CREATING A NEW PLACE IN DUNDEE SITE ANALYSIS
ISSUES Listed buildings, x2
Proposed changes: Restaurants, pubs, cafes on the site (see Fig.10)
Current situation:
Cinema
DAY. A lot of traffic, making it very difficult for pedestrians to cross safely (no zebra crossings), especially at peak hours.
1 ha
INTEGRATION Current situation: This site does not feel integrated with the rest of the city centre, people do not use it currently, they only pass through. The aim of this master plan is to create a pleasant place in which people would stay. Proposed changes:
Public art, to link with the existing ones and show consistency, that this site is part of the city centre
Indication signs to services (post office, bus station…) to facilitate the movement of people
Creation of a cultural walk, to link this place with the rest of the city and with sites of touristic and cultural interest
Consistent ground cover style (materials, colours, patterns)
Fig.1. Site map
Fig.10. Café and restaurant
Designing places, 2001
SAFETY
Openning route to go to the Howff by foot
First floor: restaurant
easy to move around, efficient, adaptable”
Currently vacant.
Ground floor: art gallery and cafes
“welcoming, distinctive, safe and pleasant,
Current situation:
Currently used as offices.
University of Dundee
MASTER PLAN
EVENING ECONOMY There is no evening activity on the site. Many people work in the area during the day, but very few live there (only 117). There are nightclubs and a few takeaways in the surrounding area (see Fig.8) but no sit-in spaces.
Jackie HERRERA
Fig.11. Path to the Howff
The current car park could be located on this site instead.
Fig.12. Exhibition panels
NIGHT. It does not feel very safe because of the lack of activity, even though the site is well served by lampposts (see Fig.4). In addition to that, it is mostly frequented by drunk people at night. Proposed changes:
Narrow down North Lindsay street, Willison Street, Barrack Street and South Ward Road by increasing the pavement’s width to slow down traffic
Plant trees to increase the perception that it is very narrow
Outdoors panels for exhibitions. Can be changed regularly.
Convert listed building from vacant to hotel, to accommodate with the growing number of tourists coming with the Waterfront regeneration.
The streets will remain open to motorised vehicles but give priority to pedestriants with zebra crossings and traffic lights.
Playground for children, and have spaces for parents to watch over them and socialise with the other people using the space. The hedge is used to protect the children and reassure parents because of the proximity with the traffic. The steps can be used for young people as benches. They can also ocasionally be used as seating area when performances happen on the square.
Add zebra crossings for pedestrians, and show that they have priority over cars, in accordance with policy 54 of the Dundee Local Development Plan
CONSERVATION AREA Current situation:
INCLUSIVITY Current situation: The site does not offer a very good access for disabled persons. Indeed, the uneven ground and high pavements does not facilitate their circulation. Moreover, the site is not children friendly, there are no facilities for them to play safely. Proposed changes: Fig.2.View of the site from Dundee House, 5th floor
Fig.3. Lamppost designs
Fig.4. South Ward Road at night
Lower pavements to facilitate circulation of disabled persons
Create a playground for children
Fig.5. Employment rate
Physical survey
Layout: surrounded from all sides, but no feeling of enclosure because of vertical/horizontal ratio higher than 1:2.
Socioeconomic survey
Heights of buildings: around 15 metres high, dominated by Dundee House (see Fig.8). Landmarks: Steeple Church’s tower is visible from the site, as well as Law hill. Materials/colours: mostly local sandstone of the area, except Telephone Exchange building (pink and grey). Lighting: moderate sunshine during the day, and good coverage of lampposts at night (see Fig.3 and 4). Land uses: mostly car parking (140 spaces). It is surrounded by offices (including Dundee House with 900 employees), some vacant sites, some housing and some takeaways. Its location within the city centre facilitates access to a wider range of services. (see Fig.7)
Only 117 people live in this area (see Fig.6), but 900 work in Dundee House. This site must adapt to that high number of users during the day and this low number of users during the evening/night.
Fig.6. Data from the Scottish Census 2011, from the zone S00099539:
Current situation:
Age: the majority of the residents are aged between 16 and 29 years old.
Policy 38: Trees and Urban Woodland
The site is an open space of about 1 hectare. It can be very intimidating to look at the 7 floors high Dundee House. It is also located in close proximity with other important squares of the city (in front of Caird Hall and McManus).
Policy 48: Listed Building
Proposed changes:
Employment: 52.6% of the population is economically active, with mostly full time employees and employed full-time students (see Fig.5).
Policy 50: Development in Conservation Areas
Plantation of trees to bring the site to human scale
Policy 54: Active Travel
Improved access to open space by foot and bicycle (provide parking), in accordance with SPP’s objective for a greener Scotland
The master plan should thus focus on keeping this young population in the area, with services that they would use. This can also be an opportunity to bring other parts of the population together, and attract people from other backgrounds too.
Policy 7: High Quality Design
Policy 55: Accessibility of New Developments
Propose an alternative use of the buildings, to constantly keep them maintained and in use
Use similar materials, colours, heights, styles for other buildings in the area, to keep its character
Fig.9. Masterplan
PERMEABILITY
A pond, to add some soft infrastructure to that square that is imposing and not very much at human scale.
Bike shed for bikes
Fig.14. Bike shed
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Trees to bring back Dundee House to a human scale, so it feels less imposing and more approachable for people who come in. Use orchards when possible (with Dundee Urban Orchard for example), to encourage people to grow their own vegetables at home. If the city council is doing it, the people can do it too.
Current situation: Currently, the buildings are quite old and not so energy efficient. Their design could be improved to reduce the energy losses. Proposed changes:
buildings should as energy effective as possible, in order to comply with the climate change targets set by the Scottish Government. Also, it will reduce the costs of operation of the users
Taking advantage of Dundee’s position as the sunniest city in Scotland, solar panels should be installed on the roof of most buildings
Policy 1B: Location priorities TAYplan, 2012
Fig.13. Park in the city
Proposed changes:
Dundee Local Development Plan, 2014
Policy 2: Shaping better quality places
Public art, to link the square with the rest of the city, show consistency in style. Promote Dundee as a vibrant cultural city.
Fig. 15. Public art in Dundee
OPEN SPACE POLICY CONTEXT
This site is located in the Dundee City Centre conservation area. It is thus essential to preserve and enhance its character and appearance, in accordance with Scottish Planning Policy (SPP). Two listed buildings are also present on site. Great care must be taken in order to have minimum impact on their historic and architectural interest, character and setting, in accordance with policy 48 of the Dundee Local Development Plan.
Fig. 15. Cultural walk
Current situation: Very poor circulation for pedestrians (no zebra crossings) and cyclists (no cycling lanes). Buses available near the site. Cars have priority over any other means of transport. Proposed changes:
Zebra crossings
Widening of the pavement
Indication signs, for tourists especially
A positive change As shown on the illustrations below, the listed buildings (in pink) will be preserved, some buildings and wall (in blue) will be altered, and 4 pathwways in the site will be maintained (one leading to the entrance of Dundee House, two for the two back entrances of Overgate, and one for the Howff, green arrows on the photos.
Fig.7. Current land uses Dundee House, 34m
15m
Current situation Fig.8. Section cut, heights of buildings
Proposed changes