Briefly tell us about yourself and your role at ArchTam

I’m a senior BIM manager responsible for setting BIM strategy for projects. Part of that includes introducing new workflows, selecting software technology stacks and introducing change management.

My work involves pushing digital methodologies that optimize BIM processes. On our latest project, Oriel Eye Hospital, we are using next-generation BIM software and process to bring virtual reality to stakeholders to better inform design decisions. Our design team meetings now take place in virtual reality with teams across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Leveraging Autodesk’s Construction Cloud platform, we have added value and innovation, reducing the need for 2D drawings.

Some fun facts about me are that I’m currently writing a digital catalogue on Venetian well heads and I have a YouTube channel, BIM Coffee.

What is your legacy? How do you make an impact?

At ArchTam, we have the potential like no other company to innovate and use digital tools, due to our variety of expertise and disciplines. We’re in a position to change the industry and improve how the industry works.

My proudest moments at work are when I get to demonstrate how the latest digital strategy can improve the design team’s working day. I enjoy seeing the sparkle in someone’s eyes when they realize the benefits and the improved communication. It’s rewarding to support and help improve the design process for project teams.

What’s next in infrastructure for you? How do you see that trend shaping the work you do today?

I believe technology will build a better world. Digital tools and BIM are a part of this, and help with reducing waste, having a more accurate product and allowing the built environment to benefit from digital transformation. It’s an astonishing time to be in AEC amidst Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, and ArchTam is at the forefront of it.

What advice would you give to someone pursing a STEM education or a career in the AEC sector?

My advice would be to take online courses to stay up to date with the latest progressions made in cloud computing. Read the industry standards and attend as many industry events as you can, which are virtual during this time.

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A good example of this is the new Structures and Buildings Allowance (SBA), introduced this year. It is the first new relief under the UK’s capital allowances (CA) regime in more than 10 years. The SBA is designed to stimulate activity in the construction sector, mitigating taxable profits through expenditure incurred on non-residential buildings and structures at a rate of 2 percent per annum over 50 years. Although I won’t seek to assess the detail or operation of the SBA – plenty has been written (refer to our Technical Briefing) – but rather address the practical challenges to be considered and make the argument that this relief doesn’t go far enough as a genuine incentive.

Unlike the CA rules for plant and machinery fixtures, SBA offers only a timing relief for building owners rather than a real cash benefit. The adjustment of base costs upon disposal means that the benefit can be clawed back when you dispose of the asset. Occupiers will be the real beneficiaries as their expenditure will be fully relieved. Undoubtedly there will be a positive impact on working capital for companies that will free up cash for further investment. In practice, there is a requirement for owners to maintain and pass records to future owners for a 50-year period. This is likely to result in future stakeholders losing interest and information with the trail going cold, resulting in a loss of relief, especially where non-taxpayers and traders form part of the ownership cycle. Management of data will be critical to ensure that the benefit is identified, preserved and transferred.

The SBA rules generally exclude all forms of residential accommodation apart from care homes. Arguably, this is a missed opportunity to mitigate the deficit in UK residential development. The legislation could potentially be refined to differentiate between private domestic dwellings – and the private rented sector at the vanguard of speculative development to stimulate and support future supply.

There are examples of where the tax system actively supports construction on real estate. We would argue that Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECA), whilst imperfect and complex to administer, did a lot of good work raising the profile and use of energy and water-saving technologies in modern buildings. It was a regular point of discussion with clients and although it isn’t necessarily driving specific solutions, it did stimulate thinking within design teams. Following the withdrawal of ECA from April 2020, it will be interesting to see the detail around the replacement HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) envisages in maintaining the sustainable agenda for our built environment.

Similarly, the tax credits for research and development capturing embedded innovation in the design process are generous, but still not broadly understood or utilized by designers for operational expenditure considered part of the “day job”.

The tax legislation around property has become increasingly complex as the sector adopts more sophisticated approaches to ownership, financing and technology. This has been an anti-avoidance response to perceived revenue leakages to HMRC. However, we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in the industry as new methods and materials impact on design and construction processes. If we are truly serious about incentivizing capital investment (especially in specific sectors), the tax system, including CA, will need to keep pace and play a significant part.

SBA may be an initial dip of the toe in the water of an admirably simplistic and broader-reaching relief, but, if adapted, it could form the basis of an effective incentive for future investment. It may even be a more interesting discussion than VAR. Here’s hoping!

