MILTON IN BLOOM
Stage
Package
Masterplan
Booklet 1/3
Analysis and Strategy
Prepared by Shenmin Lu, Yifan Xu Urban Design Studies Unit, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, January - May 2017
Foreword
Contents
This urban design project is the final year project of our postgraduate study in University of Strathclyde. The course is designed to equip us to analyse the urban fabric, space and measures. The chosen site is Milton, located in the north of Glasgow city. The site is currently a problematic area in Glasgow and our goal is to renew and improve the area according to current urban design theory.
1. Analysis and Strategy
Our design process is divided into three stages: analysing the existing city, creating a overall strategy and detailed masterplan. This booklet is created to explain our detailed masterplan proposal for the third stage, developed with the first two stages research. Please also check booklet No.1 - No.5 for the details of current situation of Milton and booklet No.9 for our early stages of development strategy.
Current Milton
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Design Intention
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Concept Plan
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2. Regulatory Framework 4
Foundation Masterplan Street Design
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Phasing
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3. Special Places design
This is the first booklet out of three. In this booklet, there will be a brief summary of previous research on existing problems and opportunities in Milton, our goal for future Milton in 30 years, and a overall strategy for development.
Milton Community Centre
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Milton Food Centre
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Small Open Space and Pocket Park
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4.Conclusion The Masterplan
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5.Bibliography Bibliography
Yifan Xu Architecture University of Ediburgh
Shenmin Lu Architecture University of Liverpool
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Analysis and Strategy Current Milton Milton lays 2.5 miles north of Glasgow city centre. The area of the site is 149 Ha, and it is almost the same size as Glasgow Merchant City. Milton is first planned in the 1940s as a solution to Glasgow’s housing shortage and slum clearance. But unfortunately, after a few decades it is left as a forgotten area without any on going development plan at the moment. In this chapter, we will be focusing on explaining the current state of Milton, including the basic information, Glasgow planning documents, major problems, challenges and opportunities.
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Milton suffered from social problems, such as gang fighting and drug abuse. The gang fighting resulted urban decline by the end of the 1960s, whereas drug abuse has made Milton one of the worst drug areas in Europe. The percentage of unemployed people in Milton is also higher than the average of Glasgow, while Glasgow’s unemployment rate is already relatively high comparing to other cities in UK. Also the percentage of people who has less ability to work (including disabilities and age) is higher in Milton than Glasgow. The deprivation rate of Milton area is also very high compare to other Glasgow regions.
Missing a centre in Milton lead to more problems. There is rarely employment opportunities, so people would not go to the place seeking for future development. Social and health policies greatly influence demography and health trends. The recent economic crisis has lead to an increase in unemployment. Austerity measures, which have reduced public funding and welfare spending have led to a rise in levels of poverty.
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Since there is no action taken by the council, local community such as LoveMilton and North Glasgow Community Food Initiative, takes the action on improving the living condition in Milton.
Love Milton is a registered charity operating in Milton since 2008 with the aim of improving the local area. They are behind a number of interventions including Bothy 75 and a community orchard. Now they are going to build an education centre to educate the residence.
North Glasgow Community Food Initiative (NGCFI) has operated as a non-profit making organisation since June 2001. The strategy they made is to empower individuals and communities to lead practical and sustainable food related activities that improve health and well-being and which help build stronger, more cohesive communities. Currently both of them are providing some services to the residents, but it is not the direct solution to the problems that created by bad planning.
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Current Housing Problems
Aging house stock, poor construction quality
Glasgow Housing Vision Sustainable Communities Affordable Homes Our vision is that there should be as much choice, quality and value as possible in the housing system for current and incoming residents. Housing should be safe, wind and watertight, warm, dry and comfortable, sustainable and energy efficient. As much of the housing stock as possible should be flexible and adaptable to the changing needs of households old and new. New houses and flats should be situated in attractive, well managed neighbourhoods. The housing stock should have convenient access to work, education, shopping, leisure and cultural activities. Increasing the supply and improving the quality of housing available to Glasgow’s people. Promote area regeneration and enable investment in new build housing Manage, maintain and improve our existing housing stock Raise management standards in the private rented sector Tackle fuel poverty, energy inefficiency and climate change
High cost to maintain open space around the tower, not safe
Large area of empty land, low density, limited services and amenity
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As indicated in last chapter, Milton needs a complete transform to get rid of the current planning problem. Before we started to think about how will the new Milton in 25 years look like, we set a goal of the future we want to achieve and how to make progress. Our basic goal is to cultivate diversity in all aspect in Milton. Mix of function: Residence Light industry Workshop Retail Community Other uses Mix of building types Semi-detached houses Terrace houses Tenements Flats Modern Mew Apartment
Analysis and Strategy Design Intention
Mix of tenures Private sector Social housing Mix of open spaces Pocket parks Front and back yards Shared garden Internal courtyard Large park Wild nature
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When we talk about high density cities, it is easy to connect denser city with over crowded city. But in fact, high density does not mean over crowded. Walking in Milton is extremely boring. There is nothing to look at, no clue of a destination, only endless houses in same style. Also there are only three places have small shops, and most of the commercial unit is closed. Obviously any services need enough people to feed it. In low density area, there will not be enough people to use a library, a health centre or support a restaurant or a school. So these types of activities will disappear eventually. Then the area becomes a place with no services and no destinations to go. For the residence of that place, it means they need to drive to other neighbourhoods for food, education, and health services. Gradually people will leave this area and find somewhere more convenient to live in. If Milton would like to improve the quality of life for the residence, more services supporting life is necessary. On the other hand, Milton is known to have safety issue. This is one of the most significant reason people stay away from this place. Currently in Milton, there are large area of land stays empty. This means a lot of streets does not have any window facing the street. Higher density means there will be more eyes on the street to create a safer community.
