Strategic Thinking – Starting with the Challenges and Potential, Not the Architecture

Focused on meeting the immediate needs, it is often difficult to find time to stop and consider the long-term vision. Yet strategic estates planning offers a wealth of potential operational benefits from improved quality of environment and spatial efficiency to financial benefits of reduced running costs and potential disposal of surplus assets.

Moreover, strategic planning offers an opportunity to really consider how the space might be used to support change. The evolving demands of building users, new technologies and market opportunities are constantly altering the types of spaces we need to learn, work and live and the existing estate may not be suitable for the future demands.

User-focused spaces have the potential to transform how individuals live, learn, and work.

Exploring and identifying the optimal solutions to meet client objectives forms the foundation of this approach.

Space efficiency goes beyond simply reducing the quantity of space occupied. It involves matching the types of spaces to meet activities and patterns of demand. Improving space utilisation can not only accommodate growth but also release savings in running costs, which can be reinvested to enhance the user experience.

Additionally, space efficiency is key to creating a sustainable, resilient estate by reducing energy demand and carbon footprint.

The needs of every Client is different and we always tailor our service to meet your specific needs. At the core of our approach is a tried and tested structured engagement process to help guide you through your strategic options and identify the optimum way forward.

The client vision should drive the estate needs, with the range of the curriculum offer and nature of the delivery driving not only the overall amount of space but crucially the nature of that space.

Therefore a vision workshop may:

• Examine examples of creating innovative collaborative spaces.
• Identify key design drivers and policies, for example security strategy or nature of support space required.
• How to balance long-term flexibility with the current specific needs of individual areas.

A clear understanding of the opportunities and constraints of an existing estate is fundamental to future planning. This involves reviewing the physical condition and suitability of the estate, as well as exploring options for remodelling, redevelopment, or disposal.

Space utilisation analysis should examine current patterns and benchmark against sector best practices. It must also anticipate future needs, modelling how emerging trends and ideas from the visioning workshop may influence future space requirements.

When undertaking a strategic review of the estate, it’s easy to lose sight of the long-term vision in response to immediate funding pressures or urgent estate needs. A successful estate strategy must be aspirational, outlining a framework that supports and preserves long-term opportunities and choices for continual improvement.

Before exploring options, we recommend establishing an ‘ideal model’ for the future educational vision and the estate required to support it. This model serves as a benchmark against which all emerging options can be assessed.

The study should consider the widest possible range of strategic options possible to ensure that the optimum solution is identified. Each option should make different levels of progress towards achieving the Ideal Model with ‘clear water’ between them.

Having selected the options, each can then be appraised against the priorities and objectives identified through the visioning workshops to provide a clear rationale for selecting the preferred approach.

The estate strategy should be the first step towards creating an estate that supports your vision. This involves setting out a clear roadmap for delivery, identifying practical and achievable solutions, defining the next steps, and mitigating key risks.