Atrium to enclose two rows of tenements

Atrium at St Margaret’s Academy

Princes Square, Glasgow

Many new buildings, including schools and colleges, have a glazed atrium or glazed street which acts as a central meeting area or a way of organising circulation. Alexander Thomson introduced glazed streets because he thought they would improve health.

By the late 1860s Thomson was designing many working-class tenements and terraced housing. He came up with a number of proposals for glass-roofed streets. He believed these would encourage sunlight penetration and create air currents or, as he called it, urban ventilation.

At that time Glasgow was crowded, dirty and heavily polluted. The city’s Medical Officer declared that giving families more space, increasing ventilation within the city and installing new water and sewerage supplies were the cornerstones of sanitary reform. With London’s Crystal Palace and Glasgow’s glazed shopping arcades in mind, Thomson proposed an alternating pattern of glazed residential courts and service lanes.
He believed: “The warmth which would result from this method of building would be conducive to the health and comfort of all.” His glazed courts were: “Chiefly intended as playgrounds for the young, where they can run about under shelter and out of danger.” To avoid the spread of contagious diseases in these enclosed spaces he proposed ventilating flues which would carry “old” air up to the gables and out through vents in the glass roofs.
Although Thomson’s designs were never built, his proposals are seen as an important step in including architects and designers in the process of sanitary reform. In his plans, Thomson included shops, because these could be sold by the council to help pay for overall building project. And he proposed brick as a building material because it was cheaper than stone and would allow the council to build a larger number of homes.