GLASGOW: THE VISIONARY CITY

For Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2025 we are asking participants and festivalgoers, ‘What type of city will Glasgow be in the future?’ A wheeling city? A circular economy city? A learning city? As we celebrate the city’s 850th Birthday, we invite you to share your vision of your community, your Glasgow.

Glasgow has always been a city of ambition and action. We think of ourselves as a liveable, ever-changing, ‘can do’ city. A place of thinkers and doers. For decades Glasgow’s dynamic energy has drawn citizens and visitors alike to live, play, work and visit the city. We’ve been an industrial powerhouse, a retail city, a city of culture and the friendly city.

Sometimes this sense of a big vision pulls the city forward and upwards: Glasgow’s Miles Better, European City of Culture, the 2014 Commonwealth Games, People Make Glasgow.

Sometimes it’s led to big bold moves which, in retrospect, harm the city’s future in the name of progress. The Bruce Plan of the 1950s, cutting a motorway through the heart of the city, clearing out of communities to the city’s periphery, rapid depopulation.

But as the city changes again, what is its vision of itself today? What will drive us forward? And what part can we play in helping it get to where it’s going next?

From 18–21 September, we invite you to share your hopes and ideas for Glasgow’s future. In partnership with Glasgow Disability Alliance and Bikes for Good, we’re promoting active travel to and from festival venues. Keep an eye out for our cycling and wheeling maps in our flyers.

Our mobile exhibition, The Air We Breathe, will travel through the city by bike, celebrating progress in air quality and inspiring action to reduce carbon emissions. A wide programme of free, all-ages events, celebrating our festival theme and Glasgow’s wheeling heritage will take place at our Festival Hub at the ARC, University of Glasgow.