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In 40 years, we are aiming to double the population and density in Milton, supplying about 6000 residential units, more commercial opportunities and varieties of community service and activities.
From these points of view, increase the density in Milton is the first step to improve the living condition.
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As shown in the diagram above (details please see semester 1 booklet No.9), there were three community hubs proposed in the strategy. As far as our concern, we believe that the community hub in east Milton has a great potential to be the most active one: it is a mixture of proposed new shops, high density residential area, existing community garden and church, and connection to Bishopbriggs. So in this booklet, the master plan area will focus on the east half of Milton and delivering a proposal focused on how to build a culturally and functionally diverse residential area.
Community Hub: how it works 14
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to Ed inb ur gh Su pp ly al us tr i Ind
National Park
cting
Green Network Connection
e Conn
entre od C
rho hbou
Neig
Neighbourhood Park Recreation connection
e Boundary
Breaking th Sunday Market
Work Opportunities
Community Extension
Local Industrial Supply
Connec t
ing Neig
hbourh
ood Cen tre
Cycl ing
Cyclin gR
Rou te
Industrial Supply to Glasgow
Milton Centre
oute
Connecti ng City C entre
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Self-Build What’s the potential buyers in Milton?
The young couple, no savings, have work, low income.
The elder single or couple some savings, low income or no income, no work or retired, plenty time.
Nuclear family, some savings, daily busy work, fixed income.
According to Milton’s Demo-Social-Economic profile, it can be obviously concluded that there are loads of housing issues related to it’s current condition. Limited tenures: GHA, social housing source Lacking diversity of housing types: not targeted to customer, not affordable, deprivation Large Aging population proportion: compared to Glasgow Low employment lead to poverty: they can’t afford to buy it, in alternative, they rent it. Fixed shell Customised interior
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Self-Build Process The environmental crisis- and the role of construction and housing in reducing its impact - is an issue that exists.
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1.Propose house type and buy land
2.Consult technical knowledge
3.Learn professional knowledge
4.Choose tools
5.Order structure and buy material
6.Modular components
Britain has a unique reliance on mass housing, which is generally not able to deliver homes of high quality, adaptable to changing needs and expectations- in other words, which is not sustainable. (The Green self-Build Book, p260) But now public opinion is shifting towards wanting energy efficiency and ‘green’ values...
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This Chapter will explain a bit more detail on how we can make the proposal work. These strategies are developed according to the previous booklet No.9. Please refer to booklet No.9 for further information and more detailed analysis. The development concept plan will be divided in to 7 parts: node and density, road hierarchy, public buildings and public spaces, public green land, bus routine and cycling routine. At the end all the layers will be combined together to show the concept of our proposal.
Analysis and Strategy Design Area Strategy
We also divided our design area into 6 parts and given them unique characters. This will also help create a mix of architecture and function mix in our site.
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Milton is lack of shop variety. Local corner shops are dispersed throughout Milton. These have been identified in four locations: the bus terminus, Scaraway Street, Liddesdale Square and Westray Circus, and three of them located in our design boundary. Although they are serving the local community (in a limited way), the limited amount of shops in these particular areas strictly speaking, cannot be identified as a node. The density map in Milton has almost no relationship with the node, and this is also why the nodes are not working well. According to our last strategy proposed for Milton (please refer to Booklet No.9), we put the new node on along Liddestale Road and around Liddestale Square. This will create a series of commercial activities along the most important street in Milton, also attracting people from Bishopbriggs into Milton. Additionally a smaller node will be created in south Milton, where Milton connect to Glasgow city centre.
