Initial Recommendations

1. Transport
1.1 Design to discourage through-traffic, using careful road-network design or some other traffic calming measure.
1.2 Design to discourage car use within the development; ensure shopping areas and other facilities are within amiable walking distance of the most of the homes.
1.3 Provide adequate and discreet parking
1.4 Provide usable and safe cycle paths, which connect well (internally and externally) with the cities existing and planned cycle routes. Adequate and secure facilities for parking and locking bicycles near shops and facilities.
1.5 Provide usable and safe pedestrian routes throughout the development, sensibly designed to encourage residents to use them.
1.6 Infrastructure to support interconnection with the existing city bus network, and infrastructure to support a possibly augmented service.

2. Building materials and design
2.1 Where possible building materials should be sourced from local suppliers, with good environmental records.
2.2 Materials used should be of low embodied energy.
2.3 Dwellings should be designed to make most efficient use of energy and resources; highly insulated, long lasting materials, double glazing etc.
2.4 All dwellings should be designed to maximise the benefit of solar radiation. They should be orientated to allow the incorporation of passive solar spaces for heating season gains and with shading devices to minimise summer heat gains. Maximum benefit should be taken from solar insolation, having a large amount of glazing on the southern facades and a small amount on the northern façade.
2.5 The dwellings should be well sealed and airtight, and employ a mixed mode ventilation system. In winter, a heat exchanger system, using warm extracted air from kitchen and bathroom areas to warm fresh external air, should be employed as a displacement ventilation system, and in summer natural ventilation should be used with a degree of heat recovery when necessary.
2.6 Simple, comprehensible and easy to read meters should be attached on all services; water, electricity, gas etc., in all dwellings.
2.7 Dwellings should incorporate a high level of control for all electrical functions. Electricity use could be monitored, and where possible automatically turned off when not in use.
All dwellings could incorporate a system of wiring to enable both local and remote control and monitoring of internal environmental conditions, consumption metering of fuel and utilities, remote switching of major appliances such as freezers and refrigerators. This wiring should be terminated and connected to a field-bus system encompassing the entire community and emanating from the former washhouse building (see separate section).
The planned energy management and monitoring system (EMS) should

• remotely monitor consumption of gas, electricity and water
• remotely monitor internal conditions such as set-point and space temperatures.
• enable remote switching of power to refrigerators, etc. to assist in demand/supply matching where renewable energy sources may be in use.

3. Waste and resources
3.1 Greywater tanks and recirculation systems should be used in dwellings to make best use of water.
3.2 Downpipes from roofs should be designed and installed to facilitate rainwater collection.
3.3 Road run-off should be channelled back to water/irrigate any common garden area or allotment area.
3.4 There should be waste separation stations at frequent intervals throughout the development.
3.5 There should be facilities for both individual and communal composting with an input from the local Landscaping and Parks department.

4. Energy Supply
4.1 Central/district heating schemes should definitely be employed in the larger blocks of dwellings. This will result in using less energy, cheaper bills for customers, and better building maintenance. Investigations suggest that individual semi-detached/detached homes are easily distinguished from social housing and should be avoided if social inclusion is to be promoted.
The following items also indicate potential sources for such a scheme.
4.2 The former mine workings should be investigated to if there is potential to use the groundwater as a source for heating. Water could be extracted and using heatpumps, this could be used to fuel a district or communal heating scheme.
4.3 As the development will incorporate a large number of houses, there is significant scope to include a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) scheme. This could be a simple gas turbine, used to generate electricity, and the exhaust heat could be again used to fuel a district heating scheme.
4.4 Negotiations should take place with the industries in the locality, to ascertain if waste heat is readily accessible and is available in sufficient quantities to fuel the heating scheme.
4.5 Ducted wind turbines (similar to those used in the lighthouse) could be employed along the roofs of some of the taller buildings. While the potential power would not be sufficient to service the dwellings, it could be used for lighting of common areas, or other communal uses.
4.6 A run-of-river scheme could be incorporated in the Clyde. Similarly to the wind turbines, this would not generate a large amount of power, but it could be used for communal functions.

5. Environmental and Health
5.1 There are clearly areas of contaminated land within the area of regeneration. A Public Body prior to development should identify the level of pollution, prior to development, and the specific locations with a view to clearance.
In this way the contamination will not become a barrier to development and regeneration.
5.2 The Polmadie Burn is believed to be polluted. The types of contamination should be identified with a view to creating a reed-bed in the vicinity of the Richmond Park prior to the point where the burn meets the River Clyde.
5.3 An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) would be used to identify existing pollution sources, their preferred methods of de-contamination and means of preventing continued contamination.
5.4 The Health Board should plan for the construction of a satellite General Practice centre or clinic. This would be in addition to but based and administered and supported from the main Gorbals Health Centre. Such a satellite would avoid the use of motor cars by ensuring that the clinic was within reasonable walking distance of all dwellings. This would promote walking, cycling and health, Use of open spaces, encourage security, discourage minor criminal activity and promote confidence, overcome fear and inhibitions etc.
5.5 Low energy homes and affordable warmth ensures comfortable indoor conditions and thereby healthful living conditions indoors.
5.6 Decontamination and the removal of pollution, would refurbish the land and return it to a healthy condition for people going about their daily work and leisure activities.

6. Miscellaneous
6.1 The tops of large buildings should contain roof gardens.
6.2 The development should incorporate small offices which would be available to local residents if they wished to transfer their business location.
6.3 All dwellings should be connected with more than one phone line to enable connection to the internet and also a possible intranet.
6.4 An assessment of the present dwellings should be carried out to ensure if it is really worthwhile keeping them. There is good reason to suggest that taking them down and starting afresh would be more advisable.
6.5 There is also within the bounds of the site, situated at the junction of Fauldhouse Street and Wolseley Street, the former Oatlands public baths and wash house.

Constructed during 1933 and officially opened on June 1933, it is currently derelict but of sound construction in engineering brick with its own integral brick-built chimney. This could be reclaimed as a University/ local Community asset.

It could provide a location for incorporating wind and solar energy plant and provide a centre of supervisory control and data acquisition to measure and monitor progress in a sustainable community.

Data recordings of actual integrated performance could be compared with simulations and predictions and also with consumption patterns if no improvements had been conducted.

The real time results and comparisons could then be viewed locally or relayed to, say, the new science centre for educational purposes. This new Glasgow Science Centre (phase one is due to open in Autumn 2000) is one of the many renewal and development schemes that have helped to provide employment and attract new investment to the city. Located at Pacific Quay, the centre is to contain a Planetarium and Exploratorium with a mixture of exhibits where visitors will learn about a range of scientific topics and engage with interactive displays.

The building could also fulfil a purpose as a resource for Community offices and conference facilities including site architects and the regeneration area's project manager.

It might also include a local heritage centre or satellite museum facility to reconstruct in part a 'steamie' or public wash house utilising the fitments which the nearby Peoples Palace has undoubtedly stored in their archive stocks.

This would constitute a valuable community resource to increase peoples awareness of sustainability as a subject and the choices which might be facing us all, to educate them as to how we can avoid future problems, to change the mind-set of the whole population and finally, to demonstrate to other cities and countries what can be achieved and what may best be avoided.


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