Key words: roots, connectivity, polyphony, permeability, urban commons, wilding, habitat strata, regeneration, community science
Glasgow is characterised by its deeply rooted industrial history. The rise and decline of industries caused citizens displacements and uneven urban development, and left traces all around the city and within the citizens. Spatial incongruity, lack of human scale and the stark absence of living things generates feelings of placelessness. This can manifest anywhere, but most often is found in urban areas, particularly those neglected and in decline (Tabb, 2021).
Glasgow Roots focuses on an urban scape as, according to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, 68% of the world population will live in urban areas by 2050. Thus, dealing with a growing urban population and their need to live in sustainable cities and communities, together with the necessity to take action to face the Climate Emergency and its impact, are becoming pressing and paramount. Glasgow urban area is now peppered with plots of abandoned land which sometimes hold a dystopian aura of affliction, sometimes show a naturally regenerated habitat, and all together amount to 1100 acres, roughly 11km2.
Cruising through the Anthropocene, this research explores ways in which an established urban environment could learn from its industrial heritage while transitioning towards an interconnected polyphony of voices, sustaining interspecies relations, promoting assemblages and entanglements instead of capitalist alienation, and finding value not in economic profit but rather through social and ecological relations established on the ground in common urban spaces. Moreover, the Climate Emergency and the most recent COVID-19 pandemic accentuated the importance of a richer local environment and the need of a significant change in our lifestyle and priorities.
The primary intention of this design project is to turn a flatscape to a rich taskscape (Norberg-Schulz, 1980; Ingold, 1993), and to reverse the anthropogenic damage caused by (de)industrialisation by creating a model that allows actors from all the kingdom of living species to safely coexist and thrive. This model would let the now self-contained urban environment to transform through the encounter with other living beings and through collaboration both within and across species. Moreover, it will allow humans and more-than-human beings to root themselves in the landscape and start renewed communities.
The site taken into consideration is a cluster of neighbourhoods in the north of Glasgow, between Lambhill and Port Dundas. This cluster was selected for three main reasons. Firstly, there is a high concentration of vacant and derelict land. Studies have shown a likely negative and/or carcinogenic impact on the livelihoods of the people living in proximity to abandoned and/or polluted sites. Secondly, the cluster sits at the ideal wildlife way into town. By increasing the connectivity and the biological diversity of a cluster of neighbourhoods, it is possible to reduce its carbon footprint by locking the carbon on site or offsetting it from/to elsewhere, and promote a healthier, more resilient environment. Thirdly, this area of Glasgow underwent significant and subsequent transformations over the past century. To better tackle alienation, disconnection, feelings of not belonging to the territory and social fragmentation for the families and individuals involved, a new cohesive and holistic plan could boost a social and ecological regeneration.
Glasgow Roots envisions the city in a process of transition that will last till the end of the century and beyond. It will create interconnected constellations of democratic, regenerative and communal spaces through a process of reterritorialization. To achieve this, a few approaches will be used across the sites which measure 3km in length N-SE from Lambhill to Port Dundas. However, the core of the design project is located on derelict and vacant land between Possilpark and Port Dundas.
Different strategies are introduced to answer different needs: green corridors such as hedgerows and wildlife bridges are introduced to link old and new green spaces; urban orchards, tiny forests and plant nursery are put in place to generate physical and visual interaction, habitats strata and local food for the neighbourhood; an outdoor school, a plaza and a community science hub are designed to bring together a multigenerational community; a wetland and a decommissioned motorway are planned to create new habitats and spaces and to decrease urban pollution.
The final goal of this proposal is to start a transformative transition of the ruins of past developments into a regenerative network of retrofitted landscapes where dynamic interactions, collaborations, multi-species, and patchy habitats trump the alienation and disconnection caused by abandonment, un-bridled growth, and simplification. Different uses of the landscape and different habitats will lead to a post-carbon society and create an urban polyphony of rooted working landscape ecologically, socially and economically connected at all layers.
