Our approach to development and planning 

 

DEVELOPMENT is about qualitative improvements and enabling of communities, people, businesses and places through various types of targeted spatial, built environment, and multidisciplinary projects. It is to help them find ways for bettering own possibilities and interaction and for reaching their potentials while relying upon own values and benefiting from the material and immaterial qualities in their spaces and localities and available resources in all terms. This approach is essential for cultivating a sense of inclusiveness, dynamics and progress.

 

ENABLING and DEVELOPMENT need planning, priority setting, resources and actions to be taken as well as willing partners. Planning should be able to address long-term visions and needs, and at the same time, it should actively support current requirements with clear action plans and implementation partnerships.

It should be flexible to meet changing aspirations and needs but should draw clear frameworks for investments. Community needs can sometimes be met at a local level with local resources: small-scale projects like a community centre, a production workshop, a public space or a cultural event can boost miracles, brand communities, improve life quality and generate income. Other times, development and enabling require more resources through more comprehensive planning and projects and coordination at higher levels, involving the national, regional and urban levels and their stakeholders. In this respect, it is important to ensure that we make long-lasting solutions, the best use of resources, and a reasonable trade-off of social, economic, cultural and environmental goals, i.e. to think in terms of SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT and STRATEGIC PLANNING.

 

Strategic and smart thinking, good visions, and creating awareness of the necessity of strong leadership and political commitment are, therefore, part of our work in Platforms as we work with our partners.

 

Development situations are in many cases more related to underused potentials, inefficient administration and lack of coordination of resources and decision than to a real lack of funds. In many situations what lacks is not high technology but clear visions and targeted projects that can make a real impact on the ground, and life happier and easier. 

 

Whether we are involved in a city master plan, a regeneration project, a regional plan or a national strategy - these are successful in our eyes in as much as they contribute to a positive development on the ground, to improved life quality and environments and to viable, connected, inclusive, prosperous and resilient cities and regions. They should be conceived to prompt development and added-value at all levels. 

 

Architecture, urban design and spatial planning are important fields that can help to anchor visions and aspirations in space and local areas and can create better places for living, leisure and work.  At the same time, there should be a place for flexibility, for the secret of the unplanned and for genuine community finger-prints on projects and spaces in order to reflect diversities.

 

Established in the diverse and culturally innovative city of London, Platforms is meant to extend the visions of this inclusive and dynamic city - the city of learning and of unfolding potentials of people from around the world. Platforms aims to create the best network around your projects and aspirations.

​

​

 @Roudaina Al Khani