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In Milton, road hierarchies are blurred at some part where bypassing traffic are occasionally seen converging into local secondary main streets to get access to other neighbourhoods. Owing to its current road network, speed bumps can be seen on the roads as a topical solution to the fast moving traffic in a relatively small neighbourhood. By connecting Liddesdale street to Bishopbriggs and strengthen the link to nearby district nodes and to the city centre, Milton will be a part of Glasgow context instead of being isolated at the city edge. Inside Milton, the unreasonable large scale block will be broken down into grids roughly 100m by 100m. When transforming the streets, we tried to keep as much existing streets as possible. By upgrading existing roads, and creating new local main road, the centrality of Liddestale road is reinforced. Ashgill road on the east side of Milton is down graded so that the traffic can go into the neighbourhood and benefit the commercial activities instead of going through between the neighbourhood and do nothing.
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Currently in Milton , there is few public space people can go to. These places are concentrated around Liddestale Square. Since there is no places for people to go to, local residence would rather stay at home. So there is few people staying on the streets, and this reinforced the feeling of insecure street in Milton. On the other hand, people need spaces to know their neighbours. So it is urgent to create public buildings and spaces in Milton. In the new proposal, as we proposed in the design intention, we tried to elaborate the function of community. Most of the public space will be combined with community functions, in this way the space and the user can benefit each other and create a comforting, joyful place. Public / Community Buildings Public Spaces Non-residential Use Buildings
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Milton is not lacking open space, but it is lacking welcoming, attractive open space that enhances the quality of the place. In fact, Milton has a higher percentage of derelict or vacant land than the Glasgow average – a city which already has a larger than average amount. The only designated parkland in Milton in its current form is not an attraction and pales in comparison to some of the examples of public green spaces around Glasgow. The proposed green space is more compact with specific ideas behind them. The Milton park will be expanded since it is very small comparing to other neighbourhood parks around. More function is added to the park to encourage people to use the park. Also the existing community garden will be expanded as it is already a landmark in Milton right now. The two main green space will be connected with a street serves as Sunday market as the food distribution centre. Other small pocket parks added dimension to the city landscape.
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Currently there is not much buses go to Milton. Bus 75 goes form city centre to Milton every 30 minutes, and it is almost the only service can be used for residence. According to the previous investigation, there are 56% of household does not have a car (refer to booklet No.3 and booklet No.9). So bus connection to city centre is very important to prevent Milton being isolated. The proposed bus routine altered a few lines since we decided to downgrade Ashgill road, and introduce most of the traffic into Milton. Now the buses will go through Liddestale Road and the new secondary road we created. Also there will be bus on Scaraway Street, linking the community centre in the park and the existing primary school next to the park. Main bus terminal will be moved to Liddestale Square, where our new centre is.
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National Cycling Route is a series of safe, traffic-free paths and quiet on-road cycling and walking routes that connect to every major town and city. Current cycling route in Glasgow touched the edge of Milton but didn’t go through it. In order to attract cycler go through Milton, we decided to create a cycle friendly routine across Milton, connecting the three major cycling route at the edge of Milton. As indicated before, the empty street front, lack of road hierarchy made the car speed quite fast in Milton and needs a lot of speed bumps to reduce the speed. So a new cycle route requires certain traffic calming strategy to ensure the safety of the cycler. About two blocks away from our boundary, there is a abandoned train station with some left over rails. It could be a great opportunity to transform the abandoned building into a cycling centre. (For further detail about the train station please refer to booklet No.9)
National Cycle Route Proposed Cycle Friendly Route
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This project is a bold and detailed masterplan for regeneration over the next 25 years, aiming to provide a practical experiment to UK housing crisis. It works as an urban periphery typology: recreating 6 functioning neighbourhoods with characteristics to play as whole to reshape Milton urban blocks, safe and attractive streets, new station and public transportation hub. Milton is going to develop as an attractive urban periphery area: strong public transportation links, pedestrianised and walkable neighbourhoods, economic land values. A well connected, mixed-use neighbourhood to promote sustainability and compact layout. In this regeneration project, a strong Milton centre will be defined by stages and new landmark buildings. These elements will add sensory rich beauty to the new Milton. It will be vital to work on street network, neighbourhoods and attractive places.
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Mix-use Residential area
Cycling Centre
Low Density houses
Market Street
Bishopbriggs Gateway
Community Centre
The design area is divided into six different zones serving different services. The Community Centre area will be the commercial and community service centre, where most of the activities happens. The Market street area will be the centre of local food distributor, selling food grew by residence in the community garden, and some local product made in the light industrial site in the proposal. The mix-use residential area, Bishopbriggs gateway and low density houses area is the main residential area, with a great mix of housing typology and density. The cycling centre connect to the national cycling network, and serves the cycler travels here while serving the residences.
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