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As part of CHOGM, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and the Commonwealth Secretariat convene business leaders to meet with the ministers and national leaders to discuss how to ensure a prosperous, vibrant and sustainable commonwealth. I was honored to participate in the meetings this year and speak on the topic of climate and disaster resilience.

Key areas of debate included the impacts of rising sea levels, understanding and managing risk, climate adaptation and sustainable wastewater management.

In one of the CHOGM sessions on island resilience, Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit noted that the nation now has the opportunity to be the first climate-resilient island as they look at rebuilding the majority of their infrastructure. They want to build back better, but must do so with a different model than historically followed, taking into account a broader approach, rather than just rebuilding what was damaged.

Island nations, especially those impacted by recent tropical cyclones in the Caribbean and South Pacific, face the compound challenges of more frequent and severe storms and the constant and increasing threat of sea-level rise. Dominica, for example, suffered $1.3 billion in damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017 — an amount equal to 224 percent of the island’s gross domestic product (GDP).

My comments as part of this session were focused on the need to understand the risks each country faces in designing a resilience plan, but also how we can use adaptive design to ensure continued responsiveness to a dynamic future. There’s a need to balance the costs and risks of resilience. Some risks can be managed by transferring them through insurance or other mechanisms, and other risks must be accepted. However, there are things we can do to mitigate the real and significant risks faced by these small islands and do so in ways that are appropriate for each situation and cost effective. Sometimes we just need to build smarter, with resilience top of mind. The additional benefit of investing in resilient infrastructure is that it creates jobs and economic growth.

Another discussion at CHOGM focused on the causes and drivers of state fragility and how developed nations can better support fragile states and help others avoid this fate. The discussion with ministers, non-governmental organizations and business leaders was chaired by former UK Prime Minister David Cameron on the occasion of a report from an independent panel he also chaired on state fragility causes and solutions. With two financial industry participants, I was asked to comment on the report and remarks by Rwandan President Paul Kagame on the challenges leaders face in fragile states. We stressed the need to look at climate issues, especially adaptation, as they are the principal drivers of fragility, leading to conflict, mass migration and loss of gross domestic product to drought and famine.

I was honored to close out my time at CHOGM with a brief conversation with HRH The Prince of Wales on the challenges of sustainable wastewater management in small island nations. Prince Charles spoke of his interest in addressing the energy and waste management needs of small islands, while protecting the oceans from pollution and helping people grow their economies sustainably. Through his foundation and sustainability team, The Prince has been deeply involved in these issues, and I look forward to continuing to work with his team on their efforts.

It was clear to me that there is a great desire across the entire commonwealth to be leaders in the issues related to climate change. Today, with innovations in technology and the ability to create hybrid gray and green infrastructure, we’re seeing greater potential to leverage these challenges as opportunities and find solutions that are long-lasting, adaptable and create healthier, more resilient economies and societies.

*Note: The Commonwealth of Nations comprises 53 states across six continents and represents nearly one third of the world’s population. Most member states were once part of the British Empire, the majority being island nations (counting Australia and the UK). With the exception of the United States, most of the English-speaking world belongs to the commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II is the symbolic head of the commonwealth.

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In November, I was at an Royal Town Planning Institute conference in London when someone walked onto the stage and opened with the classic line, ‘I have an idea’. I sat up; he went on: “I want to turn London into a National Park”. He said some other things that day, about children, gardens, awareness and biodiversity, but it didn’t really matter. I was hooked on an intuitive level within two minutes. I committed immediately and have spent the eight months since trying to get my brain to catch up with my heart and to try to enlist others with the right skills to support the campaign.

ArchTam has been doing pro-bono work for the campaign to help quantify the economic value of some identified green spaces, using an ecosystem services approach. This is intended to support the business case for the London National Park. Whilst we’ve been doing this work, the broader campaign, led by Daniel Raven-Ellison (the man with the idea), has been gathering pace.

A steering group has been established made up of individuals from University College London, London Wildlife Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, John Muir Trust, Queen Mary University and ArchTam. The idea has been reported in most of the UK national and London newspapers, and Daniel has appeared on the television and radio. High-profile individuals such as Stephen Fry, Bear Grylls, Bill Oddie, Terry Farrell and Zac Goldsmith (perhaps London’s next mayor?) have all come out in support of the idea. And last week a motion was passed unanimously by the London Assembly to call on the existing Mayor to get behind the campaign.

