As technology and infrastructure rapidly evolve, a new buzzword finds itself in conversations across industries - innovation. The word is more relevant in light of future-facing challenges such as climate change, inequality, and economic crises. As a result of a surging interest in these concepts, innovation hubs have emerged across the world, aiming to foster creative and collaborative economies to spark quick change. What are innovation districts and how do they influence the built environment?
Innovation districts are urban landscapes that promote collaborative ecosystems and redefine the way cities cultivate originality and economic vitality. These districts, as articulated by The Brookings Institution, are concentrated geographies where forward-thinking institutions and companies converge with startups, business incubators, and accelerators. Compact and transit-accessible, these districts prioritize mixed-use development to blend housing, office spaces, and commercial amenities. As an emerging urban model, innovation districts seek to revitalize underperforming neighborhoods by transforming them into hubs that attract innovative enterprises and a skilled workforce.
The place-based development strategy creates platforms that push innovation in local contexts, offering value to regional communities that serve as the backbone of the economy. The term innovation district has encountered a challenge in its journey, evolving from an economic growth metric to a more design-oriented concept. As these districts continue to evolve, they provide a model for cities to address density, accessibility, and adaptability in their builtscapes.
Innovation districts reflect the mega-trends seen in the preferences of both individuals and corporations, fusing at the intersections of economic influence, urban design, and social connectivity. Fueled by an open innovation economy that thrives on collaboration and the exchange of ideas, innovation districts represent a transformation in the conception and spatial arrangement of buildings and entire urban areas. Centered around the idea of physical proximity, these hubs are established as walkable neighborhoods where housing, jobs, and amenities seamlessly intertwine. The districts are effective at encouraging productive, inclusive, and sustainable economic development that meets future anticipations.
In times of laggard growth, innovation districts serve as catalysts for the creation and expansion of firms and jobs, facilitating cross-sector collaboration among companies, entrepreneurs, universities, researchers, and investors. They are also effective at addressing social inequality since many innovation districts are strategically located near low- and moderate-income neighborhoods to expand employment and educational opportunities. Embracing efficient land use and countering urban sprawl, these districts present the potential for denser residential and employment patterns, the optimization of mass transit, and the revitalization of urban cores.
Innovation districts are a careful amalgamation of economic assets such as firms, institutions, and organizations that drive cities' economic engines. Innovation drivers co-exist in the hub, encompassing research and medical institutions, large corporations, startups, and visionary entrepreneurs dedicated to pioneering cutting-edge technologies, products, and services. Incubators, accelerators, and proof-of-concept centers, along with educational institutions and shared workplaces, help shape the skills required for an innovation-driven economy. Neighborhood amenities complete the economic ecosystem, providing services such as medical offices, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, small hotels, and local retail. Anchoring these assets are the physical elements, designed public and private spaces, streets, and infrastructure that increase connectivity and collaboration.
In the interplay of people, places, and partnerships, the design ethos is crucial - spaces must inspire creativity, promote human interaction, reflect evolving needs, and foster productivity in their locality. Successful innovation districts require the right blend of economic, physical, and networking assets. To ensure efficacy, innovation districts must prioritize diversity and equity, catalyzing the diversification of regional and local economies. The past decade has seen the establishment of various such districts across the world, each highlighting its location's unique strengths and opportunities in the realm of innovation:
Leeds Climate Innovation District
Scandinavian firm, White Arkitekter, working closely with urban developers Citu, has designed the masterplan for the new Climate Innovation District in Leeds, in the United Kingdom. A central brownfield site in the city will be developed and converted into a sustainable, resilient, mixed-use neighborhood of 955 apartments and homes. The green infrastructure embedded throughout the infrastructure encourages social interaction, physical activity, and play, reduces urban heat island effect, improves air quality and overall quality of life for the residents
Scandinavian urban densities and principles have inspired the development, with a high standard of environmental performance and fully integrated services including healthcare, schooling, commercial offices, and manufacturing. Wide access to a range of social and green spaces is also crucial to the scheme and non-vehicular movement is a priority. Consideration is given to the distance people have to walk to access daily facilities, ensuring the complex is pedestrian and cycle-friendly.
Ho Chi Minh City Innovation District
In 2019, the government of Ho Chi Minh City announced a competition to conceive an innovation district in the eastern part of the city. The competition’s brief requested urban planning and design schemes for over 22,000 hectares of the city throughout District 2, District 9, and Thu Duc District.
The winning entry envisions the innovation district as a significant economic driver for the city and region, connecting research, entrepreneurship, academia, industry, and the local community to create a diverse innovation ecosystem. "Ho Chi Minh City has the potential to expand upon the traditional triple helix model of an innovation district’s structure– involving academia, government, and industry– to more directly involve communities and society at the core of its innovation activities while ensuring long-term ecological and environmental resilience", shares Romil Sheth, principal of the winning firm Sasaki.
Oslo Science City
An innovation district in Norway's capital that aims to create a physical framework for Norway’s innovation environment of an estimated 150,000 scientists, students, and entrepreneurs, and contribute to the country’s transition to renewable energy. The district aims to be a net zero-emission area that operates on renewable energy and circular economic principles, as well as zero-emission solutions during development and operation.
Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and A-Lab, a new 1.4 million sqm master plan will be added to the lot as a first step towards expanding Oslo's innovation regions by 22% by 2045, increasing its inhabitants to approximately 1.6 million. Oslo Science City aims to foster a holistic approach to planning, where efficient land use and densification go hand in hand by increasing the amount of biomass in the area. The master plan will feature environmentally friendly buildings, climate adaptation solutions with the help of new green and densely vegetated corridors through the district, extensive tree planting throughout the entire neighborhood, emission-free mobility, energy efficiency, and circular principles.
Dubai Innovation District
A new urban tech district is planned for the Creekside of Al Jaddaf area in Dubai. Developed by URB, the district aims to generate over four thousand jobs in urban technologies, education, and training, while also welcoming entrepreneurs to encourage a collaborative tech ecosystem. The district will provide facilities for training, research, conferences, business incubations, shared-desk spaces, and dedicated offices. It will also be home to an urban tech institute, which hopes to drive innovation by investing in applied research and by enabling public-private partnerships.
The concept behind the development revolved around the idea that innovation and research centers such as these can inform the evolution of future cities. The tech-enabled urban district seeks to provide solutions to challenges in food availability, energy production, water harvesting, and zero-waste management. It also aims to develop more equitable living conditions by integrating technologies in the planning of cities, while also addressing environmental challenges and the threats of climate change.
