Between the end of February and mid March 1994 the Urban Design Studies Unit at the University of Strathclyde organised four seminars about the role of urban design in the regeneration of Glasgow. First, the seminars were not events at which the 'converted' talk to each other but meetings at which sceptical but open-minded professionals of all the city's agencies, departments, associations and groups actively involved in the regeneration of the city came together to listen to arguments and comparisons and discuss issues and problems of their concern. What is also remarkable is that the series was initiated not by the University but the City of Glasgow's Town Clerks Office in collaboration with planners and architects involved in the regeneration of the Gorbals.
Hatched section shows central and southern areas with coherent urban structure.
Dotted section shows areas of comprehensive redevelopment during 1950s and 1960s. Support was considerable, perhaps indicative of the importance attributed to the discussions. But major contributions were also made by many delegates in form of questions, comments or even short papers. First, there are many here in Glasgow who believe that they actually do design the city and have strategies. In response to their claim it was relatively easy to demonstrate that in Glasgow we design individual parts of the city but, with a few notable exceptions, ignore the need to generate a design framework for the integration of all these parts into good towns and a good city.