Like many cities around the world, the climate emergency and the COVID-19 pandemic have created a need for urban regeneration strategies that rebalance the places where we live and work to pay more attention to the necessities and aspirations of its residents. Following the Scottish government’s commitment to deliver a net-zero society, and the emphasis on the 20-minute neighborhood within the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), Glasgow City Council has established the Connecting Communities program to deliver Liveable Neighbourhoods (LN) in six tranches.
The team, led by Arcadis, worked on community-focused urban development in two inner city LN areas to deliver strategic frameworks and concept design schemes for selected projects, which were supported by business cases. We set out a vision for how they could look and how this would bring maximum benefit for all residents.
The Place Standard Tool (PST) and four key themes in the Glasgow Liveable Neighbourhoods toolkit (comprising local town centers, streets for people, active travel, and everyday journeys) are the guiding criteria for the project. Our multidisciplinary team identified five sub-neighborhoods in each LN area and held community engagement workshops, supported by digital engagement methods, which encouraged a co-design approach to identify issues, opportunities, and shape design proposals.
Through this exercise, a long list of opportunities was identified, which culminated in a range of priority projects that support community-focused urban development to create neighborhoods that are connected, accessible, and well-serviced. The team then devised strategic masterplans for each LN area, comprising 20 to 25 project proposals which were carefully selected based on their potential to maximize benefits, and their capacity to deliver the overarching climate agendas of local and national government. We also drew upon lessons learned and success stories from similar projects all over the world.
These strategic masterplans and concept design schemes are about comprehensive, aspirational, but deliverable urban regeneration strategies that benefit the entire community, particularly those who need it most. A key concept running through the LN program is the 20-minute community—which is compact, connected, and can meet the majority of the daily needs of local people within a reasonable walk, wheel, or cycle (within approximately 800 meters) of their home. It means that reliance on cars reduces, streets become safer, quieter, and more pleasant places to be. The benefits of community-focused urban development to people and the environment are clear: fewer cars on the road and better access to employment, schools, and services.
Managing change on such a large scale means managing its pace. The phased approach to achieving such a transformation means that benefits will be felt immediately, both to reassure residents and to gain time to properly assess the effectiveness of various initiatives before full implementation. It also makes room for involving the community in a more meaningful and consistent way, and has captured their aspirations for functional, beautiful, and accessible spaces.
The scope of the first tranche of the LN program provided a degree of flexibility in the approach to engagement and master planning of large study areas. Arcadis and Collective Architecture have taken the opportunity to immerse themselves in each neighborhood to understand barriers, opportunities, and needs. This front-loaded engagement has helped in creating comprehensive area masterplans that contain numerous thematic projects, existing and new, that will contribute to the betterment of each locality.
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