St Peter's, Cardross: Birth, Death and Renewal
The recently awarded A list status of Leith’s iconic Banana Flats shows just how much interest there currently is in the brutalist architecture of the 60’s and 70’s. The opposing cry against such celebration and preservation often centres around whether these structures are still fit for purpose in the modern world. Well, what if that purpose is malleable over time, as is the case with St Peter’s seminary in Cardross – a structure which abandoned the priesthood to embody a modern Punk ethos? What if its famous brutalism is in fact its own take on a evolving functionalism? The building has gone through birth as a seminary, death, then resurrection; currently existing as a modern arts installation. With this lifecycle in mind, Diane M Watters and Angus Farquhar have documented this building's existence through both word and image in their vast and visually stunning work.
In many ways, it is a book for all seasons; first, Watters's written social history of Glasgow's Catholic communities, which develops into an authoritative yet mostly accessible treatment of modern Scottish architecture, both enlightening and reminding the reader of many structures within our towns and cities which seem more suited to the Eastern Bloc. It then becomes a tale of death and decline; the decommission and decomposition of a building, then its resurrection, first as a temporary drug rehabilitation centre, then rehabilitated itself through the heritage protection of Historic Scotland. Of course, not all were happy at this. The shortsighted Rev David Brown was amazed that a building which had barely fulfilled its original function could be so cherished. "What the people need from Historic Scotland is not an award but a Bulldozer."
The multiple subject strands of this book make it an ideal work for those its specific interests, yet also a tool to convert those who are not. You may feel you have little interest in this social history, no particular care for architecture or design. Upon reading, you surely will, for the brilliance of this work is in treating the building almost as a sentient being. In the same style James Crawford undertook for his Saltire-shortlisted tome, Fallen Glory:The Lives and Deaths of History's Greatest Buildings, here bricks and mortar become blood and bone. A structure which, through natural decay and human interaction, has transformed itself from a sturdy, upright college meant for the training of priests into its contemporary state of decay and the modern arts venue it can hopefully continue to be, with walls beautifully tattooed with graffiti.
This modern incarnation and these individual pieces of street art have been captured by Angus Farquhar in his contribution, a 54-page photo essay taken around the time of Hinterland, the 2016 public art production which launched the festival of Architecture in 2016, something journalist Joyce MacMillan identified as "our 21st century response" to the dilapidated seminary. The moulded grey concrete arches contrast with luminous spray paint pinks and oranges to make St Peter's a space so dystopian and surreal, it could double for a Tarkovsky set.
These walls exist not only as a living work of visual art, but also a tangible piece of history. The work of author Watters, and her contributor Farquahar, capture this duality, both respecting the death of the seminary while celebrating its optimistic new life as a permanent art istallation.