Urban centers

The adage of learning from the past to plan the future has never been more pertinent for the regeneration of our urban centers.

The last decade has seen irreversible change. The high streets and our urban centers have seen a dramatic shift in trading which has greatly affected businesses across countries. Our shops and urban centers are the lifeblood of communities and without a thriving urban center communities are heavily impacted.

However the way we live, shop and work has been transformed; in a matter of clicks our consumption shifted online and then supercharged by the pandemic and our need for all things agile.

The issue with the high street can also be linked to the housing shortage. The demand for affordable accommodation is yet to be tackled and omnipresent, even in our digital world. When we consider the urban center of the future residential property must play a major if not vital role. The key will be to plan our centers so that our retail, leisure and housing sit in high quality settings and in an inclusive and sustainable way.

Here is a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity for public and private sectors to collaborate, to revive and repurpose and solve these issues for future generations simultaneously.

The challenge is vast, from developing a deliverable and comprehensive masterplan, to ensuring that development initiatives are viable and to the management of the finished product. The right funding model for delivering key infrastructure will also be critical. This lesson has taught us that urban centers need to adapt and grow and need to proper planning and investment to do so.