Negroni Talks #S17 Invisible City
11 June
Greater Glasgow & Clyde
Time
18:30 - 20:00
Date(s)
11 June
Location
Collective Architecture, 13 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HY
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Supporters
Organiser
fourth_space
The Negroni Talks – hosted by architects Fourthspace – were set up to capture the lively and provocative debates that took place in the European café culture of the early twentieth century - www.fourthspace.co.uk/events.
Glasgow is a city of contradictions. It's proud and warm, yet fiercely divided. It’s rich in culture but poor in cohesion. We need to explore the idea of reciprocity - or the lack of it - in Glasgow’s urban life. Who’s giving to the city, and who’s taking? Why do some communities thrive while others remain stuck? And how do invisible barriers (cultural, economic and even psychological) shape who belongs and who benefits?
Metropolitan Glasgow population is 1.7million, the 4th largest in the UK, yet as a result of local and regional political boundary changes in the 1990s, the city centre has a population of only 28,000. Many of the buildings within the renowned 19th Century gridded centre lie empty and derelict, despite imagery about positive regeneration of city life, identity and culture that do little to address growing obsolescence.
Glasgow’s more affluent suburbs that had once been within a wider city council jurisdiction, use city centre services regularly without contributing to council tax income. This, along with short term policies from an often problematic GCC, has hollowed out the city centre over time, transforming the city centre into a poor, downbeat urban environment.
The ‘Golden Z’ style mile, the St.Enoch centre proposals, and other commerce led regeneration initiatives seem rigid and relentlessly willful, can we visualise a different city where there is greater exchange between those who consider urban life important? Can we shape something more resilient and less short-term? And, if so, what do we need to activate this?