What might have seemed bonkers to some people at the start, is now really starting to snowball.

Last week, I joined Daniel and Matt (editor at large for the Londonist) in an attempt to visit, in just one day, a piece of open space in each of London’s 33 Boroughs. Together we got to 19 before calling it off due to bad light (See #33OpenSpaces on Twitter). By the time we got home another Twitter user (@alanoutten) had turned our photos from the day into a photo collage covering half of London and already posed the question – so when are you guys going to finish the jigsaw? Add two days, and a new challenge had begun on Twitter to photograph green space in each of London’s 629 Wards (#629Wards). One hundred of 629 were completed in the first weekend and a new map popped up to help track progress (@spacedapenguin).

Map by ArchTam’s Anna David

The priority for the campaign now is to raise money to support production and publicity for the London National Park business case and charter – due for release in July. This will set out the benefits that can be delivered by an umbrella organisation for London’s green space. It will also outline what the managing entity will look like, its responsibilities, collaborations, costs and value add.

I’m confident there are a hundred twists and turns left for this idea yet. There will be people who will help lift it up and others who will be keen to bash it down. But to me, it’s already been a huge success. Now when I walk down the street in London, I’m not craving the countryside – I’m seeing it, hearing it and photographing it. Forty-seven percent of London is green space, yet I had become disconnected from it.

Why is it a bonkers idea to create a vehicle that can encourage Londoners to engage with the green spaces that surround them? Now the summer is coming, the birds are singing, the strawberries in the allotment are about to bear fruit, and it’s hard not to feel positive about this great city.

Feel free to add your photos, to support the crowd funder or to spark the idea in your city.

Ben Smith (ben.smith@archtam.com) is director of sustainable development in ArchTam’s London office.

Notes:

1. The following ArchTam staff have given their own time (half an hour or more) to support this campaign: Petrina Rowcroft, Michael Henderson, Lili Peachy, Jennifer Black, Ian Brenkley, Doug McNabb, Mark Fessey, Ryan Burrows, Anna David, Alex White and Christian Bevington. The work has been supported by a number of other senior leaders in our business. Thanks go to Andrew Jones, John Lewis, Tom Venables and Steve Smith.
2. ArchTam opted to support this campaign principally because it aligns so neatly with one of the main recommendations from our own manifesto for the future of London. #London2065.

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To inform their response to the mayor’s consultation on the Draft London Infrastructure Plan 2050, the London Assembly Planning Committee convened an expert panel on which I joined Lord Andrew Adonis MP, shadow minister for infrastructure, Jerome Frost of Arup, former head of the Olympic Delivery Authority, and Dr. Dominic Hogg, Chairman of Eunomia Consultants. Chaired by Nicky Gavron AM, the public session provided an opportunity for the committee to quiz the panel on London’s long-term infrastructure needs.

The discussion covered a wide range of infrastructure needs, from low-carbon energy through to enabling digital technologies and supporting the development of a circular economy. I was specifically asked to provide input around future water management and the delivery of green infrastructure. Today, we are faced with a number of challenges, including:

• An expected shortfall in water supply of 10% by 2025;
• Demand for an additional 9,000 hectares of accessible green space needed to keep pace with existing standards;
• A need to support strategic investment in sewer capacity with measures that reduce peak surface flows.

Given this context, a strategic planning approach that integrates water cycle management with green infrastructure delivery is essential.

ArchTam developed the UK Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) Scoping Study for not-for-profit CIRIA. We have also undertaken an innovative cost-benefit analysis using green infrastructure as a major component of water management for regeneration areas in Birmingham and Coventry. This work, The Ripple Effect, showed that WSUD can deliver benefits calculated at 7.5 times the value invested.

Recognising the long lead-in time and lifespan of infrastructure, the extended horizon of the Draft Infrastructure Plan to 2050 provides an unprecedented opportunity to set a vision of what infrastructure is needed to maintain London as a leading global city. This long-term thinking allows for critical appraisal of the shorter-term planning, political and regulatory cycles that can constrain the long-term sustainable vision our communities require.

At £1.4tn, the predicted cost of delivering the required infrastructure upgrades is significant. The challenge is to translate the proposed infrastructure plan into a narrative with meaningful outcomes that both the London and wider electorate can connect with. Similarly, there is a need to align thinking around infrastructure delivery with a spatial plan that takes an equally long view and links with the surrounding London Region.

