READING 2050 VISIONREADING 2050 VISION

Professor Tim Dixon (School of the Built Environment, University of Reading)

Jenni Montgomery (Barton Willmore)

Nigel Horton-Baker (Reading UK)

FORMAT

• Introduction and why did we do it? - Tim

• How did we do it? - Jenni

• What does the vision look like? - Nigel

• Challenges and lessons learned - Tim

WHY ARE CITIES IMPORTANT? C

Source GOS/ Centre for Cities, 2014

‘FUTURE CITIES’:THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE

• ‘Experimental cities’ – urban transformation & trajectories

• Urban living laboratories

• Urban rooms – Sir Terry Farrell

• Urban foresight and city visions (UK GOS Future of Cities)

WHY DO WE NEED VISIONS?

• Sense of purpose

• Vitality and belief systems

• What sort of future do we want

• Promote discussion and debate

• Mobilise resources around desired future

Smart and Sustainable Reading 2050

• Builds on previous work (Reading 2020 and 2030 visions)

• Environment, economy and lifestyle

• How could Reading be smart and sustainable?

• What would low carbon living look like?

• Physical infrastructure, growth and development

• What will be the key urban growth areas?

• What are Reading’s key infrastructure requirements?

• Partners: Barton Willmore, University of Reading, Reading

• UK CIC

• BIS Future Cities Foresight Programme (2065 City Visions)

“This, the capital of the county, is a much-maligned town…Notown in in the south of England hides its attractions moresuccessfully from the visitor.”

John Betjeman and John Piper (Murray’s Berkshire Architectural Guide, 1949)

?

Smart and Sustainable

Economy

Governance

Society

Environment

A Smart & Sustainable city is a city that leverages the benefits of ICT infrastructure to:

• Improve the quality of life of its citizens

• Ensure tangible economic growth for its citizens

• Improve the well-being of its citizens

• Establish an environmentally responsibleand sustainable approach to development

• Streamline and improve the physical infrastructure

• Reinforce resilience to natural and man-made disasters

• Underpin effective and well-balanced regulatory, compliance and governance mechanisms

SMART & SUSTAINABLE THINKING?

‘Generating a desirable future, and then looking backwards from that future to the present in order to strategise and to plan how it could be achieved’ (Vergragt & Quist, 2011)

BACKCASTING

HOW DID WE DEVELOP THEVISION?

‘…DRIVEN BY THOSE WHO LIVE, WORK AND SHAPE OUR CITY…’

WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOPS

A PUBLIC CONSULTATION

A PUBLIC CONSULTATION

WHAT DOES THE VISION LOOK LIKE?

A Green Tech City

A Green Tech City

Enhance our strengths in science, technology and the creative industries to

provide a thriving collaborative economy and employment opportunities for

all, as part of a smart & sustainable city:

• Smarter, greener buildings

• A variety of housing provision, scales and tenure city-wide

• A fully integrated transport network which prioritises green methods of travel

• Place Green Tech and the ‘internet if things’ at the heart of our

education and training system

• Capitalise upon the university’s strengths in research and development

• Actively market our creativity and innovation

• Facilitate the reduction of our carbon footprint, improving visibility of consumption

harnessing renewable energy and

Market our green tech strengths

globally.

A City of Festivals & Culture

A City of Festivals & Culture

A city that delivers heritage, arts and cultural opportunities which are accessible to people of

all ages/backgrounds and supports the evolution of stronger communities with a clear sense

of place, city-wide.

• Build a broad coordinated programme of arts, culture, music and history city-wide which

maximises all community & religious event opportunities.

• Use technology to showcase and share events and information

• Deliver a new theatre with maximum appeal and accessibility

• Deliver a programme of public art city-wide utilising public realm and community buildings

• Refurbish and re-imagine heritage assets

• Broaden education and training to ensure arts and humanities are well represented

• Support the greater diversification of our retail offer to support independents

• Develop a well-

marketed leisure

offer

• Capitlise upon our

music heritage broadening

and capitalising upon the

festival year-round.

A City of Rivers and Parks

A City of Rivers and Parks

A City that capitalises upon our corridors of green and blue to provide vital open space,

connectivity and places to rest and play:

• Open up access to rivers and waterways to facilitate movement and waterside living

• Develop urban and waterway food production strategies

• Encourage considered provision of open space inside, on and around buildings

• Develop a city-wide water management strategy

• Utilise renewable energy opportunities

• Boost the riverside economy through water travel, leisure and marina activities.

• Open our rivers and parks for education, leisure and sport.

• Encourage understanding of

ecology and biodiversity of

our open space

• Facilitate community

ownership of open space.

The over-arching vision statements…

Next steps…

To realise this Vision, we need to maintain momentum, securing cross-organisational collaboration

with both the private and public sector and propose the following initial steps:

• Communicate the Vision to the community, UK-wide and internationally

• Further develop the steering committee and leadership

• Set a route map of incremental steps for the most ambitious ideas

• Split the opportunities into clear workshop streams and drive participation

• Develop an understanding of work already underway/pending proposals

• Invite further thoughts and contributions through ongoing activity

• Review funding streams available

• Drive regular reporting and collaboration across workstreams

• Report back to the wider business and local communities

Lessons and Challenges

Lessons and Challenges

Collaboration and Creation : The combination of businesses, universities, research institutes and

public sector actors enabling innovation…

Business

Academia & Research

Civic

Urban Innovation Ecosystem (Future Cities Catapult, 2014)

Lessons and Challenges

Lessons for practice and interdisciplinary research

• Framing of the issues

• Participatory engagement

• Ownership and leadership of vision

• Governance

• Interdisciplinary challenges

• Communicating the vision

Lead & Facilitate strategic visioning

process

Engage stakeholders

Agree strategic goalsDevelop vision

Feedback, monitoring &

further developmentSmart &

Sustainable Reading

2050

The Future?“The future depends on what you do today.”

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Get involved!!