Last year, I filmed this structure and was amazed at how much it had deteriorated throughout the years of abandonment. This video is brilliant because it shows what a once magnificent building looked like during its years of activity. Thank you so much for the upload. T
This footage is actually Murray Grigor's 1972 film 'Space and Light'. Not an easy film to get hold of so it's nice to stumble across it here. Grigor made a follow-up in 2009 called 'Space and Light Revisited', which shows the scale of its downfall into ruination by utilizing a shot for shot comparison with the original. It really is an amazing building and it's great to see that it's now been granted a new lease of life by the great work of NVA.
What a stunning modernist building. I've visited it several times in increasing states of disrepair. I was genuinely sad to see the great beams disappear over time through vandalism, that helped the interior retain some structure and coherence. Thank you Murray Grigor for giving us such a revealing view of it in its prime. No other modernist building in Scotland has matched it in my view. What a shame it wasn't built in Glasgow or Edinburgh, where some use would have been found for it I think. Difficult for me to imagine how it might work now, unless in quite an exclusive way, just outside the tiny town of Cardross, well away from any major population.
Wow what an amazing place back in its heyday. The interior timber adds alot of warmth and character, puts me in mind of a grand Japanese home while the exterior looks quite whethered at a surprisingly young age. Such a shame it was left to ruin after 2 short decades
I have been there in recent years. It is a complete and utter ruin now and very dangerous. When I visited you could walk up to it and get through a gap in the fence, I believe that the site is a bit more secure now. All that is left is a concrete skeleton, all that lovely wood panelling has gone. The old house was demolished some time in the 80’s after the local Ned’s broke in and set fire to it.
The combination of pine and concrete and white walls looks good but in scotlands climate the concrete does not age well,, desert dry climate would be better for that design and so large building,,the heating costs too !! I grew up in Irvine there are two buildings a church and chaple made from cinder building blocks,,,, they Just about get away with the design!
What an amazing film which captures the very essence of the atmosphere of the buildings as I'm sure it was intended to be. I was a student at Essex university at the time this film was made. There is something reminiscent of the brutalist modernism of the built environment there here at Cardross. Thanks for posting this.
There is something I find so spooky about this film, I first saw it in an art gallery (I think the royal academy) when I was much younger, and I was so encapsulated by it.
The music is characteristic of that point in history, where the western world was going modern and leaving its past behind. That's the idea behind Brutalist architecture, have minimal harmony with an overall mood that is cold, stark, harsh, and unwelcoming. Just like the music. And just like the mentality of the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, anything new signified "going forward" or "advancing" to a new age, a better age. There was little time to fully grasp what the music and architecture and clothing was signifying. Now, it's all terribly dated, and identifiable to one or two particular years in that era.
Thanks for this firstly, I was thinking there is somewhat of an irony to your statement that being that much of what you say could do well to explain post-modernism. Things being new for news sake, but rather post-modernism removes the search for newness, in search of combing the old to form something new, but equally discards the ideals of percieved classical beuty in search of something different, allbeit as meanignless as the coldness of brutalism. Again thank you!
The problem for the Catholic Church was that it belonged to the pre-modern world, the world of illiterate peasants forced on pain of burning or public torture to death to let their King and/or the Pope do all their thinking for them. Take out all the Latin, the bells and smells (incense) and build the seminaries and other major buildings as car parks- and you've got what, exactly? We already had more than enough flavours of Protestantism.
Surely the primary purpose of a building to house people is to provide warmth and shelter. Another primary consideration is the cost of maintenance. Irrespective of a buildings’ visual appearance, if these primary functions and considerations are either not met, or are only achieved at great cost and effort, then that building has to be considered as poorly designed. One wonders if the building had been more conventional, whether alternative uses for it would have been found? The fact that the building was only functioning for a relatively short time and then abandoned would indicate that the building was fatally flawed. The saga reminds me of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral - award winning for the architects but poorly constructed and actually architecturally flawed (for example the lack of a proper rainwater drainage system meant that water ingress became a major problem) resulting in various legal battles between the parties concerned.
