The Urban Tyneside

Early March ’22, as the spring is nearing and the days start to get longer, I took a trip through Newcastle, capturing images and breathing the fresh air. Despite still being in the city, Newcastle is certainly open and welcoming enough to feel relieving to walk through, and take the edge off the mental health crisis looming from a season of deadlines. It is interesting, however, when we study Newcastle through first-hand experience, how much the people who have designed spaces here, have considered them, just how Pelli imagines, ‘responsible and contributing citizens’.

Despite the developer-esque approach some architects have taken around central Newcastle, no building is more over-powering than another. Each allows its neighbours to breathe, giving space to pedestrians, and wide expansive streets, intertwined with snaking greenery and winter-struck trees. Materiality is carefully chosen, seeking to compliment those around and constantly reflect back to the cities’ strong industrial heritage. No, one building seeks dominance in Newcastle; There is no oppressive nature as found in other cities.

Perhaps the nature of the development of the city is testament to the rich histories of architectural theory and design that run through the streets. Time and time again, the two universities of Newcastle have brought incredible architectural thinkers to the city, who have each made it their mission to imprint their legacies into its bloodline. John Dobson, Thomas Sharp, Terry Farrell, and countless others, have each imprinted their memories into the fabric of the Urban landscape here, dedicating time to a place they love, close to their hearts, a place they once called home.

Alongside the incredible thinkers, the forward attitudes of both Universities bring opportunities to Newcastle that are almost unimaginable to implement on such a scale, in such a short space of time. Newcastle University was one of the first Universities in the world to recognise a Global Climate Crisis, pledging to improve their carbon output and reduce waste. In doing so, Newcastle has become one of the largest, greenest cities in the United Kingdom. Not only are spaces in the city shared delicately with the natural world, but spaces within and around buildings are now becoming ever-more integrated.

What Pelli touches on in his statement to the world on Urban Buildings, is the idea that the spaces we design aren’t just to be lived in, just to be used, they’re spaces that should improve the overall standards of living, provide wellbeing, in addition to also considering the wider environment – beyond the human condition.

This is the fundamental flaw of modernist construction. Whilst designers and thinkers became engrossed in improving the human condition, the human way of life, they quickly neglected to consider the consequences of damaging the environment we inhabit. Pelli argues his own structures should be responsible; They should have the character to reflect on these consequences and produce solutions which improve and overall contribute to the greater good of society and the environment.

Newcastle is certainly a step in the right direction when considering the future of cities, but there is still far more to be considered. With the great minds at work exploring the world of Bio-technical structures and Modular Recyclable Units, buildings will be one less contributor to the Great Climate Problem. The question however, continues for other cities, on how these wonderous technologies of the future, integrate to bring space to nature that doesn’t yet exist, rather than greenwash structures with fancy wording and algae coloured glass.