Knowledge-sharing is the key to advancing sustainability practices

The road to embedding sustainability in our industry’s future is paved with knowledge. 

In conjunction with World Environment Day, we have launched an interactive knowledge-sharing platform, the ‘People Places Planet’ experience portal, to showcase the placemaking and sustainability best practices behind our landmark urban regeneration development, Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ).

Central to this online learning tool is how Lendlease’s vision of revitalising urban spaces and creating vibrant, sustainable spaces comes to life at PLQ. Through the portal, students and industry peers will have the opportunity to observe PLQ’s role as a key catalyst in the transformation of Paya Lebar into a bustling, pedestrian-friendly, new city precinct with a distinctive sense of place and cultural identity.

Playing our part through active knowledge-sharing 

We want to give back to the community by sharing our expertise around the considerations behind placemaking and the role that sustainability plays, and it is in the spirit of education that we launched the free-to-use “People Places Planet” experience portal. 

The People Places Planet experience portal was designed with the understanding that schools in Singapore are interested in applied learning opportunities that offer hands-on, experiential learning for students to situate and apply their knowledge in a real-world context. As an interactive website resource, the portal also offers students an engaging technology-enabled learning experience complemented by the use of animations, videos, and interactive components. 

Through the online platform, we are seeking to spark industry peers’ interest in sustainable solutions for their future projects. By taking them through our design-thinking process, the portal serves to precipitate industry discussions on place creation with a people-first thinking and on improvements in urban planning.

By cultivating students’ and industry peers’ interest in sustainability through active knowledge-sharing, we are one step closer to securing the future for generations to come. 

Some of PLQ’s consultants including DP Architects, Meinhardt, Kaer, Grant Associates and Web Structures, also contributed to this learning offering.  

Click here or visit https://www.peopleplacesplanet.com.sg/ to access the People Places Planet experience portal. Individuals can register their interest for a site tour to continue their learning journey at PLQ.*

Some key takeaways from our case studies on the portal:

A. Putting people in the centre of the placemaking process

A critical success factor in effective place design is the active engagement with the different stakeholders involved, and we purposefully built a plan centered around the inclusion of all parties in the PLQ community and beyond. These included PLQ tenants and its occupants, members of the public, as well as experts in sustainable practices management.

The adoption of a people-centric approach in designing PLQ meant that the spaces were designed for engaging and memorable user experiences. We invested in quantitative research to understand market trends, consumer preferences and the market gaps from the retail, residential and workspace perspectives.

B. Prioritising sustainability through design 
 
Guided by Lendlease’s sustainability framework and aligning our consultants through an integrated design process, PLQ’s sustainability vision of being Green, Active and Engaged were achieved through various aspects which we inspect in the case studies featured in the portal:

• Intelligently operated green buildings designed to save costs and maximise operational efficiency
• A “town centre” at PLQ Plaza for people to meet and mingle in comfort
• Creating an active living ecosystem enabling healthy lifestyle
• Reinventing water systems with climate change considerations 
• 100,000 sq ft of green spaces and conservation efforts 

In line with Lendlease’s Sustainability Framework, our focus was to deliver a high-quality, mixed-use urban regeneration development with sustainable spaces that meet the varied, nuanced and personal needs of the people who live and work there by curating an indelible connection between people and places. 

Having such a sustainability mindset will help leaders facilitate broad and systemic learning within their organisations in creating long-term value and impact with the future in mind. 

 

*Tours are temporarily suspended in view of social distancing guidelines arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Register your interest and be notified on a later date when the tours are up and running!