The first two phases of the 350-unit residential development at the site of the old Hawkhead Hospital in Paisley, near Glasgow, have just reached completion.

Designed by Holmes, the completed three-storey block with 18 flats and the two-storey terrace with seven houses both demonstrate the ambitious design concept of creating new-build properties to compliment the original Thomas Tait's 1934 hospital buildings. Many of the original buildings still exist on the site and are to be refurbished in the near future.

The Tait buildings represent one of the early examples of the modernist movement in Scotland.

The old concept of Victorian hospital design was replaced by the clean lines and white walls of the new architectural style.

The new-build blocks by Holmes pay homage to their ancestors with clipped roof edges, white render and glazed brickwork as a contemporary reference to the faience used by Tait.


The three-storey flatted block faces out of the site across open land to the busy Hawkhead Road and detached houses beyond.

This elevation adopts a similar buff brick to Tait’s Ross House building on the site and is split vertically into 4 sections to reflect the lower scale of the existing houses on Hawkhead Road.

These splits occur at the vertical glazed main entrances which are also celebrated with short side walls and glazed canopies. The vertical glazing covers a double-height entrance lobby with open stair and glazed handrails beyond. Slender glazed brick panels are incorporated at windows in a rainbow pattern across the façade.

On the elevation facing into the site and forming a three sided courtyard with the Tait buildings, the treatment reflects the white render and horizontal proportions of the main hospital buildings. The glazed brickwork on this elevation is confined to the sides of the main stair vertical glazing.

At gable ends, in a reference to the original ward block bay windows, the internal spaces are allowed to push out through the masonry into light weight aluminium clad bays with generous windows and glazed balustrades.

All the flats have balconies with glazed balustrades and full height windows to open plan kitchen, living, dining spaces.

The terraced houses form an "L" shape to create a courtyard in front of the original staff cottages. The leading gable of the terrace leads on from the Tait Gate Lodge and the corner balcony and canopy references back to the open logia of the lodge.

(GK/JM)