Stitching the city: continuity, urban renewal and grassroots action in late-twentieth century Glasgow

The renewal of Woodlands, Glasgow, between the 1970s and 2000s was characterised by historicist architecture, seemingly in line with the post-modernist spirit of the age. However, the programme of renewal, which employed neo-historical aesthetics and traditional housing typologies together with a sense of ?putting back? what had been lost through dereliction and demolition, can be better understood as an example of a more consciously collaborative development agenda which had its roots in a new, consumer-led democratisation of an architectural ?product? towards social development. This agenda was embodied by the Woodlands Residents Association, which reacted to urban decline by organising neighbourhood renewal through the restoration of historic urban fabric, by adapting state policy to local needs and by instigating collaboration with professionals. In this context the renewal of Woodlands typifies the emergence of an ?ordinariness? in architectural design that deployed historical pastiche to stitch both new buildings into the urban fabric and the urban fabric back together, thereby generating meaning, social inclusion, sense of place and continuity, projecting cultural narratives that located the neighbourhood within both the broader Glaswegian identity, and within a European story of urban life.