Built Environment & Cities
Changing demographics, smart technologies, shifts towards sustainability, the new prioritisation of resilience, socioeconomic drift and changes in how we live and work are being reflected in our built environment. At every scale – from dwellings and neighbourhoods to entire cities and regions – our built environments are responding to a changing society and a changing planet with a slow but profound revolution.
The relationships between urban design and human needs for health, wellbeing, cohesion, inclusiveness, happiness and productivity, are more apparent than ever, with the pandemic exposing vulnerabilities and demonstrating new models of living, work and play.
Local-scale thinking is becoming a dominant force in planning – from transport to amenity – and is redefining community expectations about livability and the need for economic, safety and community.
Regulation and planning is becoming more sophisticated as it tries to balance aspirational vision, local needs, regulatory compliance and regulatory facilitation.
Individuals, neighbourhoods and communities want to be involved in planning and governing their built environment, and new technologies have made social licence more dynamic, joined-up and impactful than ever.
Environmental sustainability is no longer optional, and waste, emissions, building design and transportation are centre-points of a new mindset in design and innovation.
Ongoing shocks – climate, pandemic, economic, sociocultural – have revealed resilience vulnerabilities in our built environment that need intergenerational planning to resolve.
How we can help
Getting the built environment right is complex. It needs vision in all horizons, engagement across society, and new mindsets, governance and regulation along the journey. Whatever the scale, ThinkPlace can help you to create:
- Future visions for your built environment, engaging stakeholders, communities, experts and regulators to create a cohesive future and the plan to achieve it
- Resilience strategy, to create the governance, integration and strategic priorities needed to build preparedness and capacities for response, recovery and absorption to climate, economic and social shocks
- Co-design programs, to involve stakeholders early on and continuingly in the design of major projects and city-level strategy
- Inclusive design, ensuring that cities meet the diverse needs and aspirations of their communities, across a range of demographics, ability levels and socioeconomic contexts
- Sustainability programs, creating education, nudges and incentives to build community, industry and public sector momentum towards low-waste, low-emission futures
- Regulatory innovation, helping all tiers of government transform their planning, assessment and approval processes to drive better stakeholder engagement, decisions, conditions, and post-approval compliance without creating unsustainable burdens on proponents or community bodies
- City and local experiences – helping shape specific experiences of buildings, neighbourhoods and cities through research, co-design, prototyping and simulation
- Geospatial digital experiences, to help citizens, experts and decision-makers understand the environmental, social and built landscapes that frame new strategies, plans and developments
- Data strategy and its implementation, creating new data assets and their exploitation to power cumulative views and better decisions in every horizon