In support of such a vision, ArchTam have analysed not only growth in the capital’s 33 boroughs, but also the 94 local authorities within a 90km radius of Central London. Andrew Jones, ArchTam’s managing director for Design, Planning + Economics in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, commented: “Limiting the conversation about the housing shortage to the GLA’s borders ignores the 700,000 people commuting into the city every day and the acknowledgment that London is the number one economic driver for the entire South East. To properly manage London’s future growth, we must start looking at London as a metropolis of 20 million people that is economically, socially and culturally connected to the capital. A considered and comprehensive programme of integrated growth strategies from the inner-city through the region will create thriving places and balanced communities, tied together by high-quality environments and efficient, quick transport.”

Along with traditional grey infrastructure, green infrastructure will be a critical thread in this overall fabric. More on the vision for the London Region to come.

Michael Henderson (michael.henderson@archtam.com) is associate director, sustainability, with ArchTam’s Design, Planning + Economics practice in London.

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Jacinta McCann, global lead for ArchTam’s Design + Planning practice and president of the Landscape Architecture Foundation, kicked off the discussion by showing the experience of different cities – Sydney and its Opera House (a single object); Doha’s Marina Bay (a cacophony of objects where ArchTam is now designing a public realm to stich it all together); and New York’s Rockefeller Center with the art of Jeff Koons. Iconography can come in many different shapes and sizes, Jacinta said.

Ross Wimer, Americas lead for ArchTam’s Architecture practice (pictured above), explored the idea that a building could be iconic not just on the outside but on the inside. Drawing on the example of a tower project he has worked on in China, Ross showed how internal workings and innovations in sustainability and structure can speak just as powerfully about a city’s aspirations –  if not more so, in fact – than its striking profile in the skyline. Ross talked more about this in a recent podcast.

Stephen Engblom, Americas lead for ArchTam’s Design + Planning practice, took a historical view of iconography. From the Victorian train stations of the industrial era, to the towers of the roaring twenties in America and today’s Gulf States and China, iconography follows the money so to speak. We can trace a direct correlation between waves of economic progress and architectural expression. The latest evidence of this, Stephen noted, is the recent trend of tech companies commissioning grand headquarters projects by starchitects, a phenomenon best reported by architecture critic Paul Goldberger in Vanity Fair. There’s Apple and Foster, Facebook and Gehry. Twitter’s headquarters remains one of the last holdouts of urban grit in San Francisco.

Bill Hanway, global lead for ArchTam’s Architecture practice, conjectured that perhaps what’s most important to a city is not an iconic building or even an iconic skyline, but great systems underpinning it all. Bill cited the example of our work as masterplanners since 2005 for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. There, striking structures such as Zaha Hadid’s Swimming Pool, Anish Kapoor’s Orbit, or Hopkins’ Velodrome are carefully knit together into a cohesive park with new transport interchanges: the centerpiece of a powerful legacy plan that emulates London’s traditional village patchwork pattern, far more iconic overall than any of the individual buildings.

Susan Szenasy, publisher of Metropolis, agreed with Bill’s assertion, noting that many cities suffer too many little silos. Paula Deitz, editor of the Hudson Review and landscape architecture critic, asked if this question is something more and more cities around the globe are asking themselves as big challenges like climate change would seem to dwarf any particular iconic building. Other attendees included writers and editors from The Architects’ Newspaper and Architect Magazine, as well as representatives from the Van Alen Institute, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Institute for Public Architecture, the New York Mayor’s office, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Balancing the need for iconic architecture with the bigger picture of urban systems and challenges is an issue that ArchTam grapples with in its work with cities around the world. There’s probably no more striking example of architectural firepower than Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. There a cultural district is under construction that will feature a particular intensity of iconography: Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Norman Foster’s Sheikh Zayed Museum, Zaha Hadid’s Opera House, Tadao Ando’s Maritime Museum, and Jean Nouvel’s Louvre Abu Dhabi. ArchTam has carefully masterplanned Saadiyat so that these jewel-like icons can shine, but are firmly embedded into the urban fabric of Abu Dhabi. It’s a ‘master-architect’ role that requires flexibility grounded in respect for the power of striking architecture while with an eye to the whole urban puzzle. Abu Dhabi is a forward-thinking emirate trying to make a statement about the power of culture in a region fraught with conflict: a line-up of beautiful temples to knowledge and expression by architects who are diverse in both architectural style and cultural origin. Criticised by some as extravagant, it might just be an iconography that its time and place needs, considering the regional context.

