bay smooth dressed ashlar courtyard wall with string coarse; centre taller advanced bay with keystone archway. Barred grilles to window openings to right bays to S range. Window to far left; doorway with penlight to penultimate left bay under piended roof of N range.

N RANGE: earlier doorway to right of S elevation; later 20th century twin window openings flanking blocked arrow slit to E gable; 3 later 20th century single doors to far left of N elevation, square stack to right at wallhead.

Dressed ashlar with base coarse to W elevation: rubble walls with dressed quoins; projecting cills. Rendered margins to additional openings: later 20th century glazing and timber doors.

WALLED GARDEN: earlier 19th century. N, E & W rubble walls remaining; S wall replaced by N wall of Scotstoun House, completing the square.

Statement of Interest

Scotstoun House is a major example of the work of 1960s architect Peter Foggo, a founding member of Ove Arup for whom the office was built. This office was their Scottish headquarters. Ove Arup have particularly strong links to the area, having worked on both the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

The trabeated style and design of the building coupled with its bold expression of structure and materials make strong reference to the fact that it was designed for a prominent national engineering firm.

The plan form and single storey horizontal design is sensitive to the open landscaped grounds in which it sits; the subtle grading of the ground immediately around the building ensures that it blends well into the site. The positioning and scale defers to the early 19th century garden walls of the earlier Scotstoun House that remain whilst the surviving parts of the 19thcentury coach house are now (June 2005) used as additional official space and boiler room, linked underground to the main offices heating system.

Scotstoun House is strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohes post war office buildings in its horizontal composition, visual order and logical construction: clarity and ordered structure being signatures of Foggo's work. The innovative application of the precast concrete elements is significant as Foggo and ARUP are known to have been developing this technique at the time.

Peter Foggo carried out a selection of smaller domestic contracts in the south of England in the early 1960s. Two of these, Sorrel House in Chichester(1960) and Long Wall in Newman's Green (1963), are listed at Grade II : Scotstoun House is a fine and rare example of his work in Scotland, an early example of his move towards commercial architecture in which he later excelled.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17803123

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)