A great example of dystopian brutalism though, and a well made, very artistic film about a building perfectly suited to animal testing and experimentation.
The music was kind of 20 years out of date by then. All Britten-like atonal crashing chords. The priest walking through the seminary must have been wondering whether this would reflect the fate of all post-Vatican II Catholicism. Cold, modernist, underpopulated and frankly bleak. The views through the red and orange glass in the chapels look like you've ended up in the wrong destination somehow...
I came across this place whilst watching ‘Exploring with Alec’ an urban explorer who explores abandoned buildings. I was amazed that this monstrosity was literally on my doorstep and had no idea it was there. The architectural design & structure took no consideration for its surroundings. The West of Scotland is well known for its wet weather , thus and it’s close proximity to surrounding forest caused deep seated damp and rot. This building reminds me of Clydebank multi stores car park ...... an eyesore. OMG that music is awful
A very different period from our own. I find the music interesting and the architecture too but have to agree with the points you make regarding the sheer foolishness of the materials used given the climate of the area. Although not intended as a monstrosity it rapidly became one.
Would look and age better in a dry climate such as california, but here in scotland,, looks terrible!!!! I enjoy concrete architechture in california desert climate there are many examples but in scotland its too damp and cold!!!!
I consider that, what the Roman Church allowed to happen to GK&C's Seminary College is little short of a crime against the world of Art: akin to allowing Notre Dame de Paris to remain in its present state, without repair, following its mysterious fire in 2019. There was no mystery in the case of Cardross: it was wanton vandalism. And, if the Roman Church had no use for it, why not have given it to someone who could use it? Enjoyed the modern musical rendition of Veni Creator Spiritus!
They tried to offload it but no one wanted to take it on. The remote location, uncompromising design and high cost and lapsed maintenance saw to that. A drug rehab facility occupied it for a short period in the 80s but mostly used the old manor house (since demolished) due to the defects that plagued it. Just recently has the archdiocese of Scotland managed to offload the building to a charitable trust who hopefully might finally do something with the place
@@sutherlandA1 As an Anglo/Scot (Mother from Elgin), and with friends in Glasgow, we'd certainly visit the place. My partner is a retired architect; and we have long-lamented what was allowed to happen to this building. Mind you, there is another example on the Island of Sao Miguel in the Azores, where a 'brutalist' hotel overlookinging the Siete Citades caldera (Punda da Re) was allowed to deteriorate; and is now a (dangerous) tourist attraction in its own right.
When I see things like this enormous eyesore built to train religious preachers. And it not even able to make it 14 years, makes me think we humans are absolutely ridiculous
THE Most Disgusting & hideous 'pieces of architecture' in human history. A pebble dash concrete brutalist car park. I hurts my eyes even thinking of it. Absolutely Spot On metaphor for the Christian church being a dark pit off abuse and cover up, which is what this building needs. Covering up with soil and plated with trees.
I have never liked this building, or brutalist designs in general. It is fundamentally ugly and best left to machine-gun bunkers and the like, being wholly unsuitable for ecclesial buildings. This design was very much self-indulgence from the architects, with all focus on aiming to be modern and "different", while failing even to make the structure water tight. The period when it was built was a period of great change in both society and the Church (little or none of it for the better) and I think the design tries to capture something of that feeling of change. The changes imposed on the Catholic Church around the 60s/70s were misguided and have undeniably been a total failure: exactly like this building, and so there is something oddly fitting about its demise. And, again like those impositions on the Church, the design of the building now looks terribly dated, while hubristic opinion once thought both were "the way of the future". Wrong.
I agree, nothing is as antiquated as modernist architecture from a few decades ago, but would you not also agree that the wooden interiors were kind of nice?
