martha duncan
Healing The Wound
Reinstated Street Showing Proposal Beneath the Motorway
How to heal the wound created by the M8 ring road and reconnect communities that lie across it.
School/Level
Category
- Community and Culture
- Infrastructure
- Urban
- Leisure
- Green Infrastructure
- History and Heritage
- Speculative/Futures
- Masterplanning
Year
The influence of modernist town planning in Glasgow and the creation of the M8 motorway has divided communities, physically, socially and culturally. Coupled with an antisocial and unhealthy reputation, the motorway has formed a long-lasting wound that separates neighbourhoods in the north of Glasgow from its city centre. The thesis will seek to reinstate a community connection on New City Road, through health-promoting, accessible and diverse architecture and urban planning. This will heal the wound created by the construction of the M8 ring road in the 1960s which sliced New City Road in two and contributed to the disconnection of once thriving neighbourhoods.
The proposed scheme utilises frequent nodes, increased routes, green space and external rooms to enliven the street and further heal the disconnected edges. The placement of social infrastructure elements (like a library and swimming pool) aims to transfuse community utilities out of their centres and onto New City Road, reinstating the high street artery that was once there and reintroduce the ‘everyday ballet of the street’, creating a safe and accessible route and attract users to a common ground beneath the motorway. The community centre, is made-up of three buildings and will sit upon this common ground.
The design proposal employs various tactics to mitigate noise and air pollution, vibrations, toxic water runoff and shading.