Garnethill Park Rennovation
Garnethill Park Rennovation from Tom Lever
Garnethill Park Rennovation

The main body of our second semester was another collaboration with the Mackintosh School of Architecture. This project was on a much lager scale, a live project set by the local council to propose some real solutions for the rennovation of a local urban park.

By far, the main focus of this project became community engagement. In our group, we made it the central aim to hold the potential end users of the park by our side throughout the entire process. Our ideas were presented to both the council and the community at the end of this project.

A major leaning point on this project was collecting a wealth of information and inspiration, and stepping out of my comfort zone to take opportunites to engage with users in a way that was not merely superficial box ticking.

by Tom Lever, Jamie Snedden and Ellen Britten

Our research started by investigating deeply the cultural and physical issues with the park and others like it, such as the effect of lighting, benefits of open spaces, and problems such as littering and desire lines.
By far, the main focus of this project became community engagement. In our group, we made it the central aim to hold the potential end users of the park by our side throughout the entire process. This included arranged speakers at our school, but also privately arranged discussions and meetings with the community council, local parent groups, the elderly, and other educational and cultural institutions.
One of our major findings was that the park's problems were more than physical. There needed to be effort from both the council and the community in order to sustain a park into the future. Our phased solution aims to address this by growing investment in the park as the community organises over time. We also suggested the formation of a new institution, the Garnethill Creative Spaces Group, after feedback that the ampitheatre, and any potential art spaces are limited in use due to lack of cohesion in the community between individuals and institutions, and due to local council red tape.
Our final plan organises several developments into stages, and meets the 100k budget set by the council comfortably.
The main aim of the first stage is to provide the physical backbone on which the park can grow, as well as producing a visual impact that would reassure the community that the council really is willing to do something to the space.
The second stage provides new wild spaces, a new play area and new lighting. These attempt to solve the issues of underuse of the park and a perceived lack of security. These features require more maintenance and engagement, in keeping with our plan to grow the communities involvement in the park.
Stage three is the final part of the plan, the pyramid is a real 'marmite' peice, dividing the communities opinions, so we have gone for a conservative approach, which erases negatives (dark areas), whilst giving the symbolic structure a new use. The fountain, currently turned on an off (rarely) by the council, will be handed over to the community to promote it's use, and as a symbol of the communities development.
This PDF which formed the majority of our hand-in, gives a much more in-depth look at the progress of the project as a whole.
View PDF
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Garnethill Park Rennovation

The main body of our second semester was another collaboration with the Mackintosh School of Architecture. This project was on a much lager scale, a live project set by the local council to propose some real solutions for the rennovation of a local urban park.

By far, the main focus of this project became community engagement. In our group, we made it the central aim to hold the potential end users of the park by our side throughout the entire process. Our ideas were presented to both the council and the community at the end of this project.

A major leaning point on this project was collecting a wealth of information and inspiration, and stepping out of my comfort zone to take opportunites to engage with users in a way that was not merely superficial box ticking.

by Tom Lever, Jamie Snedden and Ellen Britten

Tom Lever
Product Design Engineering MEng Student Glasgow, United Kingdom