@@trismegistus2881 I would agree with you and I'm one of the comparative few who think it's kind of a neat building! The other poster is right in saying it is symbolic of the time period, when postmodernism was the spirit of the times, in the years following the 2nd vatican council If you talk to any older catholic they will say that it was a period of youthful optimism and the "Spirit of vatican 2" was about renewal and bringing church more up to date with the times. The building seemed to capture these types of qualities and at the time it was built, church leaders were expecting a boom in vocations to the priesthood as a result of renewal and changes within the church. And as we know now, quite the opposite happened and so within a span of not even 20 years the building proved to be too expensive to maintain
Who paid for this monstrosity? I am glad it was none of my money. And the sad creatures wandering around in feigned reverence to the "Lord". WE all know what type of activities that went on behind these walls and why it was left to fall into a mess. This is only the very top of the iceberg of the wastage that the Roman Catholic "Church" caused. Millions of naive sinners paying money to try to get forgiveness but all for nothing. This continues all over the world to this very day and who is interested in putting an end to it?
Last year, I filmed this structure and was amazed at how much it had deteriorated throughout the years of abandonment. This video is brilliant because it shows what a once magnificent building looked like during its years of activity. Thank you so much for the upload.
T
This footage is actually Murray Grigor's 1972 film 'Space and Light'. Not an easy film to get hold of so it's nice to stumble across it here. Grigor made a follow-up in 2009 called 'Space and Light Revisited', which shows the scale of its downfall into ruination by utilizing a shot for shot comparison with the original. It really is an amazing building and it's great to see that it's now been granted a new lease of life by the great work of NVA.
czcams.com/video/j53xXzai_Wo/video.html
What a stunning modernist building. I've visited it several times in increasing states of disrepair. I was genuinely sad to see the great beams disappear over time through vandalism, that helped the interior retain some structure and coherence. Thank you Murray Grigor for giving us such a revealing view of it in its prime. No other modernist building in Scotland has matched it in my view. What a shame it wasn't built in Glasgow or Edinburgh, where some use would have been found for it I think. Difficult for me to imagine how it might work now, unless in quite an exclusive way, just outside the tiny town of Cardross, well away from any major population.
Wow what an amazing place back in its heyday. The interior timber adds alot of warmth and character, puts me in mind of a grand Japanese home while the exterior looks quite whethered at a surprisingly young age. Such a shame it was left to ruin after 2 short decades
I have been there in recent years. It is a complete and utter ruin now and very dangerous. When I visited you could walk up to it and get through a gap in the fence, I believe that the site is a bit more secure now. All that is left is a concrete skeleton, all that lovely wood panelling has gone. The old house was demolished some time in the 80’s after the local Ned’s broke in and set fire to it.
by the looks of it, even at 10 years old it was a difficult place to keep up. look at that water stains and moss
I think the building was ahead of its time and if it had been built later it would have been a better building
The combination of pine and concrete and white walls looks good but in scotlands climate the concrete does not age well,, desert dry climate would be better for that design and so large building,,the heating costs too !! I grew up in Irvine there are two buildings a church and chaple made from cinder building blocks,,,, they Just about get away with the design!
What an amazing film which captures the very essence of the atmosphere of the buildings as I'm sure it was intended to be. I was a student at Essex university at the time this film was made. There is something reminiscent of the brutalist modernism of the built environment there here at Cardross. Thanks for posting this.
Am I seriously the only person that finds this building stunningly beautiful?
No, you're not. I love it. What a state its in now though. A real shame.
none of these architects buildings worked either cold or wet or both
It's double-plus ugly, sir.
It might have been a technical disaster but it was an exemplary example of style at least
yes - you may well be
This video is begging for a Boards of Canada soundtrack
There is something I find so spooky about this film, I first saw it in an art gallery (I think the royal academy) when I was much younger, and I was so encapsulated by it.
Tom Scott made me check this out, I just had to see this beautiful building in its heyday.
Me too! 😄 Even as a ruin, the building is impressive.
The place has a very "clockwork orange" feel to it from this film. Shame it's in the state it is in now.
Both films had the same camera operator. I believe the film stock used was "borrowed" from the Clockwork Orange set too.
It is so sad to see this, knowing the current state of the building.
19:06, just 6 years after it opened and already looking a bit dilapidated on the exterior.
