Month: September 2024

Launched in July, the new Urban ReLeaf Cities app allows users of Dundee’s parks to share their experience of the greenspaces in the city.  Download the app to get started!  At lots of different locations, you can access short surveys containing questions on a range of topics such as ease of access, safety, play facilities, wildlife and flooding.   You can give your personal views of the open space and upload photos. The data collected will be used to inform Dundee City Council’s greenspace strategies with the aim of improving health, wellbeing and biodiversity.

 This exciting citizen science initiative is part of a four-year EU Horizon funded project involving academics, local authorities and others from six European cities, Athens, Cascais, Dundee, Mannheim, Riga and Utrecht.  The Dundee project is a collaboration between Dundee City Council and a team from Dundee University led by Professor Mel Woods.

Find out more at the Urban ReLeaf Dundee website here…

…and read about this subject (and so much more) in our latest Newsflash here.

Dundee City Council, having held a limited consultation exercise about rationalising bus stops, has listened to responses—and is to be given credit for that. The aim had been to remove some bus stops in order to speed up the service. The Civic Trust advocated alternative measures seemingly not being considered, such as improving bus routes, giving priority to buses at busy junctions and speeding up boarding with well proven technology.

In abandoning the rationalisation proposals, the council states that it recognises the point made by objecting groups that removal of bus stops will increase the distance between them! A trifle disingenuous, perhaps? It is, however, rightly acknowledged that this will be a significant issue for elderly or disabled passengers, or those with young children.

Also, however, one wonders if the council may be concerned about its liability for indirect disability discrimination, as those groups will be most affected.

We hope that the council will consult again and take other suggested steps to speed up the bus service, as put forward by Dundee Civic Trust and others.

Since 2019, Dundee Civic Trust has given awards to one or more fourth year Dundee University students studying architecture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. Our aim has been to engage with students and to recognise and promote excellence in their year-long project work. This year’s winner is Chinese student Gavin Wu, whose submission was entitled ‘Revive The Courtyard Vennels: Community Centre and Care Home Design’.

Informed by the environment of central Stirling, Gavin’s project demonstrated a sensitive and contextual use of the traditional archetypes of ‘Vennel Walls’ and ‘Courtyards’, connecting the old backlands together using a vibrant new complex of buildings incorporating a care home and community centre.

We were impressed by this bold attempt to ensure cross-generational interaction between the older people living in the new care home and the younger people using the community centre and hall. More of this vital mixed use planning is needed in our cities. Also of note were the interesting and original construction details, making use of sustainable materials and solar panels.

Gavin made thorough use of well-analysed inspirational precedents, including the John Modern Centre in London by MAE architects—which won the  RIBA Stirling Prize in 2023—and the Foundation Beyeler exhibition centre in Switzerland by Renzo Piano architects.

This is the final year of the award and we look forward to engaging with Dundee School of Architecture students in new ways in the future.