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We know our world is changing – from climate change, to growing mental health disabilities.  From zero carbon economies to new ways of travel.  These trends fundamentally change how we plan and design streets, landscapes and infrastructure for the future.

Design Ethos

People Centered

Better Tomorrow

Technology-enabled

Cooperative Communities

Future Ready landscapes will support locally-focused, neighbourhoods that are easy to walk around. Helping overcome loneliness, making it easy for people with mental health disabilities to travel, and resilient to extreme rainfall. The exponential rate of technological advancements is affecting every aspect of daily life, from our work patterns and travel behaviours, to the intricate way in which we experience the world. Urban spaces will be redefined, giving rise to a new platform that celebrates both cultural and wildlife diversity. These new natural urban spaces will be based around all-age neighbourhoods, powered by local energy, fed by local food.

Case studies

Espoo, Finland

Kera Co-Op City

WSP’s winning competition entry for the Nordic Build Cities Challenge for the Kera Co-Op City in Espoo, Finland identifies creative circular economy solutions that will support Kera’s transformation from an industrial area to a walkable ‘20-minute’ neighbourhood, with comfortable and well-connected green walking corridors.

Margaret Mahy Playground

Christchurch, New Zealand

Margaret Mahy Playground

The Tākaro ā Poi Margaret Mahy Family Playground exemplifies WSP’s commitment to community. The project’s success is based on generating social cohesion through community-based design, an important response following catastrophic events such as the aftermath of Christchurch earthquake in 2011.

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

MARTA

WSP worked on Transit-Oriented Development Planning for the extension of Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Atlanta’s regional heavy rail transit system will be ‘mode-neutral’ - based on design principles and flexibility in development scale and density. The corridor TOD vision focuses on improving multimodal connectivity, job creation and economic development on a regional scale.

Green Infrastructure

Green, rather than concrete, infrastructure creates wonderful new places for communities to walk, travel and relax in. Slowing down and storing rain from cloudbursts in streets designed to store water. Trees providing canopies to walk under in the hottest weather. Grass and other soft landscapes absorbing heat, providing remarkable places for all ages in all electric cities that are cleaner and quieter. And all of this brings wildlife back to cities at scale, while providing lower cost solutions that are super flexible to adapt to future uses.

Case studies

Los Angeles, California, United States

Taylor Yard G2 River Park

In the US, our experts are working in multiple sites and with numerous partners, such as in Los Angeles, where WSP is leading on the Taylor Yard G2 River Park project. This project seeks to transform a disused railway yard into a riverside park, restoring natural habitats, enhancing connection between the city and river and addressing social inequality.

London, United Kingdom

Herne Hill flood alleviation

In the UK, WSP delivered a multi-agency flood alleviation scheme for the Herne Hill & Dulwich, south London, noted by the responsible Environmental Agency officer as ‘a fantastic example of how strong partnership working and communication can deliver a vital flood alleviation scheme that not only mitigates flood risks but also benefits the wider community and environment’.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Capital Illumination Plan

In Canada, WSP has been involved in the delivery of National Capital Illumination Plan, this being the first strategy of its kind in North America. The principles used reflect an approach based on sustainable development, seeking to strike a balance between environmental, social and economic aspects of lighting with innovative solutions, whilst promoting night-time economy. 

Compassionate Cities

With the average city dweller knowing the names of three neighbours or fewer and mental health disabilities on the rise, future landscapes both reduce the triggers for disabilities and help overcome them. Our future landscapes provide havens of inclusive and mindful space. Provide places to relax in. And with communal areas, provide the opportunities to meet new people, celebrate sporting successes (and tragic losses) and make open areas a place for living in as much as each of our flats, apartments and workplaces. Ball games allowed.

Case studies

London, United Kingdom

Old Street

WSP’s ‘Old Street’ project in the UK is transforming a traffic-dominant island into a lively pedestrian peninsula where social interaction is enabled through inclusivity and safety by design. A Future-Ready Innovation Lab enabled WSP’s design process to creatively address relevant themes on climate, society, technology, and resources.

Auckland, New Zealand

Scott point

The Scott Point project in Auckland, New Zealand is an exemplar of holistic design and multidisciplinary collaboration. The first fully sustainable sports park in New Zealand, the design harvests energy and human movement through kinetic parks – used to power the site’s e-bikes and e-vehicle charging stations.

Sweden

Roofs of the future

In Sweden, WSP explored the full potential of unutilised urban roofs to develop economic, ecological and social values by using the GIS-based tool Solkartan (the Sun Map). Many of future challenges that growing cities face, such as cloudburst, growing energy demand, and social isolation can be addressed in innovative roofscapes. With the aid of multi-dimensional data, this powerful tool can be deployed for large scale intervention.

Insights

January 2020

Transitioning to Zero Emission technology

White Paper
Mobility

December 2019

New Mobility Helps Shape Customer-Centric Public Transport

White Paper
Mobility

October 2019

Going Small - The Transition to Urban Micromobility

White Paper
Mobility , Society
Vestre Parklets

October 2019 | 5:00

What if we could design out stress from the city

United Kingdom
Blog
Places , Society , Resources , Technology

March 2019

Digital Transformation in Transport & Infrastructure

Feature
Mobility , Places , Resilience , Society , Technology

March 2019

An Innovative Approach to Air Quality Management

Canada
Blog
Society , Technology

January 2019 | 14 minutes

How can an operationally safe environment be assured in the transition to an automated environment?

United Kingdom
Technical Paper
Mobility , Resilience , Society , Technology

May 2018 | 4 minutes

Vision Zero: A Road Safety Program that Improves the Environment

Feature
Resilience , Mobility , Places

May 2016 | 2 minutes

How Skylines Reflect and Develop a City's Personality

Canada
Feature
Places , Society

12 minutes

Autonomous Vehicles and Driver Capability

United Kingdom
Technical Paper
Mobility , Society , Technology , Resilience

What is Future Ready

Future Ready is a WSP global program which allows us to better understand what lies ahead. We see the future more clearly through key trends in climate change, society, technology and resources, and we challenge ourselves and our clients to find solutions that are ready for today and for this future.

Learn more

Contacts

Interested in Future Ready Landscapes? Contact our team.