New Practice
Experts in place working across the UK, Ireland and internationally.
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Streets for All

 

Streets for All

Working with the community of Garnethill & Sauchiehall to create new public spaces for play, biodiversity and making connections across the motorway to Woodlands and Woodside.

 
 

Streets for All and Buccleuch Street in Bloom is a pilot project for residential neighbourhoods in Central Glasgow, testing sustainable materials and using planting, colour and art to make incremental steps towards encouraging everyday connections within communities.

 
 
 
 

These interventions begin to address key concerns from the community and have been focused on key routes connecting communities across the M8 and respond to the Sauchiehall & Garnethill District Regeneration Framework developed during the pilot Avenues programme for Glasgow City Centre.

The outcomes of included:

  • An underpass mural designed by Glasgow School of Art student and local artist, Jemimah Vaughan, painted by Ciaran Glöbel

  • A gardening toolkit provided to interested residents free of charge to encourage pride in local green spaces and front gardens. The toolkit includes a mixture of designed and off-the-shelf items: Bird Table; Bird Boxes; Bee Habitat; Planters; Plants & Soil; Watering Can & Trowel; Hose Reel & Tap

  • Three street planters, made using hempcrete and repurposed Pucte timber, donated to the city by Cities4Forest and previously used for a public boardwalk at Sustainable Glasgow Landing

  • A colourful decomark pattern applied to a footbridge over the M8

  • Re-painting railings and maintenance upgrades to key local routes

  • Providing safety measures on identified dangerous routes

 

Spanning three neighbourhoods in the centre of Glasgow, split by the M8 and A804, the project area includes a variety of place based identities. Each of these areas suffer from a lack of usable green space and have a mix of students and long time residents, who have formed several active groups to keep community spaces and self-initiated local planting sustained.

Installing a series of small interventions offered a chance to begin to address a wide variety of issues without prioritising one group over another. This formed the basis of the project, underpinned by a commitment by New Practice to the design and delivery of beautiful, practical places which offer social and environmental sustainability for healthier and happier neighbourhoods.

 
 

Buccleuch Street was identified within the brief as the preferred location for a ‘front garden initiative’; to promote care and maintenance of front gardens, improve the physical and visual condition of the street, and redefine the route as a green corridoor between neighbourhoods. Recognising that there were different needs for each resident, a front garden toolkit was designed which allowed everyone living locally to apply for a set of garden items. The items included both practical good quality gardening equipment, alongside colourful bespoke garden furniture aiming to bring a strong sense of hyper local pride and identity to the street and residents.

Using colour is key to New Practice’s work, for Streets for All, New Practice used bold colours, drawn from a local heritage palette, to create a sense of place and bring joy to everyday journeys. Interventions across a range of scales in the public space also used colour, along with pattern to create a sense of playfulness and identity to crossing points and public furniture. 

 
 

One of the understood impacts of a transient student population on a local community is the perceived lack of ownership and care for public space, and maybe even the future care of the community. To address this, we invited students from The Glasgow School of Art to  enter into a competition to be commissioned to design the  underpass mural, from which the patterns and colours would form the basis of the language of connections to tie areas together. By including these students as local residents in the design process through the competition, we helped shape local pride and ownership through these localised key crossing zones.

 
 

During the engagement programme we held open conversations which covered community concerns outwith our scope and reflected our previous understanding of the frustrations at the perceived maintenance priorities within these neighbourhoods. Our bold and playful designs of public space interventions recognise this concern and have worked to build a pool of residents and local organisations with availability and interest to care for new biodiversity planting and upgrades within the neighbourhood. The choices of colour, inspired by the character of this heritage area, and the creation of a clear identity helped tackle “big urban problems” such as the division caused by the M8 at Charing Cross.

Making changes to key community identified crossings introduces a consistent narrative of colour and pattern to improve the walking and wheeling experience around this major motorway junction as an effective way of creating clear connections. The choice to use pavement markers and murals is mindful of the temporary nature of this programme and New Practice’s commitment to working sustainably and avoiding build-and-burn approaches.

 
 

Across the suite of  interventions we used limited virgin materials, often using paint or colour applied to surfaces. Where virgin materials were used, New Practice used this as an opportunity to test sustainable materials and circular design principles on an urban scale, with the intention of introducing this more widely in further projects across the city once proven to be successful. 

 
 

We worked closely with local fabricators and suppliers to develop planters made using hempcrete and re-purposed COP boardwalk timber. Hempcrete is a natural, breathable alternative to concrete which uses hemp and lime to form a suitable alternative for exterior and public space use. Hemp cultivation absorbs carbon dioxide, making it a carbon-negative material. The timber planters are pucte from the ACOFOP concessions in Petén, Guatemala. It was donated by Cities4Forests and the Partner Forests Program, an alliance of 79 cities committed to protecting the world’s forests. At mass scale across the city, introducing circular design and sustainable materials would bring significant environmental benefit.  

 
 
 

Pilot projects such as this one are hugely beneficial to be able to test new materials on a small scale, which could have excellent results if rolled out in wider communities.

During installation, passers by commented on the joy and importance of each introduction to the neighbourhood. Over time, we hope communities continue to enjoy their presence and that they feel more connected to their local spaces and neighbouring communities, encouraging more local investment and involvement to maximise the neighbourhood’s potential.