Siobhan Ironside is an architecture graduate from the University of Strathclyde, where her projects received recognition through several awards and nominations. She was awarded the RSA’s John Kinross travel scholarship, supporting a period of study in Florence. This enabled exploration of her interest in the relationship between historical and contemporary architecture, a theme central to the exhibited project.
Her practice centres on the creative sectors, with a particular focus on architecture that supports underrepresented communities while promoting social sustainability. As a practising musician, she is interested in the role of music within cities and societies, and in how the disciplines of music and architecture can meaningfully intertwine.
The exhibited project responds to the ongoing decline of Glasgow’s grassroots music scene. Set within the former O2 ABC, the proposal reimagines the site as a self-sustaining ecosystem for music-making, where performance, production and industry support coexist. The thesis challenges the audience’s typically passive consumption of the performing arts by inviting the public into the creative process through considered architectural interventions, offering a radically alternative vision for the future of music and architecture in the city.
