How do you transform a failed urban experiment into a vibrant, resilient, efficient and responsive place?
In other words, how do you design a real place?

In the autumn of 2017, students of the UrbanDesign Msc course were tasked by Glasgow City council and Glasgow Housing Association with developing and proposing a new vision for the district of Drumchapel, Glasgow. Key to the briefing which was received, was the need to put the health and well-being at the top of the agenda for change in an area which has suffered from many of the undesirable markers of peripheral housing estates in the wider city: poverty, poor health outcomes, unemployment and most importantly poor life expectancy.
Additionally, a seemingly irreversible decline in population coupled to lack of private development and dispersal of services means that long-term viability of the area is in question.
This page represents the culmination of 6 months work analysing, strategizing and finally proposing a vision for the redevelopment and repair of the district of Drumchapel .

 

Analysis

The studio is split into groups, each tasked with one aspect of the analysis to build an expansive and thorough understanding of the area as part of a larger urban section, getting to know its potentials and pitfalls.

 

Strategy

New groups are formed to contain one member of each previous groups. This ensures that all the information gathered in the understanding of Drumchapel can be succesfully condensed into strategic plans for the improvement of the area, envisaging actions and projects that deal with services, mobility, housing, and public realm provision.

 

Masterplanning


All the information gathered and produced in Semester 1 was shared and informed Semester 2. Masterplanning groups were formed freely.