Taking New Lanark as an early example of live/work urbanism, over the past 3 years the 2nd year studio at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art, asked the students to reflect on Robert Owen’s legacy within contemporary social and economic conditions. Studio-based practice is at the core of the Glasgow School of Art’s approach to teaching and learning, and the Mackintosh School of Architecture challenged students to apply their creative thinking to re-imagine the site to attract and host new residents and activities.
Robert Owen aimed to create a model society in response to the needs of the industrial revolution. Its social project envisioned a more egalitarian community in which living conditions for the workers’ families were substantial improved relative to contemporary standards. The physical environment of New Lanark was designed to contribute to enliven the quality of life of its inhabitants and to improve the efficiency of the industrial production by bringing homes close to the working place and the main source of energy.
The paper describes students’ work and how like Lewis Mumford’s utopias of reconstruction they reinterpreted these values in the light of contemporary concerns for climate emergency. Their innovative responses ranged widely in terms of activities proposed and architectural resolution both in relation to the built and natural context and resident lifestyles. The attraction of natural and man made landscape, and the need for more collective forms of living, working and caring for the most vulnerable which has been also heightened by the ongoing pandemic were all considered as influential factors to increase the social, cultural and economic diversity of the heritage site, widening the range of activities beyond the immaterial production of services.
Examples of students’ design building upon the distinctive qualities of the site illuminate the speculation about new forms of living and working and project a stimulating and provocative vision for the future of New Lanark.