Helping places address change and uncertainty - the role of the masterplan: experience from Europe’
A lecture byDr Husam AlWaer from the University of Dundee followed by discussion
Changes toplaces areon-goingandinevitableand, as a result, it takes time (often years or even decades) to implement andrealisemaster plans. During this time, there can be significant changes in aspirations, politics, economics and in the operating environment as well as in technology.So many different elements are involved here that subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) changes can occur between an initial aspiration (vision) and its fulfillment and this may mean that outcomes are compromised.Change can occur across time, uses and scales, as well as to the frameworks employed for action and for quality control. The challenge is to find ways to incorporate changing priorities and thinking today, while ensuring, that what we put in place will have relevance in the future (25/30 years and beyond).
Using different examples and evidences from Europe, this presentation describes a master plan as a contingency frame at different levels with different fixes and tolerances. It argues that the master plan is a holding position in time, which stabilises some key issues in response to a process of collaborative decision making about what is important. This contingency frame works on different levels, social, economic, environmental and has different fixes, perhaps an aspect of the physical street structure, or land uses, or heights for example.What this implies is that master planning isa framework for managing change over a wider area (and over a lengthy time period) rather than just the spatial rendering of a property development on a site
The event is free. Admission by pre-booked ticket...