Saadiyat Island Cultural District.

In Cambridge, UK, we are undertaking a similar role as our masterplan for the University of Cambridge’s Northwest extension enters its first development phase. We have helped to assemble a cracker-jack team of some of the UK’s and Europe’s most interesting architects to design new residential and academic clusters in what will be the largest extension for one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious universities. The project, for which ArchTam has been shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Future Projects award (winner to be announced this week in Singapore), brings together a coalition of architects: Alison Brooks, The AOC, Cottrell Vermeulen, Maccreanor Lavington, Marks Barfield, Mecanno, Mole Architects, MUMA, Pollard Thomas Edwards, RH Partnership, Stanton Williams, Wilkinson Eyre, and Witherford Watson Mann, with ArchTam as landscape architects as well. The architecture will be refined, a touch eclectic but very much in the spirit of European city-making that makes places like Cambridge so special.

New residential courtyard in Cambridge University’s northwest extension.

In contrast to Saadiyat, it is a subtler iconography, but iconic nonetheless. Given Cambridge’s centuries of heritage and status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, new architectural interventions must be deftly handled and delicately conducted to respect what is a memorable place. Each architect will have her or his own distinct expression, and the result will be contemporary. Centuries from now, it will be the early 21^st century layer in the rich Cambridge texture that includes the Victorian, Georgian, Elizabethan and Medieval. Taken together, these make one iconic place, especially when one takes the long view of history.

That’s why in retrospect, the right question probably isn’t do our cities need more icons. It’s more multifaceted than that. Iconography is about symbolism and aspiration, and these are at the heart of architectural expression and civic building. As urbanists, we should be questioning not whether we need more icons – our cities thrive on them – but how can they be better and more relevant to the people they are intended to inspire? Are we designing the right kinds of icons? Can a city as a whole be an architectural icon?

Daniel Elsea (daniel.elsea@archtam.com) is creative director for ArchTam’s Buildings + Places group.

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Times certainly have changed, not just in terms of what students are learning and eating, but the environments where they’re learning. Increasingly, the design of schools isn’t going out, but up, as the concept of multi-storey schools gains popularity.

This year’s Victorian State budget confirmed investment for the planning and site preparation of a new vertical primary school in South Melbourne, a first for Australia and likely to set a precedent for the design of both new and existing schools in our cities.

Vertical schools are already being successfully designed and delivered elsewhere in the world, including the Hampden Gurney primary school in London. Davis Langdon, an ArchTam company, provided project and cost management services to enable this school to be constructed over 6 levels on a space-restricted site. Incorporating a playground on the roof with play decks on intermediate floors, schools like this are set to inform the design process for similar schools in Australia.

So what’s driving the growth of these schools as opposed to more conventionally designed ones? Space, or the lack of it, is the most obvious reason. Population growth is seeing young families settle in high-density areas, attracted by associated lifestyle benefits that also make the ‘traditional’ school design model harder to achieve. There’s simply not sufficient space to either build new schools or expand onto existing school buildings.

Schools are thus required to use their spaces more efficiently while maintaining a creative and accessible learning environment. Often, existing buildings in city locations where schools would not traditionally have been found can be adapted. This has happened in New York, where a former public library warehouse is being turned into an expanded Beacon High School. Where such conversions aren’t possible, however, alternative expansionist solutions are being sought.

The health benefits associated with vertical schools are also driving their popularity. Being more efficient with space in inner-city areas enables schools to retain their premium locations and be located in close proximity to students’ homes, encouraging more to walk to school and increase daily exercise while reducing congestion on surrounding roads.

For all the benefits, however, there are important factors to be considered when designing such vertical schools to ensure optimum learning experiences for students.

Impact on recreation

The benefits of vertical school cannot be at the expense of student learning and recreation. A lack of outdoor space on the upper levels of a vertical school may require teachers to adapt their style of learning, which may be restricted to indoor areas. A major consideration during design would be to review how outdoor areas are incorporated into upper levels to accommodate student recreation and sporting activities, or how open spaces on adjacent sites could be used. Careful planning would also be required to avoid overcrowding during student recreation times in these areas.