The state that this building was allowed to fall into is a disgrace!
guess the empty dining tables says it all
Had a capacity of 100 students but never reached that level in its 14 years of use
That hilarious 70's music at 15min
visited this place today. It's a sad mess but there's something beautiful about it.
fascinating footage and amazing to see it all so new and clean.
Have a look at my video from recent trip.
Thanks for uploading
Reminds me of the University of Sussex .
The music is characteristic of that point in history, where the western world was going modern and leaving its past behind. That's the idea behind Brutalist architecture, have minimal harmony with an overall mood that is cold, stark, harsh, and unwelcoming. Just like the music. And just like the mentality of the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, anything new signified "going forward" or "advancing" to a new age, a better age. There was little time to fully grasp what the music and architecture and clothing was signifying. Now, it's all terribly dated, and identifiable to one or two particular years in that era.
Thanks for this firstly, I was thinking there is somewhat of an irony to your statement that being that much of what you say could do well to explain post-modernism. Things being new for news sake, but rather post-modernism removes the search for newness, in search of combing the old to form something new, but equally discards the ideals of percieved classical beuty in search of something different, allbeit as meanignless as the coldness of brutalism. Again thank you!
I think they associated the old world with the horror of the world wars, so that is why they were so naive about the future being better.
We're now start paying the bill for all the "experiment". Nature never forgives
The problem for the Catholic Church was that it belonged to the pre-modern world, the world of illiterate peasants forced on pain of burning or public torture to death to let their King and/or the Pope do all their thinking for them.
Take out all the Latin, the bells and smells (incense) and build the seminaries and other major buildings as car parks- and you've got what, exactly? We already had more than enough flavours of Protestantism.
11:25 Missing wall tiles on the left?
The place is missing a lot more than a few tiles nowadays
It was a neat concept. Pity it didn't work.
what a depressing building. The music fits it well. No wonder no one wanted to go there.
Surely the primary purpose of a building to house people is to provide warmth and shelter. Another primary consideration is the cost of maintenance. Irrespective of a buildings’ visual appearance, if these primary functions and considerations are either not met, or are only achieved at great cost and effort, then that building has to be considered as poorly designed. One wonders if the building had been more conventional, whether alternative uses for it would have been found? The fact that the building was only functioning for a relatively short time and then abandoned would indicate that the building was fatally flawed. The saga reminds me of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral - award winning for the architects but poorly constructed and actually architecturally flawed (for example the lack of a proper rainwater drainage system meant that water ingress became a major problem) resulting in various legal battles between the parties concerned.
Pipe down you philistine!
Great building now it s in ruins
not many people know of the real tragedy of this seminary
A great example of dystopian brutalism though, and a well made, very artistic film about a building perfectly suited to animal testing and experimentation.
It could have been a great car park, maybe a place for a clamped car pound for nearby Glasgow.
I have visited the ruins of this site so it's really interesting to see this film but the music is f**king terrible even if it was 1972.
The music was kind of 20 years out of date by then. All Britten-like atonal crashing chords.
The priest walking through the seminary must have been wondering whether this would reflect the fate of all post-Vatican II Catholicism. Cold, modernist, underpopulated and frankly bleak. The views through the red and orange glass in the chapels look like you've ended up in the wrong destination somehow...
I came across this place whilst watching ‘Exploring with Alec’ an urban explorer who explores abandoned buildings. I was amazed that this monstrosity was literally on my doorstep and had no idea it was there. The architectural design & structure took no consideration for its surroundings. The West of Scotland is well known for its wet weather , thus and it’s close proximity to surrounding forest caused deep seated damp and rot. This building reminds me of Clydebank multi stores car park ...... an eyesore.
OMG that music is awful
A very different period from our own. I find the music interesting and the architecture too but have to agree with the points you make regarding the sheer foolishness of the materials used given the climate of the area. Although not intended as a monstrosity it rapidly became one.
Crimes in Concrete.
