The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and Hypercat have published the interim Smart Strategy for Old Oak and Park Royal, the UK’s largest urban redevelopment.
The thinking for the report was “crowdsourced” through 37 workshops, across six different domains, to feed the best ideas from hundreds of smart thinkers into the interim strategy. Development of the report by Hypercat was supported by a strong set of individual organisations including Innovate UK, the Mayor of London’s Office, the OPDC, BT, KPMG, Cisco, Flexeye, Symantec and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, launched the OPDC in April 2015 to drive forward future regeneration of the site linked to the construction of a vast High Speed 2 (HS2) and Crossrail Station and to deliver up to 25,500 homes and 65,000 jobs. As well as creating the standard-bearer for new sustainable neighbourhoods, it will also be an exemplar in ‘smart’ regeneration – embracing the latest technological advances to boost economic growth and
quality of life.
The OPDC is being supported by Hypercat to develop its emerging smart strategy, with Flexeye managing the programme to run the workshops and to create the interim report. Hypercat is a not-for-profit organisation that is driving secure and interoperable Internet of Things for industry and cities.
The interim report has helped to inform the draft OPDC Local Plan which opened for public consultation on 4th February and is running until 31st March (please see https://opdc.commonplace.is). A final Smart Strategy will be produced at a later date to inform the next version of the Local Plan. The OPDC welcomes comments on this report
alongside the draft Local Plan. Findings from the interim Smart Strategy report are presented under three different themes:
- Transport and the public realm
- Utilities infrastructure
- Smart sustainability
Victoria Hills, OPDC’s chief executive officer said, “The collaboration with Hypercat has helped us to tap into the expertise of a huge number of smart city experts in a very short space of time. I’m keen that the OPDC can quickly build upon the interim Smart Strategy so we can embed technology, innovation and smart approaches into everything we do to plan, design, build, and finance the UK’s largest regeneration project.
A Smart approach at Old Oak and Park Royal will not only further bolster London’s competitive position in the global economy. It also makes economic sense to embed and foster innovation that leads with delivery around growth hubs such as HS2 stations.”
Justin Anderson CEO of Flexeye and a founder of Hypercat commented, “It’s been fantastic to work closely with the OPDC and hundreds of smart thinkers to shape such an important report. The breadth of areas covered and the richness of the ideas conveyed mean that there is lots of value for other cities in the UK and internationally. We are very much looking forward to working with the OPDC to continue to take forward the strategy.”
Some of the key recommendations of the report include using technologies and digital systems to:
Be green
- Support the circular economy and minimise waste generation.
- Actively mitigate and adapt to climate change.
- Improve air quality.
- Intelligently manage energy networks that generate cleaner energy.
Be integrated and connected
- Use the public realm and buildings efficiently.
- Integrate management of transport network capacity.
- Improve and establish world-class digital connectivity.
- Personalise wayfinding and enable people to easily move and access places.
Be innovative
- Nurture innovation.
- Explore and implement appropriate deliverable solutions.
- Encourage collaboration and sharing.
You can access the full report on the Hypercat website: http://www.hypercat.io/library.html
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_ OR @jcIoTnow
