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Wednesday 12 November 2014
Friday 29 August 2014
Rediscovering hidden Liverpool
There are many things for an Urbanist to love about Liverpool. I rediscovered many of them when I revisited the city this summer to attend the International Festival of Business.
I studied Urban Design at John Moores University in the late 90's, did a couple of consultancy commissions there in the early Noughties and have been back a few times since on social/cultural visits. I know the place reasonably well, but it's been over a decade since I went off the beaten track there and thought it was worth a post.
Parts of the City have been completely transformed. The central area now links seamlessly to the waterfront via Liverpool One and connects a 21st Century retail and leisure experience to the waterfront which contains the maritime DNA of the City.
Link from Liverpool One to Albert Dock on what was previously Chavasse Park
Mixture of old and new on the waterfront
New restaurants and bars that help link Liverpool One to the waterfront
The maritime culture of Liverpool has given the City its distinctive accent (via the immigration of Irish labourers), its food (the lobscouse broth from which the city's inhabitants derive their nickname) and it's trading history which catalysed the building of banks, warehouses, trade halls and pubs.
Whilst the new additions to the City are important, it is the older parts of the City that make Liverpool what it is. There is an interesting architectural language that binds maritime cities like Liverpool to Hull, Cardiff (Butetown / Mount Stuart Square), Bordeaux, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and many others. Of these Liverpool, I think, communicates this maritime character most convincingly because so little of it has been polished and Disneyfied as a 'visitor experience'. You won't have to look far to see the City that Liverpool once was and arguably still is.
The economic marginalisation of the City in the 70's, 80's and early 90's has meant that much of the city's grit (even some of the detritus) have remained, which is actually really positive because it provides such a strong sense of place and a palpable link to the past.
What really struck me about returning to the City is how the older, gritty, parts of Liverpool are often only a street a way from the glossy consumer-driven places. In cities like Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester the really interesting (slightly feral!) parts of the city are not always that easy to find, having been cleaned up or swept away by previous generations of development. In Liverpool, you don't need to walk far to find interesting backstreet pubs, 'lost' streets and old port buildings still bursting with a myriad of activity. Just because these parts of the City don't have a Costa coffee franchise doesn't mean that they aren't desirable, or valuable to the City's economic wellbeing or sense of place.
Side streets between warehouses being used for (not very sexy) employment uses
I studied Urban Design at John Moores University in the late 90's, did a couple of consultancy commissions there in the early Noughties and have been back a few times since on social/cultural visits. I know the place reasonably well, but it's been over a decade since I went off the beaten track there and thought it was worth a post.
Parts of the City have been completely transformed. The central area now links seamlessly to the waterfront via Liverpool One and connects a 21st Century retail and leisure experience to the waterfront which contains the maritime DNA of the City.
The maritime culture of Liverpool has given the City its distinctive accent (via the immigration of Irish labourers), its food (the lobscouse broth from which the city's inhabitants derive their nickname) and it's trading history which catalysed the building of banks, warehouses, trade halls and pubs.
Whilst the new additions to the City are important, it is the older parts of the City that make Liverpool what it is. There is an interesting architectural language that binds maritime cities like Liverpool to Hull, Cardiff (Butetown / Mount Stuart Square), Bordeaux, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and many others. Of these Liverpool, I think, communicates this maritime character most convincingly because so little of it has been polished and Disneyfied as a 'visitor experience'. You won't have to look far to see the City that Liverpool once was and arguably still is.
The economic marginalisation of the City in the 70's, 80's and early 90's has meant that much of the city's grit (even some of the detritus) have remained, which is actually really positive because it provides such a strong sense of place and a palpable link to the past.
What really struck me about returning to the City is how the older, gritty, parts of Liverpool are often only a street a way from the glossy consumer-driven places. In cities like Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester the really interesting (slightly feral!) parts of the city are not always that easy to find, having been cleaned up or swept away by previous generations of development. In Liverpool, you don't need to walk far to find interesting backstreet pubs, 'lost' streets and old port buildings still bursting with a myriad of activity. Just because these parts of the City don't have a Costa coffee franchise doesn't mean that they aren't desirable, or valuable to the City's economic wellbeing or sense of place.
Vacant tobacco warehouse on Stanley Dock awaiting a new purpose
By James Brown
Tuesday 5 August 2014
Connectivity the key to a successful City region
The publication of today's report by an alliance of five cities - Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield should be a wake up call to other areas of the UK.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28654134
The recognition that inter-city region connectivity is key to forming a successful northern economic counterbalance to London demonstrates the maturity of the City Region psyche across the north. It also demonstrates an evolution of Prescott's 'Northern Way' - a sinuous economic link across the M62. It is significant that the rail zeitgeist has infused the latest incarnation of Northern urban connectivity. However, what is really telling is that whilst they may not have solved all of their internal challenges, the leadership of these cities have reached a capacity at which they can collectively strategise for a £15bn investment from the Chancellor, much of which is about improving connectivity.
(Image courtesy of BBC News)
This is particularly relevant to Cardiff but also potentially relevant when one looks at Cardiff, and Newport (and potentially Bristol) together. For example, the urban areas around the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal (which include Widnes, Runcorn, Salford, Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester) are already collaborating to deliver an ambitious connectivity, open space and economic development agenda under the banner of Atlantic Gateway.
