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Town Hall Civic Space, Kirkcudbright

Part 1 Project 2003
Samuel Casswell
Costantino di Sambuy
Mackintosh School of Architecture | UK
A new Town Hall for Kircudbright, a small Scottish fishing village, raised a number of questions on how architecture can encapsulate the democratic aspirations of the new century, and engage the town in the day to day civic functions. The role and impact of this new public building in a historic coastal town were the main consideration.

I tried to develop the program to have a greater value and worth to the general public so people within the town had more of an ownership with the new development. With the design I looked to incorporate aspects that had shaped Kircudbright throughout its history, so that the building read as a biography as well as an intention. Each aspect of the building looks to relate and highlight the positive elements that characterise Kircudbight as well as stand as a worthy addition to this picturesque town.



Sam Casswell
Townhall and Civic Space
Kirkcudbright, Dumfries

The proposal mediates between the past and the present offering both a new public building for the small town of Kirkcudbright, and a way of interpreting the spirit and history of a special place.

Stretching between the town and the harbour the building offers a perforated wall allowing entry both to the interior and the civic and function spaces and to the redefined piazza beyond, the external ‘town hall’.

Each shift in form along its length, characterised by shifts in light, depth, colour and height, marks a sequence of interconnected formal and informal spaces, a linear form reminiscent of the vennels that characterise Kirkcudbright’s plan.

Tutor(s)

2003
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