Ziyue Wang

This project explores the adaptive reuse of Glasgow’s former Central Police Headquarters as an Urban Mediation and Community Co-creation Centre. Located within Glasgow’s historic urban fabric, the former police headquarters was originally conceived as a closed institutional building, where hierarchical circulation, restricted access and separated spaces reflected its role in administration, surveillance and social control. Rather than treating the building as a static heritage object, the project proposes a transformation from “authority” to “dialogue”, using architecture to reconnect the building with the city and its communities.

The design is informed by the principles of circular economy, social sustainability and critical heritage. The existing brick and sandstone structure, floor slabs and significant façade elements are retained, reducing demolition, construction waste and the loss of embodied energy. New functions are introduced through lightweight, flexible and reversible interventions, allowing the building to adapt to changing patterns of community use.

The ground floor is opened as a public communication layer, including an entrance gathering space, café, exhibition area and a 250-person multifunctional forum hall. The upper floors provide community workshops, open offices, negotiation rooms and project incubator spaces, supporting collaboration between residents, designers and local organisations. The courtyard is transformed into a new social threshold between the city and the building.

Through openness, visual permeability, flexible spaces and material reuse, the project aims to shift the former symbol of authority into an inclusive civic platform. The building is therefore reimagined not only as preserved heritage, but as an active social infrastructure that supports community participation, cultural exchange and sustainable urban regeneration.