7N Architects are continuing to develop a strategy called “Growing the Place” which evolved from work at Speirs Locks, a brownfield site in Glasgow. The approach was developed over an intensive ten month process of engagement with the Glasgow Canal Regeneration Partnership (GCRP), local residents, businesses and stakeholders. The essential premise of the approach was that the potential of Speirs Locks would always be limited unless the negative perceptions of the area and its disconnection from the City Centre were addressed.
Even before the credit crunch hit land values at Speirs Locks were depressed and would only fund a very basic level of development that would do very little for regeneration. It was clear that the strategy for regenerating the area needed to tackle these fundamental economic issues with only relatively small levels of initial investment. The Growing the Place approach came from reflections on existing places that had been transformed through colonisation by a bohemian menagerie of people looking for cheap, off-beat, but reasonably central districts that had a vibe to them.
The global recession is causing widespread personal suffering and hardship but, in some respects, it may turn out to be a good thing for the future development of our towns and cities. A harsh medicine perhaps, but in recent years the lower value uses which enrich the urban realm have been increasingly squeezed out by the dominance of speculative development. The recent drop in land values and the tight constraints on funding is now allowing these uses back into the game. The regeneration framework that 7N Architects are developing for Speirs Locks is a live example of how this recalibration of development forces may begin to facilitate a richer urban environment.
Ewan Anderson recently expanded on the Growing the Place strategy in the Spring 2010 edition of the Urban Design Journal, which focused on Urbanism in Scotland. The article can be read in full here (article starts on page 18).
