Architect John McAslan stands in Glasgow’s The Burrell Collection. A slice of modernism, completed in 1983, it houses one of Scotland’s finest art collections: some 9,000 artefacts amassed over a lifetime by Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. The museum, which was formally opened by King Charles last month (although it has been welcoming the public since March), has been preserved and revitalised in a £68.25mn revamp under McAslan’s guidance. For McAslan, who was born in the city, “it’s a way of giving back”.
Inside the museum, among the swish of Degas’ Red Ballet Skirts and the silhouette of Rodin’s The Thinker, McAslan is drawn to the Warwick Vase, a Roman marble endowed with new life through partial restoration. The vessel could be a symbol for his own work: repair and renewal have become a speciality of his practice John McAslan + Partners alongside its shiny new developments. “Not everyone likes The Burrell but the renovation budget was around a fifth of the cost of an equivalent new-build museum, and environmentally speaking it will now be around for another 50 to 60 years, maybe longer,” says McAslan of his approach, which is led by a commitment to sustainability as much as aesthetic improvement. “I find it enriching to work with what exists: the layers of history and the community connections. But I’m not into faithfully restoring a Palladian villa because there would be no opportunity to intervene. It’s the architectural interventions that I enjoy – taking something that is broken and fixing it.”
