Application of Micro- and Macro- structure: The Case of Glasgow
5.5 Conclusions
It would make sense to start consolidation of the city in the more central areas because this would achieve more continuity of development with the appropriate structure and density right next to, and in good connection with, the already densely developed and well-structured city centre and the northern inner south- east/north-west development belt west of it. This would result in the priority regeneration of areas directly east, south and north of the city centre, and indeed one such project is already under way with the regeneration of the Crown Street area in the Gorbals, presently Glasgow’s most coherent approach to the regeneration of a deprived area just south of the city centre, intended to bring people back into this inner-city zone. However, the regeneration of all urban areas in the city to the same levels of quality and density as pursued in the Crown Street Regeneration Project might not be feasible unless the regeneration would entice more people and businesses to locate in the city. This reinforces the conviction that one strategy alone cannot solve all problems, and a combination of them may have to be applied.
Combination of Strategies
In reality all three strategies may well form part of a regeneration programme for the city and conurbation. All areas other than those that are already rather dense and well structured may undergo some form of compaction; some people and businesses may be attracted into the city because of added bonuses resulting from ongoing regeneration programmes; and some areas may be so derelict and so badly located that their regeneration into sustainable entities may prove too costly and thus they may actually be given up in favour of the regeneration of other, more promising areas.
A decision as to the right strategy needs to be based (a) on a thorough understanding of the qualities and deficiencies of all areas on the basis of the sustainability criteria already used earlier, and (b) on an assessment of the amount of restructuring required in each neighbourhood and district and the long-term costs and benefits of their restructuring. Regeneration of a district is in the end viable only if it can achieve within reasonable economic and social costs the required population density as well as affordable services and facilities and public transport, because only then will a district become a well-functioning and attractive part of a sustainable conurbation or city region. This in turn means that a decision to regenerate an individual district will have to be based (a) on the long-term costs and benefits of regeneration based on each of the three strategies, and (b) on the impact of the regeneration of a district on the entire conurbation and urban region.
investigation has also shown that for the region and conurbation of Glasgow the polycentric net is the most suitable macro-structure.
That Glasgow fits the polycentric net is, of course, no evidence of the general applicability of this macro-structure model of a city region. It happens to fit because of the specific development patterns as a result of specific topographical conditions of the city region, a unique historical development process and specific socio-economic conditions. Other city regions can be expected to have different features and may therefore demand the application of a different macro-structure model or even
5–24. The macro-structure of the Rhine-Main region in Germany (based on Fig. 3.29 which is reproduced by kind permission of the Magistrate of the city of Frankfurt am Main)
a combination of different models.
The admittedly rather superficial return to the Rhine-Main region in Germany (Fig. 5.24) leads to the conclusion that in its centre (Frankfurt am Main) conditions may be similar to those in the Glasgow conurbation, albeit with a more compact inner area, specifically along the river, and more fragmented outer areas. But then this central area of the region is linked to rather fragmented development clusters, some of which form chains along transport routes. The overall structure of the region is still a kind of polycentric net but with two dominant linear development strips: a major east-west one along the rivers Rhine and Main (with Mainz/wiesbaden to the west, Franlcfurt in the middle and Aschaffenburg to the east) and a major north-south one in the centre of the region (with Darmstadt to the south, Frankfurt am Main in the middle and
Wetzlar/Giesen to the north) (see Magistrat der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, 1997, p. 22; 1995, pp. 11,15). The configuration of the Rhine-Main region is therefore a combination of net and linear development.
It appears therefore that the macro-structure of an individual town or city is in the end of relatively little significance when it comes to the definition of the form of a more readily sustainable conurbation or city region. It is the entire polycentric net that has to be taken into consideration; the existing conditions of such a net cannot be ignored, let alone easily changed. However, of considerable significance with regard to sustainability is the micro-structure of all parts of the net, which consists of a hierarchy of provision centres of different capacity (from neighbourhood to district to town and city centre) linked by a hierarchy of transport links of different capacity (from walkway and cycle path to motorway and from bus to LRT and railway). This structure provides not only access throughout the city, conurbation or region to a variety of services and facilities and to open land but also a high degree of mobility and in spatial and formal terms the potential for imageability of individual neighbourhoods, districts and towns.
A precondition for the viability of the micro-structure is a relatively modest degree of compactness of the development clusters (e.g. an average gross population density of around 60 persons per hectare throughout the city region).
Compactness is not, however, required, and not even possible, in the city or city region at large, because of the inclusion of open land. It is needed in the individual neighbourhoods and districts and perhaps also towns that form the city or region.
This confirms what was concluded at the end of the evaluation of city models in Chapter 3. A city, conurbation or city region can have any of a variety of macro-structures and still score well with regard to sustainability criteria.
Preconditions are that it has in all its parts the appropriate micro-structure and that extreme forms of compactness and concentration of population (in the form of a very large core city with a rather remote countryside) and extreme forms of decentralisation and dispersal of population (in the form of a galaxy of settlements or neighbourhoods) are avoided.
It has become clear in this investigation that the search for a generally valid sustainable city form is a bit of a red herring. What really counts is the search for a sustainable conurbation or city region. It has been demonstrated that in the region and conurbation of Glasgow a rudimentary micro-structure of the required nature does already exist and that this structure can be improved and expanded across the entire region without major upheaval and without major restructuring of the existing development pattern. What still requires investigation is how the micro-structure can be implemented in individual urban districts; this will be demonstrated with the help of a number of examples in Chapter 6.
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