COULD MICRO PRECINCTS BOOST REGIONAL VITALITY ?
Robert Prestipino
Encouraging infrastructure development and business investment that strengthens regional communities is the holy grail of economic development . But we often lament the poor outcomes delivered in pursuit of this worthy goal . For too many regional communities our initiatives unfortunately reinforce the cynical assumptions that the original vision was misleading if not a lie . Not an intentional lie but one of lost opportunity due to poor leadership and implementation . How often have you been genuinely excited about the latest local development as compared to feeling a lukewarm disinterest if not disdain for the latest improvement project completed in your region ?
Our intent is to make things better . But our implementation often makes things worse . This is most apparent and often disastrous for regional communities when dealing with built projects and physical infrastructure . But when intent and implementation align , great things can happen and you can create long term catalysts for growth . Imagine if new investment and infrastructure consistently provided a legacy of new employment and local vitality . Micro Precincts could be the secret to boosting regional vitality .
WHY MICRO PRECINCTS ? Over a 25 year design journey of collaborating on place-based revitalisation projects the notion of clusters , hubs and precincts often appear as a common catalyst in many local economic development initiatives . The more regional the project , the more significant these places of concentrated activity become . The teasing question is : How small can a precinct be and still be effective and financially viable ? And would this provide a new tool for rural and remote regional communities .
WHAT IS A MICRO PRECINCT ? Creating a Micro Precinct is a value guided design process creating a lifestyle brand that attracts new enterprise helping to transition local values into new jobs .
In Urban Planning the term precinct is often used to describe a defined area that exhibits distinct characteristics or functions . A micro precinct is an attempt to plan smaller to gain more leverage . Going micro forces you to break silos and develop ideas that have stronger connections to strengthen the business case . Micro Precincts challenge project governance and traditional business case metrics .
THE ROLE OF MICRO PRECINCTS IN PLACE EXPERIENCE Having worked early in my design career on many streetscape strategies and individual streetscape projects it was always very useful to use the urban design principles of nodes and links to map and understand the fundamental structure of places . Generally , nodes are points of concentration and links are movement corridors connecting the nodes . It is basically the design thinking reflection of system thinking ’ s framework of objects and relationships .
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