Get Connected - Scenario Planning Studio
Spring 2022
The Spring 2022 studio challenged the class to imagine and plan for a potential future for the Mill Creek corridor and Cincinnati region based on the major development drivers of our world today: technology, population change, climate change, and equity. Based on these drivers, groups envisioned the problems the region may face and strategies to thrive under such conditions.
Project Development
The first step of this project was to identify drivers of change that would affect future development. Our group selected an increased focus on equity, worsening climate change, continually advancing technology, and a declining regional population.
These drivers impact development through their effects on key systems: social/cultural networks, transportation, environmental systems, and education.
The drivers’ effects on these systems created opportunities for positive quality of life impacts with proper planning.
Three overarching development strategies were identified that would allow Cincinnati to embrace the opportunities presented and create better lives for residents: localization, sustainable infrastructure, and self-sustaining communities.
Assessing Impacts
The charts to the right display the relative degree of impact of each driver on each of the key systems. These informed the team’s priority concerns when developing transformation strategies.
Development Strategies
There were three overarching development principles that guided our designs:
Localization - closing loops within neighborhoods to reduce environmental impacts and create more close-knit communities
Sustainable Infrastructure - emphasizing environmental sustainability into development by integrating modern technology and naturalistic methods wherever possible
Self-Sustaining Communities - creating neighborhoods wherein people have everything they need to reduce the need for city-wide travel on a daily basis
A few potential spatial and programmatic strategies were identified for each principle to guide development in a tangible way. For example, creating closed loop energy systems would reduce the environmental impacts of power generation within neighborhoods.
