Flowing Together - From Small to Large: the Clyde River in Galsgow, Scotland

The main goal of the project is to re-think how a site contaminated by historic industry could reveal its potentials through social and sensory engagement with nature. Several goals, which seem contradictory at first, form different currents of the same proposal. The first is to return the river to the people. This includes, both providing physical connections and re-establishing a relationship with the landscape through experience. The second goal is to understand the river not as a single basin of water, but as a system of tributaries and habitats, which can provide local communities with badly-needed public space and a new way to move through this natural water system. Lastly, wildlife is returning to Glasgow and taking refuge in post-industrial, contaminated sites like this one. Keeping this in mind, the project wishes to protect the site from too much urban pressure that would, "fix it up" and take away its role as a wild place in the city. To achieve both a place for people and for wilderness, spaces on the site are grouped into edge spaces and interior spaces. The edges of the site are close to existing communities, which have strong grassroots activism and can be developed both as interlinking public spaces, connecting the Clyde River to communities. The inner parts of the site are heavily contaminated and require more energy and time to remediate. The project proposes phytoremediation as a slow process so that these spaces can resist the pressure of urban development and remain refuges for wildlife. The project revolves around the interactions and interdependency of the edges (humans) and the interior (wildlife) through time. Ultimately, the project seeks to create opportunities to re-common and heal a fragmented river system in the city. It uses sensual experience, activism and public art to confront people about the past and to offer a future in which we can care about the landscape.Award-winnin