Glasgow green lights 388 Gorbals homes
August 19 2019
Glasgow City Council has awarded planning consent to Craighead Properties for the erection of 388 homes on brownfield land bounded by Cathcart and Caledonia Roads.
Taking the form of five blocks of flats arranged around a central amenity space the Cooper Cromar masterplan seeks to establish a network of shared streets and ‘nodal corners’.
Serving as an extension of the Crown Street regeneration the plans will see blocks ‘distanced’ from arterial roads by a landscaped ‘perimeter buffer zone’ to the north and west, allowing large ground floor gardens to be provided for residents.
Outlining their vision in a design statement the architects wrote: “The high quality contemporary architectural style of clean lines and hierarchy of large living space balconies, window openings etc reflects a modern lifestyle both externally and internally with open plan living space exploiting views both within the development and to the wider city views especially from upper levels.
“Feature vertical contrasting facing brick corners emphasise nodal spaces which connect at ground level to the shared surface street and landscaped public amenity space.”
Flats will be finished in a uniform palette of textured brick and metal-faced cladding.
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THis develpment does nothing to enhance a sense of place- the attempts at placemaking here amount to urban illiteracy in my opinion- the amount of surface car parking is prohibitive to any sense of proper place-making & reeks of prioritising cars before people. 'Car as King' really ought to be the Glasgow motto rather than the one we all know.
Have we lost the art of addressing intersection/nodal points? For me this is a central art in urban planning-place-making- how do you activate & define urban edges if the corner refuses the prominence of nodality?
Do the people- & of course the city planner themselves- ever consider the significance of the impending revolution in driverless cars? Or the provision of public transport- what was the point of Professor Beggs connectivity commission? Why does no one question the levels of parking provisions in developments like these so close to the city centre?
It feels like Glasgow is still living in 1984 & no one had heard of climate change or the environmental crisis- why for example does the council have a maximum density limit? Utterly baffling.
Yes its good to see this area developed and the density is decent and welcomed as well but the urban design is very poor- it won't last the test of time nor will it enhance interaction with the wider community- it feels more like an addendum to the retail development than a vision in its own right.
At the moment, with all these developments around the periphery of the city centre ( at Gallowgate, Dundashill, Hamiltonhill, Laurieston, Cowlairs etc that we're repeating the same mistakes as circa 1984 in the Calton, Maryhill, Gallowgate, the Garden Festival red brick suburban structures at Kinning Park, St Georges Rd or the replacement of Greek Thomsons Queens Park Terrace with those horrible two story row of red brick wimpy flats at Eglinton Street- those were systemic failures caused by the city's crisis in confidence & identity- and it feels now we're repeating those same failures, admittedly on an improved scale & at higher densities, but nevertheless, I believe we'll look back & think 'that was a huge missed opportunity'. Without the necessary density how do we create vibrant communities with shops, eateries, vital public services etc without the corresponding populations?