Voted the World’s Best New Town in 1967, Cumbernauld has provoked extra dialogue over its planning and structure than every other city in Scotland, and arguably Great Britain. From 1959 onwards the unique village discovered itself surrounded by twin carriageways as new housing developments sprung up to resolve the post-war housing disaster in Glasgow. Urban planners plotted a brand new way of life while architects ditched normal housing designs to create a brand new blueprint for accommodating the city’s first residents. However, Cumbernauld’s masterpiece, and eventual folly, was the Centre, an unlimited Brutalist constructing designed by Geoffrey Copcutt that housed all of the amenities of a regular city centre: outlets; places of work; council buildings; flats; and a resort. Showered with architectural awards in its early years and studied by architects to at the present time, the constructing has not matured properly with age. Voted Britain’s Most Hated Building in 2005 it has now been listed for demolition.
This movie takes a have a look at the varied parts that make Cumbernauld such a captivating and polarising city: the inexperienced areas; the brutalist structure; the Roman stays; and Andy Scott’s unbelievable sculpture Arria. I additionally pay a go to to the cultural hub that’s the Cumbernauld Alternative Network to witness the initiatives that Leigh and Alan are selling to the youth of the city.
Jonathan Wheeler
Travel Obscurer
Filmed February 2023
Music licensed via Artlist
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