Would look and age better in a dry climate such as california, but here in scotland,, looks terrible!!!! I enjoy concrete architechture in california desert climate there are many examples but in scotland its too damp and cold!!!!
I consider that, what the Roman Church allowed to happen to GK&C's Seminary College is little short of a crime against the world of Art: akin to allowing Notre Dame de Paris to remain in its present state, without repair, following its mysterious fire in 2019. There was no mystery in the case of Cardross: it was wanton vandalism. And, if the Roman Church had no use for it, why not have given it to someone who could use it? Enjoyed the modern musical rendition of Veni Creator Spiritus!
Comparing this monstrosity to the great Notre Dame? really?
They tried to offload it but no one wanted to take it on. The remote location, uncompromising design and high cost and lapsed maintenance saw to that. A drug rehab facility occupied it for a short period in the 80s but mostly used the old manor house (since demolished) due to the defects that plagued it. Just recently has the archdiocese of Scotland managed to offload the building to a charitable trust who hopefully might finally do something with the place
@@sutherlandA1 As an Anglo/Scot (Mother from Elgin), and with friends in Glasgow, we'd certainly visit the place. My partner is a retired architect; and we have long-lamented what was allowed to happen to this building. Mind you, there is another example on the Island of Sao Miguel in the Azores, where a 'brutalist' hotel overlookinging the Siete Citades caldera (Punda da Re) was allowed to deteriorate; and is now a (dangerous) tourist attraction in its own right.
Yuk how disgusting! Spirit of Vatican 2.
When I see things like this enormous eyesore built to train religious preachers. And it not even able to make it 14 years, makes me think we humans are absolutely ridiculous
And the worst part is that its fans think the building is amazing
Pipe down you philistines and go live in a refrigerator box!!
wow people used to believe in a god ?
and built all this stuff because of that belief?
THE Most Disgusting & hideous 'pieces of architecture' in human history. A pebble dash concrete brutalist car park. I hurts my eyes even thinking of it. Absolutely Spot On metaphor for the Christian church being a dark pit off abuse and cover up, which is what this building needs. Covering up with soil and plated with trees.
What a waste of lumber life and concrete.
his is the ugliest place I've ever seen.
Fuckin weird !!
concrete monstrosity
I have never liked this building, or brutalist designs in general. It is fundamentally ugly and best left to machine-gun bunkers and the like, being wholly unsuitable for ecclesial buildings. This design was very much self-indulgence from the architects, with all focus on aiming to be modern and "different", while failing even to make the structure water tight. The period when it was built was a period of great change in both society and the Church (little or none of it for the better) and I think the design tries to capture something of that feeling of change. The changes imposed on the Catholic Church around the 60s/70s were misguided and have undeniably been a total failure: exactly like this building, and so there is something oddly fitting about its demise. And, again like those impositions on the Church, the design of the building now looks terribly dated, while hubristic opinion once thought both were "the way of the future". Wrong.
I agree, nothing is as antiquated as modernist architecture from a few decades ago, but would you not also agree that the wooden interiors were kind of nice?
@@trismegistus2881 I would agree with you and I'm one of the comparative few who think it's kind of a neat building! The other poster is right in saying it is symbolic of the time period, when postmodernism was the spirit of the times, in the years following the 2nd vatican council
If you talk to any older catholic they will say that it was a period of youthful optimism and the "Spirit of vatican 2" was about renewal and bringing church more up to date with the times. The building seemed to capture these types of qualities and at the time it was built, church leaders were expecting a boom in vocations to the priesthood as a result of renewal and changes within the church. And as we know now, quite the opposite happened and so within a span of not even 20 years the building proved to be too expensive to maintain
Satans work
Who paid for this monstrosity? I am glad it was none of my money. And the sad creatures wandering around in feigned reverence to the "Lord". WE all know what type of activities that went on behind these walls and why it was left to fall into a mess. This is only the very top of the iceberg of the wastage that the Roman Catholic "Church" caused. Millions of naive sinners paying money to try to get forgiveness but all for nothing. This continues all over the world to this very day and who is interested in putting an end to it?