Shared space

When we talk about space, what do we mean? Often, we think about physical space, the space between buildings, the spaces that surround us. However, there is another space that we all understand, people space. We have personal space, community spaces, thinking space. Successful places pull these spaces together. They enable 'shared spaces'. Too often in our villages, towns and cities we don't have shared space. Indeed, some argue that we often don't have communities, we have residencies; individual groups doing their own thing, rarely engaging. To re-invigorate our urban places we need to reconnect people to places and people to each other. We need more shared spaces. Shared space is a key element of the Scottish Renaissance Towns approach. We promote shared space in a number of ways:

• understanding community priorities [the shared space of common life]


• understanding local priorities and who can do what [the shared space of collaboration]


• understanding the link between national policies and local action [the shared space of policy]

Shared space is all about people. Achieving better shared spaces to enable better community life, vibrant and viable places needs a clear strategy for delivery. The Shared space concept helps again in terms of :

• exploring new ways of thinking and doing together [the shared space of delivery]


• making the right interventions in the right place for the right reasons [the spared space of good places]

We recognise that shared space is a good approach. It is starting to become practical in many ways. Roads and streets are increasingly working to the shared space agenda. 'Designing Designing Streets the forthcoming guidance from the Scottish Government promotes streets as shared spaces, which balance place and link functions. This means that we need to understand streets as more than just a traffic corridor. It is a place for people. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment [CABE] think so too. Their report on Streets for people argues coherently for a more balanced view of how we use the spaces in our urban areas.

Demos, the think tank on democracy have thought about shared people spaces. Their publication Equally Spaced sets out some interesting ideas for new forms of public space, new forms of public life, new forms of community. The ideas are all there. Making it happen is the exciting bit. Scottish Renaissance Towns are helping to do just that.

Whole Town Strategies

Increasingly, we are recognising that holistic thinking is neded to make better places. Places are about both the physical environment and the people who occupy these environments. Both change, constantly. In this context, places are never fixed. They are ever changing, like a dynamic artform. How then do you suatain a place when the reasons that connect people and place are in constant flux?
The answer to this question requires us to think big and act small. It is hard to get our heads around the whole idea of a town or city. It is easier to understand a neighbourhood or stret. However, just like a russian doll, everything fits together, each part makes a contribution to the next. Whole town strategiesmust allow us to work at both levels, in a clear and practical way. Scottish Renaissance Towns offers one way forward. The Neilston charter looks at the town as a whole, and the components within it. It was derived by people for people, and links local agendas with bigger issues. On October 29th, the learning from the Neilston pilot will be presented at a conference on Whole town strategies. We look forward to both making a contribution and learning from the discussions, and progressing holistic place based thinking.

Scottish Award for Quality in Planning shortlisting

The Scottish Renaissance Towns model has been shortlisted for the Scottish Quality in Planning Awards [SAQP] 2009 in the 'community category'. The SAQP is designed to celebrate the success of planning in Scotland, and champion better practice. The Scottish Renaissance Towns Model is new, is outcome focused, inclusive and effective. Our central premise of 'shared space', for collaboration and delivery places people at the very centre of urban renaissance. We look forward to the outcome of the SAQP process as part of the ongoing celebration of making better places in Scotland.

What is the modern Scottish town?

What do we mean by a town? or a village? or even a city? The meaning of these urban structures has changed and is changing. Where in the past these words may have meant the centre of a rural catchment, a market place, a centre of regional trade, the modern settlements do not necessarily carry the same meaning. Many town centres for instance are no longer the centre of the communities that surround them. In our modern, digital, mobile world, there are a range of highly complex relationships that conect people to people and people to place. It is as easy to connect across the globe as it is to connect to a local area. In some cases, the global connection is easier.

If the relationships that connect people and places are changing, how do we re-imagine urban places. They still have meaning because they still exist. The challenge is to excite and reclaim these places as places for people.

Herbert Giradet summarises the challenge in his seminal book 'Cities, People, Planet'; How do we create [urban places] of physical beauty and social and cultural diversity that are also environmentally and economicaly sustainable? How can we restore the pulsing heart of conviviality to our [urban places]?

Conviviality is central. We need places to be, to enjoy. It is the essence of being human.

Welcome to Scottish Renaissance Towns

Scotland has is a highly urbanised society. It has a rich and varied urban heritage. This legacy is evident in the streets, buildings and spaces that form the built environment of our villages, towns and cities. Not all have fared well however in our changing world. The reason to be for many towns has changed, or disappeared. Places have lost hope. The built environment has responded. Too many Scottish urban places are characterised by fading glory, deteriorated buildings and spaces.



It is time for a Renaissance of Scotland's urban places.



The Scottish Renaissance Towns Partnership was established to champion Scottish urban places and recover a sense of pride in this key element of Scotland's heritage, and Scotland's future. Neilston is the first Renaissance Town in Scotland. The Scottish Renaissance Towns model was discussed at a conference in Eastwood Conference Centre in Giffnock in June 2009. The conference addressed the broad theme of sustaining a legacy of positive urban communities in a sustainable urban Scotland. The conference culminated in the presentation of the first Scottish Renaissance Towns Charter to East Renfrewshire Council. More details on the Scottish Renaissance Towns model and the outcomes of the conference are available here.

The aim of this blog is to stimulate discussion on the issue of Scottish urban places, and provide a forum within which the range of possible futures for Scotland's urban settlements can be discussed. There can be a renaissance of urban Scotland.