This book aims to fill the knowledge gap on how to plan, develop and manage innovation districts that are competitive in terms of both productivity and quality of living, justifying the massive investment put into place and at the same time doing both in a delicate and harmonious way.
There is a need for smart urban land use that is wired with both hard infrastructures (e.g., telecommunication and transport) and soft infrastructures (e.g., diversity and tolerance). The reader learns this knowledge through conceptual expansions for key insights, frameworks for potential and performance assessment and best practices for global innovation districts. The authors begin innovation district planning with the role and effectiveness of planning a branding in the development of innovation districts. The next key topic of place making is recognised as a key strategy for supporting knowledge generation and innovation activities in the contemporary innovation districts. Another important topic is place quality where the reader learns to identify and classify indicators of place quality by studying global innovation districts best practices. The reader also expands their understanding on the classification of innovation districts based on their key characteristics through a methodological approach. The book concludes with district smartness studied through the socio-cultural role played by anchor universities in facilitating place making in innovation districts. Smart campuses, enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education, are seen as a miniature replica of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology.
The book serves as a repository for scholars, researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students as it communicates the complex innovation district phenomenon in an easy-to-digest form by providing both the big picture view and specifics of each component of that view.
Author Biography:
Tan Yigitcanlar is an eminent Australian researcher with international recognition and impact in the field of urban studies and planning. He is a Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Along with this post, he carries out the following positions: Honorary Professor at the School of Technology, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil; Director of the Australia-Brazil Smart City Research and Practice Network; Lead of QUT Smart City Research Group; and Co-Director of QUT City 4.0 Lab. He is a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts. He has been responsible for research, teaching, training and capacity building programs on the fields of urban studies and planning at esteemed Australian, Brazilian, Finnish, Japanese and Turkish universities. His research aims to address contemporary urban planning and development challenges that are economic, societal, spatial, governance or technology related in nature. The main foci of his research interests, within the broad field of urban studies and planning, are clustered around the following three interdisciplinary themes: smart technologies, communities, cities and urbanism; sustainable and resilient cities, communities and urban ecosystems; and knowledge-based development of cities and innovation districts. He has been providing research consultancy services to all tier governments (i.e., federal, state, local), as well as international corporations and non-governmental organisations in Australia and overseas. These services help government and industry form their key strategies, become more resilient and be better prepared for emerging disruptive conditions. He has disseminated his research findings extensively, including over 300 articles published in high-impact journals and 25 key reference books published by esteemed international publishing houses. His research outputs have been widely cited and have influenced urban policy, practice and research internationally. His research was cited over 21,000 times, resulting in an h-index of over 85 (Google Scholar). According to the 2023 Science-wide Author Databases of Standardised Citation Indicators, amongst the urban and regional planning scholars, he is ranked #1 in Australia and a top-10 ranked researcher worldwide. He was also recognised as an Australian Research Superstar in the Social Sciences Category at The Australian’s 2020 Research Special Report, and he was named as the Australia’s Social Sciences ‘Research Field Leader’ for the Urban Studies and Planning discipline in the 2024 edition of The Australian Research Magazine.
Surabhi Pancholi is a researcher with international recognition and impact in the field of architecture, urban design and urban planning, particularly specialised in place making. She is currently a Lecturer of Architecture at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia. As a firm believer in collaboration and interdisciplinary approach, her research works have gained international recognition on the topics of multidimensional place making, design principles, strategies and planning processes of urban knowledge and innovation clusters named variously as smart cities, knowledge cities, smart innovation districts, technology hubs, creative precincts and the like. She has a successful record of extensively publishing in high-ranked and esteemed international journals in the field of urban design and urban planning. She has developed a strong network at local and international levels by her collaborative projects and joint research publications, frequently presenting at international conferences and seminars. In her professional roles, as an architect and urban planner, she has worked on a range of prestigious commercial, residential, institutional and government projects nationally and internationally. She advocates the adoption of a multidisciplinary perspective and an integrated approach for making cities and clusters more people-oriented, economy-wise, environmentally sustainable and societally integrated.
Niusha Esmaeilpoorarabi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, Faculty of Fine Art, University of Tehran, Iran. She earned a PhD at Queensland University of Technology and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees at the University of Tehran, specialising in architectural design and urban studies. Niusha’s research aims to address interdisciplinary themes from architecture, urban studies and social sciences fields. The main focus of her research includes knowledge-based development of cities, neighbourhoods and in particular innovation districts; her research also supports the sustainable growth of neighbourhoods and communities. Her works have been published in high-ranked journals and received attention from the industry. Since 2019, she has been collaborating with several organisations, including the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Iran Association of Science Parks and Innovation Organisations, to deliver workshops and training events promoting place making and community engagement in innovation districts. Additionally, she has been involved in a wide range of national and international projects in industry, from the planning process to designing phases. This also includes multiscale developments from housing projects to public urban spaces.
Rosemary Adu-McVie is a researcher with international recognition in the field of urban planning, specialising in the classification of innovation districts. She is currently a Lecturer of Property Studies at the Department of Survey and Lands, Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea. She is a practitioner-turn-academic with about two decades of industrial experience in the fields of property management and urban valuations. Her research works focus on innovation districts and the like, covering the topics of the evolution of innovation districts, multidimensional classification of innovation districts, performance assessment of innovation districts and innovation district typology. She has successfully published in high-ranked and esteemed international journals in the field of urban planning and built environment. She has developed a strong network at local and international levels through her collaborative projects and research publications.
