Super Cities is one of our first initiatives; designed to challenge conventional thinking about what makes cities flourish and how the next generation of innovative cities will evolve.
Flourishing cities and communities are characterised by the dynamism and creativity of the people who live and work in them.bYet spatial planning, the built environment and ecological sustainability dominate conventional place-making policy and practice. Little emphasis is placed on understanding and influencing how places function socially by the people who design, manage and govern them.
Place-making must make a leap from prioritizing the form and fabric of places to creating and enhancing the conditions for people and communities to thrive. This means a shift in focus and scale to reconnect place-making to everyday experience and social needs: from designing physical infrastructure to designing services to support people; from prioritizing buildings to thinking about community wellbeing; from a focus on the city to the city’s streets and neighbourhoods; from technology as invisible infrastructure to dynamic and interactive data that helps people navigate services and make informed choices
The next generation of cities and communities need to find innovative new patterns of everyday living to meet the challenges of urban population growth, ageing societies and climate change. We work with public and private organisations to put these ideas into practice through innovation.