Future Street, a collaborative project between Place Design Group, Smart Cities Council Australia and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA), was last night announced the winner of the Best Planning Ideas – Small Project category at the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) New South Wales Awards.
Future Street has been recognised as aligning with the key criteria – including originality and innovation, implementation and transferability and public participation and viability – all acknowledging the concepts within the street are reflective of the future of our streets.
Chris Isles, Executive Director, Planning, Place Design Group, was the driving force that made ‘Future Street’ a reality, and just a week ago presented a masterclass on ‘The Future of the Street’ reflective of the Future Street installation at the Smart Cities Week Australia conference.
“Receiving this award for Future Street is both humbling and exciting. It highlights the concepts within the street, while future-thinking, are realistic as to what we can expect, what we need to know and what we should be doing for our streets of the future.”
“And this is exactly the conversation Place Design Group are leading with ‘The Future of the Street’, noting the fundamentals of street design, delivery and operation hasn’t changed in decades, which isn’t a good thing, but change is coming,” Mr Isles said.
Future Street is the first time in the world that a project has embedded green and smart infrastructure alongside emerging principles of complete and future streets in a post Autonomous Vehicle world.
Mr Isles said “It was just last week that there was an Australian-first demonstration of self-driving vehicles conducted on the streets of the Adelaide CBD#, and it was just last year that we wowed crowds in Sydney CBD with an Autonomous Vehicle at Future Street.”
“The change in conversation in this short period of time is reflective of the pace of change and advances in technology influencing our cities around the world. This means that plans and solutions by cites on things like transport, mobility and how we live, need to move just as quickly, or be tested in concepts like Future Street.”
“The PIA Awards recognise leading practice, leadership and achievement in planning and the planning profession, so this is a prestigious acknowledgement for the Future Street project. But importantly it continues the conversation this project has initiated.” Mr Isles said.
For more information on the Future Street movement, head to futurestreet.com.au.
