The Light Lighthouse

I can think of no other edifice constrcuted by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve. They were not built for any other purpose...

George Bernard Shaw


'A beacon of hope to those in peril on the sea, the lonely lighthouse stands impervious to the fury of the ocean as it steadfastly projects its life-saving beam to storm-tossed sailors'. So opens the book Anatomy of a Lighthouse. Here, in Glasgow's city centre, perhaps we can read 'the sea' as the chaos of shopping, and the 'storm-tossed sailors' as shoppers, and the 'life-saving beam' as a clarion call to the imagination and the heart.

I came across The Lighthouse (Glasgow's Centre for Architecture & Design) many years ago hidden away in a tight-fitting lane between Mitchell Street and Buchanan Street (the latter a sea awash with shoppers, few of whom ever see the light of the lighthouse shining). At that time, under different management, The Lighthouse charged for admission. Now, however, it is free, and even more light and beautiful for it.

The Lighthouse is a wonderful edifice full of history, but the interior is also full of metaphysical high-lights. The designs are exquisite, ranging from glass-panels with clouds for heads to mosaics of gingko leaves and star-shaped lighting. They have the only single-track escalators I know of which add to the 'lightness' of everything. The building is a sensual delight, a real haptic experience. The shapes, the spaces, the forms, the materials, the lighting, all combine to re-ignite the senses and the imagination, encouraging us once more to inhabit them. The great irony is perhaps the location of the The Lighthouse itself where just around the corner (in the second city of the retail empire) we have the dark house of a city centre dedicated almost entirely to shopping where our senses are constantly under attack from unscrupulous manipulators who seek to appropriate our imagination, fill us full of unconscionable rubbish, and lead our selves astray.

The real gems of The Lighthouse are the viewing platforms of which there are two. They offer astounding views over the city's largely Victorian rooftop of which the largest glass roof in Europe (that of Central Station) stands out. It is a great place to go to spend an hour or two, a few times a year. The exhibitions are always interesting and intriguing. Staff are friendly and helpful. And the building's interior layout is, not unlike some of the inner spaces of the mind, a fascinating place to explore. It is without a doubt one of the most thought-provoking places in Glasgow (and not just in terms of design and architecture). That can only ever be a good thing, and a force for lightness... for altruism and the greater more imaginative Self.

'The Light Lighthouse' 9th October, 2012