Approach

Our approach to sustainable development

Agendas for sustainable urban development are context specific

The implementation of new sustainability goals in urban development is changing the nature and complexity of the development process. For a start, the risks associated with climate change demand a heallthier approach to resource productivity and the way we organize the metabolism of our cities.

From these challenges, new technologies emerge together with new regulation and changing user behavior and demand. New business models are needed to match those changes as well as the changes that are needed in the ecosystem that connects the building industry with urban development and investment. The cycle of value creation is changing and demands a shift in the traditional roles between public administrations, developers, investors and end users. But the context for urban development is never the samen and a collective tendency for 'frame dependency' might risk to overlook constraints and opprotunities that are very local in nature. In short: not every principle for sustainable urban development can be scaled or transplanted from another context. No city is the same. The projection of modelized behavior for the development path of cities shoulld generally be taken with a very critical approach.

Urban Frameworks understands how to connect the specific context of a project to the changing general framework for urban development, without losing the balance. It starts every project by creating an internal and external development framework in order to make a robust connection between challenges that are intrinsic to a project and the larger transition we find ourselves in.

Source: elabaration of Foxon, 2011

Every urban development is an opportunity for innovation

We focus in every project on the analyzing the opportunities for meaningful change and improvement of the living environment. Opportunities for innovation can be found in the way the hardware, software and org-ware of a project are connected or within specific fiellds such as local energy and mobility solutions. Sometimes, the innovation is within the proces of creating the economic conditions for creating added public or social value.

We analyze in each specific context the 'fitness landscape' for an urban development to thrive, by placing innovation opportunities in the context of a project development path for the local context

We need to urbanize technology instead of the other way around

If cities are to adopt a healthier approach to resource productivity, changes are needed on many levels. Individual urban developments can adopt new strategies that anticipate the emergence of a new generation of urban infrastructure

'Smart' urban infrastructures and technologies that organise energy, mobility, waste, water and ICT, will play a role in this. A next generation of urban infrastructures is needed, both in the physical domain as well as in the way we organize the interaction between the public and the private domain in cities. A succesful connection between the physical, programmatic and organizational layers of cities will evolve ever more as a key-value driver and will change the nature of individual developments. A chain of interlinked business models is emerging. These new business models ask for new analytical tools and new assessment methods. In a resource efficient urban development, traditional benchmarks will be replaced with more context sensitive instruments.

"Technology is the answer. But what was the question?"
Cedric Price

Partnerships

Specifically global

We combine experience in a varied international environment with an ability to quickly develop a decisive understanding of local conditions.

In projects outside Europe, Urban Frameworks acts as a specialist for the definition of urban transformation strategies, while forming part of a larger international team of multidisciplinary experts.

Small, but agile with strong partnerships