Movement of students

Swift movement and circulation of students throughout each of the floors is key to managing class timetables. A heavy reliance on lifts to upper floors requires maintenance to be minimised so as to avoid delays in getting to class. A solution, though, could be to zone different year groups into blocks connected by stairs, thus requiring lift/escalator access by these groups at the beginning and end of the day only. This would also promote activeness and wellbeing by encouraging walking up stairs. Staggering class start times could also be considered to avoid congestion in the lift foyers and stairwells.

Health and safety

Fire evacuation and safety is paramount to the design of any school, but in the case of vertical schools, it takes on additional importance. Basing students in lower storeys, for example, would result in less risk for younger age groups and ensure evacuation procedures are carried out with minimal delay. Road traffic and safety also need to be considered if fire assembly points are located outside of the school premises.

The UN Habitat predicts that by 2050 more than 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. This growing urban densification and the vertical cities it creates mean vertical schools will become more common.

Building ‘up’ as opposed to ‘out’ requires a shift in perception in how we should adapt the design of public facilities; we need to consider how we can better plan for public services such as education. The days of the ‘old school yard’ are changing, but we need to remember that, as learning environments evolve and rise, so too will expectations for quality learning outcomes.

Nick Ockleshaw (nick.ockleshaw@archtam.com) is an associate in project management at Davis Langdon, an ArchTam company.

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics forecasts that the populations of Sydney and Melbourne will grow to 7.8 million each by 2052, a respective increase of 66 percent and 86 percent over a 40 year period.

Such rapid growth prompts some obvious questions, the answers to which are less obvious:

Where and how will all these people live?

Where will they work and what will their jobs be?

An increasing challenge for local government is how to balance policy objectives of a diverse employment market with increasing demand for residential development. As our cities become more connected through transport, planning, and urban renewal decisions and outcomes, it’s a balancing act that’s proving difficult.

The employment and residential nexus

Over the last decade, rising housing demand has seen a significant increase in high-rise apartment developments in Australian cities, resulting in debates regarding overshadowing and the visual impacts and merits of urban densification. In some Melbourne suburbs, for example, the proposed application of new planning regulations could limit higher residential densities in certain areas.

Meanwhile, there’s been a continued shift in employment focus across Australian cities. Melbourne’s manufacturing sector continues to decline, while the much-touted transition to a more “knowledge-based economy” – namely increased opportunities in the health and business services sectors – shows early promise but will take time to translate into major points on the economic scoreboard.

The challenge for inner-city local governments is how to support the growth of these emerging sectors while maintaining and supporting light industry, small business, and retail, all desirable and essential parts of healthy, functional and connected cities.

The problem is that increased demand for residential development has already substantially impacted these activities, forcing them farther out of the city.

The term ‘mixed-use’ is often promoted as a way to address these challenges, but the uncomfortable truth is that few developments successfully achieve their primary objective, resulting in a ‘mixed bag’ of outcomes. Further, the rental expectations for these premises can also be significantly higher when compared to the spaces they have replaced. What tends to be delivered is a residential development with retail or small office provision at the ground floor, an approach that often results in a disconnect with the actual local demand for such spaces. They often lack the physical features that allow them to be attractive work places, and prove difficult to adapt to other uses without creating conflict for the residential portion.

Global lessons learnt

The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) policy objective to deliver mixed-use developments holds lessons for us here in Australia. Its inclusion of active frontages and employment spaces has resulted in ground floor retail space of predominantly residential buildings often being boarded up and unoccupied, creating an unwelcoming and unpleasant urban environment in many middle-ring suburbs.

We can’t allow such outcomes to eventuate here in Australia. Encouragingly, however, a number of approaches can be adopted to address this emerging employment and residential nexus.

Smarter design is a crucial factor at both the precinct and building level. There is often the tendency to deliver a standard product that limits diversity and fails to provide for multiple users. Good mixed-use developments can introduce a level of complexity that not only delivers visual interest, but provides additional market opportunities.

Cross-subsidies between uses and inclusionary zoning mechanisms meanwhile present an interesting layer into the process, but they need to be calibrated at detailed scale and applied to specific areas to be both commercially and socially successful. Such an approach has been used in the planning and development of Hackney Wick in London. While still in its early stages, Hackney Wick has had robust technical support and strong leadership from the GLA, and may present a way forward in providing homes and jobs for a growing population.

Local government must inform and test its structure planning process, and it should be supported in these efforts by an analysis of the market to understand not just existing and future demand, but to recognise the requirements for the job sectors it wishes to support.

