GOVAN HYDRO

Glasgow’s shipyard docks, Govan’s Graving Docks, once the city’s main source of labour, is housing a new juxtaposition. Now the home to a new proposition focusing on long term physical and mental health as a by-product of an everyday experience. In a Glaswegian district where the average healthy-life expectancy does not surpass 50 years old this proposal promotes health no longer as a commodity but as an integral part of society.

 

Inspired by the Peckham Health Centre Experiment in 1926 - which displays that a community will naturally integrate health into their daily lives when provided with appropriate spaces - the Govan Hydro aims to create spaces that reinvigorate, regenerate and educate the visitor towards daily health. It develops as a proposition that replenishes connections, resuming the site’s ever-standing dialogue with water. 

 

In contrast to its shipbuilding history, the site now employs water as the healing element that prompts regeneration. The restorative processes of water are deconstructed and implemented to cater for the needs of Govan’s community and environment. The visitor is invited to take part in a carefully designed cycle of water-led experiences that restore the wellbeing of the body and mind. The complex becomes a realm of spaces that focus on the promotion of non-invasive health, acting as coherent agents for the regeneration of Govan.