West On The Green

fr twitter @cultueraltutor ：In the Scottish city of Glasgow there is an unusual building which looks like it might be a gallery, museum, or theatre. It's actually a carpet factory inspired by the Doge's Palace in Venice. Why does a 19th century factory look better than most modern award-winning buildings? The story begins with James Templeton, a Scottish businessman who made his fortune manufacturing carpets. In the 1880s he decided to build a new factory on the edge of Glasgow Green, the oldest park in the city. But Templeton wasn't a normal industrialist and he didn't want a factory that simply did its job; he wanted to create a building which enhanced the whole city of Glasgow. Still, his initial proposals were rejected by the Glasgow Corporation (the city council), and so he turned to the architect William Leiper. And Templeton asked Leiper a simple question: "what is the most beautiful building in the world?" To which Leiper replied, "the Doge's Palace in Venice." "Then that is what I want for my factory," said Templeton. The reason Leiper believed the Ducal Palace to be the most beautiful building in the world was very simple: an artist, historian, and cultural critic called John Ruskin. Ruskin played a big role in the Gothic Revival both in Britain and around Europe, and he singlehandedly drew the attention of British architects to a particular style of Gothic architecture — that of Medieval Venice — with his trilogy of books about the city. And so Leiper designed for Templeton a factory (a factory!) modelled on the Ducal Palace, complete with tiered arcades, foliation and tracery, parapets and pinnacles, capitals and balconies. And, most strikingly of all, Leiper made sure to incorporate a colourful array of sculptural reliefs, glazed bricks, terracotta, and glass mosaics. The factory was closed down in the 1980s and remodelled as a business centre. Recently it has been transformed into "Templeton on the Green", a mixed-use site with apartments, offices, and a brewery and bar on the ground floor. Templeton and Leiper's vision of a beautiful building has outlasted its original industrial purpose and become a beloved icon of Glasgow which is still very much alive. Had the factory not looked like it does then there's every chance it would simply have been demolished — architecture survives when people want it to. The story of Templeton on the Green is important because of its simplicity. Forget the Gothic Revival, Venetian architecture, and John Ruskin. This was all about the desire of Templeton, Leiper, and the Glaswegian authorities to create a building which was both functional *and* beautiful. The humility of Leiper is also important. Rather than trying to come up with something "original" he borrowed from a popular style of architecture and happily imitated a building beloved by millions. It's easy to get bogged down in discussions about the subjective nature of beauty, about architectural styles, about politics, about economic constraints — and suddenly to forget the most important thing of all: a simple, genuine desire to build something beautiful, and the humility to recognise where it already exists. Even a factory, something we usually associate with pure utility, doesn't need to be ugly; economics and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive. This isn't to say that every single building should look like a Medieval palace, of course, and nor that all modern architecture is bad. Rather, Templeton on the Green simply reminds us that buildings can be both functional and beautiful if only we have the belief, humility, and imagination to create them — along with the willingness to spend a little more money in doing so. The results, like this old carpet factory, speak for themselves...

This beautiful building was designed by William Leiper for James Templeton after his previous designs had been rejected by Glasgow Corporation. Determined that his next plans could not be rejected, he employed Mr Leiper to design a building that was so grand that it would have to be accepted. William Leiper submitted plans which were based on The Doge's Palace, Venice.