This will ensure that local government is able to clearly articulate its ambition and guide development in a way that utilises market forces to deliver short and long-term benefits for our cities and their communities.

If tomorrow’s Sydney and Melbourne are to reach their potential – if “home is where the jobs are” – we need to get cracking; the people – millions of them – are coming, and they’re going to want somewhere to live and somewhere to work.

Adam Williams (adam.williams@archtam.com) leads ArchTam’s Design, Planning and Economics practice in Victoria.

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As a group, we tried to address a number of issues, e.g.:

• What can different places learn from successful clusters both in the UK and abroad?
• What role has national policy played in shaping that success?
• How can cities and LEPs work with universities in their regions to encourage high-growth business and industry specialists?
• How can policy, both local and national, ensure clusters across the country are supported to grow?

The whole concept of business clustering has become prominent in recent years, as cities seek comparative advantages. Essentially, clusters are supposed to do what it sounds like they do: attract a range of mutually beneficial industries. These specialized hubs in turn attract more talent and innovation, which in turn catalyzes the local urban economy and create long-term resilience. In the UK, 30 economically significant clusters contain 8% of the country’s businesses, but generate 20 percent of the economic output (GVA).

There are some globally noteworthy clusters in the UK.  London integrates some of the largest ones (specializing in creative and digital industries, property, tourism, business and financial services).  The “Golden Triangle” between London, Oxford, and Cambridge contains world-beating research centers. “Motorsports Valley” in the midlands builds on a legacy dating back to the industrial revolution from the 19^th century, and legacy metal and automotive production; it now concentrates premier research and engineering firms.

But we’ve also come to realize that clusters can rarely be created by design (all the efforts in the Middle East and China notwithstanding). Most of their origins are largely accidental. As Lord David Sainsbury (another participant on the panel) noted, clusters often evolve to fill market niches that are difficult for governments to anticipate. Ironically, governments’ increasing interest in the formation (and ultimately regulation) of clusters may well diminish what makes the clusters work in the first place.  It seems that in the last decade, every second-tier city has tried to create a nano-technologies cluster, and virtually all have disappeared.

I suspect that trying to pick apart what makes clusters successful may be like trying to gather together smoke. The most successful clusters will continue to form in cities which are themselves hubs – places that have strong identities to begin with, places that are large, dense, mixed use, and well supported by hard infrastructure. Urban size and agglomeration matters more in the globalizing and urbanizing 21^st century, and clusters are just another way of looking at cities.

Chris Choa (christopher.choa@archtam.com) is a Masterplanning + Urban Design principal in ArchTam’s London office.

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UK cities faced surging flood waters over the winter. The answer to future resilience lies largely with green infrastructure. That’s according to Matthew Jones, regional director, ArchTam, and Michael Henderson, associate director of sustainability, ArchTam, in recent articles for Water Briefing and Civil Service World, respectively.

“While the flooding has taken place over an unusually long duration this year, it is part of an apparently increasing trend of events oscillating between periods of inundation and periods of water shortage in some parts of the country,” said Jones. He pointed out that “While emergency response plans and flood defences are an important part of protecting life, infrastructure and farmland, it is clear that to manage flood risk effectively and to reduce water shortages in the summer, water needs to be treated less as a national annoyance and more as a precious resource. A more holistic approach is required where land practices contributing to flooding, such as deforestation, land drainage and urban creep, are gradually and proactively reversed.”

We need our natural spaces for practical reasons, in other words. It’s not just ecology; it’s ecological infrastructure, as critical to society as engineered infrastructure. Within developed areas, even small green interventions make a functional difference. When water passes through planted soil, some pollutants picked up from city streets are filtered out. This is the principle behind the practice variously called water sensitive urban design, sustainable urban drainage, and low-impact development.

Henderson said, “For a start, the cleaner the water is, the lower the energy cost of treating it for local reuse or discharge into our rivers. Moreover, if the UK can clean up its waterways, it will be liable for fewer fines under the EU Water Framework Directive, bringing another financial incentive to pursue this strategy. In addition, there is evidence to show that productivity increases when people look out over a green area, and other benefits like improved health and wellbeing are also detected. Finally, property prices tend to be stronger in more aesthetically pleasing surroundings, giving a helpful stimulus to the local economy.”

Jake Herson (jacob.herson@archtam.com) is managing editor of the Connected Cities blog.

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