Good precincts are places people want to spend their valuable spare time, not just their money, says Phil Schoutrop, architect and Precinct Sector Lead at Buchan. "People are looking for an experience - they're looking for a good time, not just the purchase of goods."

Diversity of amenity and experience are key, alongside inclusivity - making places where everyone feels comfortable.

"New precincts blur the lines between retail, leisure and commercial to create a feel-good place where people want to be. It's a matter of doing the research and understanding the customer's lifestyle. You get that right and it becomes a destination people want to come back to."

He cites as an example Sydney's heritage Locomotive Workshops, repurposed as a mixed-use precinct that doubles as a living museum. The site's industrial and social history has been seamlessly woven into hospitality, retail and commercial tenancies and surrounding public spaces.

"We've created spaces that are encouraging for people to come and meet and socialise. You might come to get a beer, but you can also watch a projection on the side of the building and get an appreciation for a significant aspect of the city's evolution. If you can get that balance and equation right, it forms the fabric, or the glue, and a reason why people will come together."

In busy, complex precincts that have multiple owners and authorities, the Business Improvement District (BID) model has proven highly successful at delivering quantifiable economic benefits, says Jace Tyrrell, the inaugural Chief Executive of the New Sydney Waterfront Company, the first BID in Australia.

A BID is a public and private partnership model that brings government, business and the community together to improve spaces through collective investment.

"Around the world, there's an average of about 15 per cent net uplift in terms of commercial values where you have a Business Improvement District," Tyrrell says.

He knows the model well, having been Chief Executive of Europe's biggest retail and leisure destination and one of the largest BIDs in the world, London's West End. There, 600 property owners and occupiers collectively raised $400 million with the Local Council and Mayor of London to deliver a range of public realm and transport improvements.

Tyrrell says similar outcomes are possible in Australia. The New Sydney Waterfront Company is part of a $12 billion transformation of Sydney's western harbour precinct to create the world’s best urban waterfront. He hopes it will eventually bring together 500 owners and occupiers to collectively invest. Enabling legislation, now being finalised in New South Wales, will support formal partnerships.

"Where these partnerships work well, you obviously need to have a vision for the place," says Tyrrell.

Using evidence-based data, the Sydney Waterfront team has set targets for turnover, dwell time and the mix of occupiers and services across 2 and 10 years. The data has also helped the private sector work with the city and state to align policies and investment decisions.

"We have ambitions to create more stickiness of the precinct, to get visitors to stay longer and to move around the precinct more. Connectivity is a big issue for us. We'd like to operate a free electric ferry around the western harbour, underwritten by the business community."

Tyrrell says the BID will also explore scaling Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives, and the coordination of cultural activations, public art, and First Nations and education programs, demonstrating the potential for the BID to amplify the city's vibrancy and community benefits.

Health and wellbeing are central to contemporary life and there is huge potential for integrating these elements into precinct development with a focus on social wellness, says Angela Lee, Managing Director Asia Pacific and Partner of global architecture practice, HKS.

As a health architect with over thirty years of experience in the USA and Asia, she says the days when 'health' simply meant 'not being sick' are long gone, not least because people are living longer and staying active well into later life. "When we think about health, it's not just hospitals and clinics anymore," says Lee. "Health refers to physical, mental and social wellness."

She identifies social health as an area of opportunity for owners and developers. "People are retiring but they are picking up their grandkids and they can still play. So that's something that we can look at in a precinct. How can we integrate sports, school and kindergarten? People continue to learn together."

She points to large projects in the USA and Asia that combine residential, health and sporting facilities, as well as hospital precincts that include retail medical offices, hotels, spas and commercial tenancies.

The role of technology is also critical. Physical and digital spaces are merging, impacting design. "You cannot just think of the architecture as the building. It has to be the architecture plus all the different add-on technology."

Main image: https://www.barangaroo.com/eat-drink/barangaroo-house

Branko Miletic

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