WE need to adapt our living patterns to the modern world ("Dear Green Place is clogged with roads, traffic and pollution warns key report", The Herald, June 14).
The great British house-owning boom came after the Second World War. The aspirations of the median family with 2.5 children for a detached or semi-detached house in the suburbs is based in the 1950s. The solution for the lower percentile was banishment to badly designed high-rise buildings with no amenities or services. Communities in the slums of the Gorbals or Maryhill were destroyed by the planners who failed to grasp the meaning of life.
We need to plan and develop for the 21st century, not the last. Look at any residential suburb and you see waste. Waste of space, waste of resident’s time, children living in isolation, connected by their mobile devices. In suburbia, the front or back garden is a symbolic useless space. The driveway houses two cars to ferry the children to school and any after-school activities that are still on the agenda. The children aren’t safe on the streets because of traffic or malevolent individuals lurking in the minds of the parents.
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the world’s tallest residential building with 161 floors. Buildings to 100 floors are now routine. They offer a 21st century solution to the problems of the Dear Green Place.
There are 21 high-speed elevators in the Burj Khalifa, giving a new meaning to rapid transit. With proper design, such a building can solve the problems of modern living from birth to old age. A hospital floor, kindergarten, primary and secondary school, studio flats for singles, one and two-bedroom flats for the newly married, three or four bedroom for families, a care home for the elderly in the same building as their extended family. A secure reception area with retail facilities and 24 hour services. Restaurants and cafes on the ground and first floors. The economy of scale allows good transport links within the city, a car no longer a daily necessity. For travel outside the city, rental cars are available through reception.
The outdoor space must address the needs of all residents for recreation, connection with nature and easy access. We need to build to connect us again, not lead separate lives.
The solution is up, not out.
John Black,
The Scottish Jacobite Party,
6 Woodhollow House,
Helensburgh.
SANDRA Dick states that Glasgow is known as the Dear Green Place due to the parks in the city; it is far more likely the term relates to the Gaelic/Cumbric name Glas Cau, meaning green basin or green valley.
I am indebted to Wikipedia for refreshing my memory regarding this.
Ian M Forrest,
Dalveen,
Garvock Road,
Laurencekirk.
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