Written by:
Guest Author
by Kirsty Lees
In this blog, Kirsty Lees, Stage 4 Leader at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, reflects on Glasgow School of Art’s collaboration with The Glass-House on the 2025/26 WEdesign series, Multigenerational Places.
This year marked the fifth collaboration of the WEdesign programme at MSA, and for the first time it was embedded directly within the curriculum as part of our City Forum event.
The City Forum brought together Stage 4 and Stage 5 students who were respectively examining Glasgow through the theme of Living in Agreement and Copenhagen through The Ethical City. Together, these parallel investigations created an exhibition of comparative analysis as a backdrop for a day of provocation, discussion and debate under the shared theme of The Liveable City.
As one of our invited guest provocateurs, Sophia’s role also expanded this year, joining panel discussions to reflect on how different urban morphologies and cultural narratives emerge from social, environmental, technological, and economic forces—and how these forces shape architectural thinking across scales. Within this forum, Sophia presented the role of The Glass-House and co-design: what it is, why it matters, and the responsibility architects have in making it possible.
A choice of afternoon workshops built on these ideas, prompting students to consider architecture as a socially responsive discipline, with particular attention to placemaking, sustainability, social value, and inclusive design. It was within this context that the publicly accessible WEdesign workshop took place.
Led by GSA students involved in the WEdesign Student Programme, the workshop explored what makes a city truly liveable for people of all ages. Set against an exhibition of student-led analyses of Glasgow and Copenhagen, the Gallery provided the backdrop for a lively co-design activity reimagining Liveable Cities through the lens of multigenerational design.
Student facilitators welcomed a broad range of guests—including visitors from different generations, disciplines, and interests. One curious American visitor who happened on the event was encouraged to stay and brought his five decades of landscape architecture experience to the table. For me this was a reinforcement of the workshop’s ethos—co-design as a way of making spaces that honour everyday human encounters.
Tables were dressed by the students with maps, images, and prompts designed to spark conversations about the buildings, spaces, homes, neighbourhoods, and high streets of Glasgow—and the role each plays in fostering opportunities for connection across ages. Participants were encouraged to move between micro and macro scales, considering not only what Glasgow might learn from other cities, but also what it might offer in return. The resulting artefacts were vibrant, humorous, and deeply human, woven through with stories of home, family, memory, love, and care.
Post-event reflections from student facilitators echoed this sentiment, describing the richness that emerges when diverse perspectives converge and the genuine pleasure of designing with people; transforming what “initially felt like an academic task” into “an enjoyable afternoon of play— with intent.” They identified capturing the range and depth of the discussions and encouraging their manifestation in model form within the timeframe as the main challenges for facilitators. They also noted the benefit of play in this process and that the simple craft materials “acted as a leveller”, giving freedom of expression to everyone and diminishing the “echo chamber” of familiar academic circles.
Students articulating conversations about pauses, thresholds, and shared moments prompted me to reflect on how small moments of exchange relate to the broader spatial intentions behind co-design and reminded me of a specific point in Louis Kahn’s Living in Agreement speech, advocating for the considered design of a staircase through the description of an elderly gentleman ascending it with his energetic grandson.
“It is good also to consider the stair landing as a place to sit near a window. The old man ascending with the young boy can stop here, showing his interest in the view and avoid the explanations of infirmity. The landing wants to be a room.”
What the workshop outputs revealed is that cities too, want to offer places where people can pause, meet, and recognise themselves in relation to others. Participants momentarily transformed the gallery into such a landing—a room where generations could linger together, exchange perspectives, and imagine what a more considered and liveable city for all could look like and perhaps more importantly, what it would feel like.
You can read more about Multigenerational Places: Glasgow, and the ideas that emerged here.
About the Author
Kirsty Lees is the Stage 4 Leader at the Mackintosh School of Architecture (MSA), stepping into this role in 2023 after 15 years balancing architectural practice with part-time roles at MSA. Her teaching focuses on contemporary architectural practice in Glasgow, helping students navigate the complexities of building in the urban context in dialogue with the city and with each other.
In both teaching and practice, Kirsty consistently promotes collaborative working practices to explore our collective ability to deliver better buildings and places, more inclusive communities, and a sustainable environment.
Kirsty is also a member of Missing In Architecture, (MiA), a collaborative platform promoting equality, creativity, and action within education and the profession. MiA explores architecture through education, engagement, and research, with a strong focus on equality.