The need for the very highest levels of frequency, quality and integration across regional public transport is something that the Cardiff Capital City Region Metro will hopefully address. The importance of today's publication by other cities with whom Cardiff should be competing immediately raises the stakes for the Metro in South East Wales. If the region isn't able to deliver the kind of system that globally relevant city regions now require as standard then Cardiff, Newport and the Valleys will see other regions of Britain accelerate into the economic distance.
Friday 3 January 2014
Streets in the Sky for Cyclists
Having awoken from a Quality Street induced coma on the 2nd January, I fired up twitter to see with interest a proposal for an elevated cycling network in London from Foster and Partners. SkyCycle, hoisted above London's rail corridors would carry cyclists safely and swiftly through London, segregated from traffic. Like a High Line for cyclists. The mainstream media have picked up the story (Guardian, The Express and The Times) and from a glance appear to have reacted warmly to the proposal.
Yet the proposals are actually celebrity endorsement of a concept promoted back in the Autumn of 2012 by another architect, Sam Martin of Exterior Architecture (link to article in Daily Mail).
From the lay-persons perspective, what's not to like? SkyCycle offers the vision of being able to avoid potholed roads, not worry about left turning HGV's or having to become an aggressive cyclist as a form of self preservation. Sir Norman has also put a social spin on the vision; that SkyCycle could be used to enjoy cycling with friends as a leisure pursuit.
All of this is an alluring vision. Yet I'm concerned that many commentators are ignoring the cumulative impact of the details that could damage the connectivity and vitality at street level. The 200 access points, many of which will include ramps, will not be the easiest of structures to blend into a city. They are likely to jar against the places around them, whilst the transition points between the ramps and streets could become awkward junctions. This will probably occur because local highway authorities will apply their standard rulebooks to the interactions between different 'highway users' at these points. The results are unlikely to become celebrated places.
The other aspect of SkyCylce that concerns me is that it advocates the segregation of the City. With this we are at risk of returning to 'streets in the sky' (Le Corbusier) or 'graded separation of people and traffic' (Buchanan, Traffic in Towns, 1963).
It was exactly these notions that we have spent the last twenty-five years trying to unravel. (Ironically, it was the publication of Richard Rogers' Urban Task Force report in 1999 that validated the need to remake more British cities to become more humane and integrated).
If we learned anything from placemaking in the 20th century it is that cities work best when they are integrated at street level.
Admittedly, space at street level in London is at a premium. Lessons from Copenhagen (which I visited on a cycling study tour last May) and Amsterdam can only translate so far because the street widths are often more generous. This means that we need to find new physical solutions that give people the confidence to cycle. Potentially, we might also consider adopting a similar legal framework to the one that exists in Denmark that presumes liability upon the driver in the event of a collision with a more vulnerable road user. The impact of this legal change upon street level interactions between drivers and cyclists in Copenhagen is enormous.
I'll be surprised if the SkyCycle concept is capable of withstanding further scrutiny. I'll be equally taken aback if this vision, beneath the glossy image, offers something that is holistic and in tune with what makes places function. In fact, when it comes to superimposed infrastructure like SkyCycle, history proves the opposite.
By James Brown
 |
| Foster & Partners Vision of SkyCycle. |
From the lay-persons perspective, what's not to like? SkyCycle offers the vision of being able to avoid potholed roads, not worry about left turning HGV's or having to become an aggressive cyclist as a form of self preservation. Sir Norman has also put a social spin on the vision; that SkyCycle could be used to enjoy cycling with friends as a leisure pursuit.
All of this is an alluring vision. Yet I'm concerned that many commentators are ignoring the cumulative impact of the details that could damage the connectivity and vitality at street level. The 200 access points, many of which will include ramps, will not be the easiest of structures to blend into a city. They are likely to jar against the places around them, whilst the transition points between the ramps and streets could become awkward junctions. This will probably occur because local highway authorities will apply their standard rulebooks to the interactions between different 'highway users' at these points. The results are unlikely to become celebrated places.
The other aspect of SkyCylce that concerns me is that it advocates the segregation of the City. With this we are at risk of returning to 'streets in the sky' (Le Corbusier) or 'graded separation of people and traffic' (Buchanan, Traffic in Towns, 1963).
 |
| 1963 vision of traffic at street level and people on elevated walkways |
If we learned anything from placemaking in the 20th century it is that cities work best when they are integrated at street level.
Admittedly, space at street level in London is at a premium. Lessons from Copenhagen (which I visited on a cycling study tour last May) and Amsterdam can only translate so far because the street widths are often more generous. This means that we need to find new physical solutions that give people the confidence to cycle. Potentially, we might also consider adopting a similar legal framework to the one that exists in Denmark that presumes liability upon the driver in the event of a collision with a more vulnerable road user. The impact of this legal change upon street level interactions between drivers and cyclists in Copenhagen is enormous.
I'll be surprised if the SkyCycle concept is capable of withstanding further scrutiny. I'll be equally taken aback if this vision, beneath the glossy image, offers something that is holistic and in tune with what makes places function. In fact, when it comes to superimposed infrastructure like SkyCycle, history proves the opposite.
By James Brown
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