On the 23rd of March 2020 Glasgow, much like the rest of Scotland the United Kingdom, went into lockdown. Overnight people and communities were confined to their homes and as a result the digital revolution was brought forward – access to the internet became a vital commodity for staying in touch with friends and family, entertainment and maintaining a good mental health outlook in the face of isolation and solidarity. 

As people began adapting to this new way of living ideas began to float around about how we reimagine our communities and cities to be greener and more resilient. This engagement took place across social media platforms such as Twitter and these conversations focused around holistic design for large scale communities (the whole of Glasgow, for example). 

This one-size-fits-all approach has in the short term led to some successful projects, however this is all still happening with a top-down approach. 

Andy Behan’s ‘Refresh Glasgow’ proposal seeks to address that by transforming and reinventing the Glasgow City Council website to be inspirational, inspiring and, most importantly, community focused. 

His design led approach highlights that in a digital world we need to have a space where we can host community engagement from a grassroots level up, and that these conversations can feed into a positive vision for the future of the community we each call home.