Live Bridge over the M8

“Walls turned sideways are bridges.”  by Angela Davis

As urbanisation reaches its peak today, the gap between the rich and the poor, racial discrimination, and urban crime have become common in daily life. Modern society has entered a tightly woven, super-connected society like a spider web. However, architecture shows a non-local urban structure that connects only some strongholds like threads. Glasgow is one of the representative post-industrialisation cities and faces many urban issues. In particular, the M8 handles and connects a lot of transportation, but it has a side of the destruction of existing contexts and cultures. This interferes with people’s exchange and destroys the community. M8 will have to exist in our lives for a while, but the form and proportion in our life can be changed.

Not only the M8, but Clydeside Expressway is also a huge barrier for pedestrians. Moreover, the river acts as a barrier in many places, dividing communities and limiting access. Wider regional connections are provided by the Kingston Bridge and the Clyde Tunnel. But, these routes do not fully contribute to the complex, urban scale network of walking, cycling and public transportation routes that link communities and help support activity concentrations. Anderston+Kingston Bridge is a meeting point of all the transportation networks having huge potential. Both river corridor and M8 have the potential to be one of the most important movement spines within Glasgow when we repairing and creating continuous, human-centred movement networks along river and M8. It can be the integrated places with good links to public transport and the services provided by town centres. In turn, this enhanced connectivity can support and attract clusters of cultural attractions and knowledge-based organisations which thrive in physical proximity. It would be the first example of a master plan bringing people back to lost space.