When starting to define workable densities for any place it is first important to recognise the difficulty of this task. Through out the world cities operate at a wide range of densities. In brazil the slum housing in the form of favelas exist at huge densities with building forms which are predominantly low rise located on the periphery of the city separated from the affluent districts. In cities like Hong Kong or Singapore land restrictions can lead to massive population densities with the only alternative being the housing of people in high rise blocks. Arza Churchman in the article Disentangling the Concept of Density raises some key issues when using density as a metric by which to examine the urban condition as “There is no one accepted measure of density between or within countries or even within metropolitan regions� . Differing methods are used around when looking at the issues such as weather the density is calculated in terms of the number of people lining in district divided by its area. For example Population / sq Km or Population / sqHa. Also when looking at density some countries define it as building or dwelling per unit area as opposed to using the. (Churchman, 1999, Pg. 390) These are extremes of course but they serve to highlight the difficulty of the utilising density as a metric for analyzing the success of a city or even a development. This leads to the vital question as to how a standard for density for glasgow can be achieved. In looking at this question in their book Spacematrix which tackles the issue of Physical density. Here physical density becomes a usable list of factors to be applied in conjunction with each other to as to define a coherent density. Physical Density can be broken down into the following related physical factors Population and dwelling density, Land use Intensity, Coverage, Building height Spaciousness. (Berghauser Pont, Meta; Haupt, 2010, Pg. 80) These criteria are then used within the ext to compare similar european cities with the aim of understanding the links between physical qualities and an in depth understanding of density. Like for like are contrasted by contrasting Barcelona, Amsterdam and Berlin with densities being analysed in like for like comparisons. It would be interesting to uses this technique to analyse Glasgow comparing areas within the city to determine the standards for density.
Favela, Rio de Janeiro
Example of one form of a high density enviroment.
To set the standard of density one must first look at the city in in its entirety. As set forward in the previous chapter Glasgow suffers from a chronic problem of dereliction and vacancy with levels far in excess of other cities in Scotland. it is also clear from looking at that information that this issue of urban decline is not set evenly across society with the majority of poor and vulnerable communities bearing the brunt of the phonomium. To combat this accurate ways of analysing the urban fabric are required. It is for this that the transect section becomes becomes a useful tool. The transect section sets out a template for the build-up of urban environments. Its draws on the work of Geddes in the nineteenth century as set out in his valley section which stressed the importance of understanding an environment by looking at it as a series of linked habitats. This has was picked up upon by new urbanists during the 80’s and 90’s such as Andres Duany who began to utilise this thinking in the rationalisation of urban areas. With this in mind the urban transect was produced by Duany as a way of showing a logical progression of the urban build up as one moves from the purely natural setting to rural to sub-urban, urban to urban centre and core areas.
Fig.2 - Gam, Pg 221, Transect of traditional urbanism. ŠDuany, Plater-Zyberk and company (DPZ)
If one is to look at Glasgow in this manner interesting things become to be apparent. HIstorically the development of the city has not occurred evenly as one would see in the transect plan. Its development was dominated by the movement of industry and the communities of labour which followed it. It is also clear that a very large proportion of the vacant and derelict land in scotland was originally employed in manufacturing. The disappearance of which has hit the traditional working class communities once crowded around these sites two fold. First the disappearance of jobs and secondly the prevalence of the derelict land which can make enticing new people back into the areas very difficult. (Gibb, 1983, Pg. 119)(National Statistics, 2012, Pg. 27-28)
IIdentifying the key areas of the city to examine is of extreme importance. Within the city there is a clear axis running from east to west which is dominated by the prevalence of affluent middle class city dweller located in the west end. These areas are clustered around Hyndland and Byers road old tenemental areas which once serviced the shipyard in Partick. The building stock is very much intact form the programs of redevelopment and has therefore retained its much of its quaint charms sought out by the higher income residents. Within the west side of the city there are some places such as Maryhill which have have larger populations of people on lower incomes and again this fits the trend in relationship to industrial decline and economic decline. But on the whole the west end is the place to be for the spending middle classes and this extends to the the suburbs with the prevalence of affluent neighbourhoods centered around the likes of Bearsden and Milngavie. The city center in itself is maintains relatively high price levels as would be expected within a major european city but as you move past Gallowgate towards the east end prices drop in some cases quite dramatically. Areas like Bridgeton and Dennistoun and Dalmarnock were heavily hit by industrial closures in the last century and hove been targeted for redevelopment many times. This led in the 60’s and 70’s to large amount of the existing tenimental properties being listed as slum housing and demolished to make way for highrise housing which was in turn demolished during the early 21th centuary.
City Center £££££
Garthamlock ££
Milngavie £££££££
Maryhill
£££
Highland
Bridgeton £££
££££££
This continues as you move further to the east towards the outlying towns like Garthamlock and Bargeddi with prices remaining towards the lower end of the scale. All of these trends are reflected in the property prices for these locations, with the most desirable locations demanding the largest sums of money. This is an effective metric to begin to understand the socio economic dynamics of the city and as we have learned about the link between vacant and derelict land becomes an interesting metric to use when choosing which areas to analyse for density.
Glasgow the east west axis
This reading of the city holds up in many respects when the information is cross referenced with statistics on deprived areas provided by the scottish government. The data is mapped to show a the areas with the toughest economic situations highlighted in shades of blue the darkest shades being the most deprived 5% of the population and increasing in increments of five with each different shade. The most prosperous 100 - 20% remain unshaded. The data roughly falls in line with the previous information outlining housing prices with large portions of the west end remaining unshaded to demark prosperous areas. To the east of the city center the proportion of unshaded areas falls drastically with lots of the map turning blue to indicate economic problems. This is no real suprise as it is not such a leap of the imagination to conclude that the proest individuals in socity are living in the least desirable locations within the city. But it would be interesting to understand how these areas compared when looked at in terms of density.
Ingram Street
Island Fabric
The density sample of the city center covers and area of 9.2Ha close to George Square including the Ingram St, S Frsderick St, & Hanover St. area.
A = 9.2Ha Nf = .020m FSIx = 2.57m²/ m² GSIx = .57m²/ m² L = 4.5 OSR = 0.16m²/ m² T = 43% W = 100m B=
Hyland
Island Fabric
A traditional tenemental area bordered by Byers Rd. and Elie St. The chosen portion has an area of 4.3Ha.
A = 4.3Ha Nf = .019m FSIx = 1.19m²/ m² GSIx = 0.29m²/ m² L=4 OSR = 0.59m²/ m² T = 38% W= B=