Description

The public space of neighbourhoods merits as much, if not greater, care than that currently being lavished on the urban cores. Good neighbourhood space is not only a matter of resources, will, or design ambition; here the issue is the very life of these settlements.

Pauline Gallacher considers a project that was ahead of its time in embracing the challenge of neighbourhood public space. The Five Spaces, part of Glasgow's legacy as UK city of architecture and design 1999, sought to demonstrate that high quality design, exemplary art practice and local ownership could deliver useful and sustainable spaces in regeneration settings. Issues of maintenance and use inevitably arise in the account of the projects' first five years. But beyond these lie deeper questions about the function of the public realm in today's suburbs. What, indeed, is the life of such neighbourhoods and how may it be expressed in its spaces?

The book ends by describing an experimental project recently initiated by the author in Neilston, a dormitory village on the outskirts of Glasgow, with a community looking at its own life and attempting the development of an independent, community-based spatial strategy arising from these explorations.

Key coverage

• Everyday Spaces looks at the origins and aspirations of innovative public space, based on a particular project unique for its time.  It reveals a general lack of focus on the issue of public space in ordinary neighbourhoods, in contrast to the increasing amount of attention devoted to city centre locations. This is beginning to change.
• More specifically, it points to an intriguing gap in thinking around what may be called neighbourhood civic spaces-the special, extraordinary episodes that help define an area to itself and to others. What might these spaces be in 21st century neighbourhoods? Are they relevant at all?
• The book begins by looking at Five Spaces for Glasgow, followed by case studies looking at the projects in development and realisation through the reactions of local participants and projects in context of the debate on public spaces as well as expanding on the issues raise by the project descriptions.
• Everyday spaces is not to imply that every kerbside should be saturated with embellishment, but to recognise that all external space, from the school gate to the war memorial, combines to offer a palette of opportunities for the enrichment of our common life.

Contents

• From Barcelona to Possilpark: Five Spaces for Glasgow 
• Case study: Looking again at the Five Spaces, 1999-2002
• Case study issues and the policy context
• Special places: 'civic' space in the neighbourhood
• Common places: the public space of neighbourhoods
• Celebrating the mundane: adding cultural value to physical interventions
• Postscript: Five Spaces, five years and a new project