POLICY | RESEARCH | EVIDENCE

IN FOCUSMARCH 2014

Information Service

Delivering better places by design: lessons from major events

The use of major events to support regeneration and drive positive economic, social and environmental benefits within surrounding communities is a well-established strategy. Lessons on how to do this effectively have emerged from the experience of sporting and cultural events of all sizes – from mega events like the Olympic Games to smaller, individual music festivals and sporting events. This briefing from the Idox Information Service explores this issue. We look at:• The links between major events and urban renewal;• Evidence that major events can be used to drive wider economic, social and environmental benefits;• What other places can learn about transforming communities, from experiences in major events in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Melbourne.

Linking major events and urban renewal

Great placemaking is built on collaboration. By bringing people together through design it is possible to develop a shared vision for creating better places. Major events, such as the Commonwealth Games, create a buzz among local residents that can be used to create conversations and a shared understanding about how they want their communities to be.

An evaluation of the Manchester Commonwealth Games (Ecotec, 2006) identified a number of success factors for using major events for renewal:• To be sustainable in the longer term, the initiatives stemming from a major event need to be ‘owned’ by communities and partners and championed from within;• One thing guaranteed to lead to disappointment is to overplay the benefits that local communities are likely to receive;• When encouraging community involvement, effort needs to be put in to targeting the most socially excluded and hardest-to-reach groups;• Initiatives should build on existing programmes rather than being ‘parachuted’ in;• Event-themed social and economic regeneration initiatives should build upon,

and connect with, any physical and infrastructural legacy;• Effort should be made to ensure positive impacts are geographically diffused across target areas;• Legacy initiatives are most successful when they are used to assist, and accelerate, the achievement of pre-existing goals.

The creation of high-quality places is central to the potential for events to act as a catalyst for further regeneration. Lessons from London 2012 showed that the opportunities for economic and business development on key sites only succeed in terms of renewal if they link up with surrounding areas (London East Research Institute, 2009). It also suggested that for any renewal project it is important to:• Set high aspirations, but make sure they are deliverable and pragmatic;• Use efficient design to maximise the benefits of limited investment and minimise waste;• Respond to the context to create a distinctive new identity as the basis for regeneration;• Create a forum that represents different stakeholder interests (such as access and inclusion) to resolve conflicts between competing objectives;• Address critical issues before planning applications are submitted;

• Define expectations for design quality in strategy documents, masterplans, planning documents and individual project briefs to secure the quality of the outcome;• Create a distinctive destination through the strong spatial quality of the public realm, and the character and setting of the buildings within it.

The aims of placemaking and community building are complementary but also potentially contradictory. The planning of major events can risk focusing public realm and infrastructure improvements on activities to support tourists rather than existing communities.

It is also important to recognise that good design and placemaking does not just relate to physical infrastructure and buildings. By embedding design excellence in all renewal or community initiatives, it helps ensure delivery of social, economic and environmental benefits.For example, access for people with disabilities is a key design lesson from previous major events. For the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, an Equal First strategy aimed to integrate accessibility into every aspect of planning for the Games (Insight Economics, 2006).

1

POLICY | RESEARCH | EVIDENCE

Economic benefits of major events

The economic benefits of hosting major events include the investment in and around event venues and the benefits to the economy through increased visits. When a decision is made to host an event in a particular area, it generates an influx of public and private funding in both the lead up to, and delivery of, the event.Investment can take many forms, including:• sporting facilities, stadia and venues;• improvements to the transport infrastructure;• tourism developments, such as hotels and visitor attractions.

Such investment results in direct economic benefit to sectors, including construction, tourism and leisure, transport and the creative industries. This economic benefit then ripples out across supply chains. For example:• London 2012 secured at least £28 billion of economic impact through the construction and staging of the Games, along with tourism, trade and inward investment (DCMS, 2013).• A cost-benefit analysis of the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games found it created 6,300 jobs for the local area, an increase of £22m in turnover for local companies and £18m additional visitor spend within the local economy.• An evaluation of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture showed that it attracted 9.7m additional visits to Liverpool, with an economic impact of £753.8m (additional direct visitor spend) across Liverpool, Merseyside and the wider North West region.• A UK Sport study (2004) of the economic impact of sixteen major sporting events showed that the most successful events, economically speaking, are those that are able to draw visitors from outside the local economy. • Economic benefits continue after an event, due to both improved infrastructure and enhanced image and reputation (University of Liverpool, 2009).

Social benefits of major events

The social benefits associated with major events can be direct or indirect and include:• volunteering programmes for hard to

reach groups;• improvements to public spaces and design;• increased participation in sports or culture;• educational programmes;• improved health outcomes.

Environmental benefits of major events

The environmental benefits of major and mega events include: • the construction of environmentally-friendly buildings and public places; • improvements to public transport infrastructure and cycle and pedestrian routes;• development of green spaces and improvements to the public realm;• the renovation or reuse of existing physical assets.

As with any activity that brings large numbers of people and services together, there is the potential for major events to cause environmental damage. Many events seek to offset the carbon footprint

made by thousands of visitors through incorporating sustainable development approaches.

The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games provided a test-bed for systems of waste management, litter reduction and economical water use. Like subsequent host cities, the Victoria Government also made a commitment to make the Games carbon-neutral. The Royal Park Wetlands project also created new wetlands habitats and green networks in the area (Insight Economics, 2006).

By taking a design-led approach to planning major events, it is possible to ensure that local communities are both consulted and involved in environmental improvements to their areas.

Lessons from London 2012 in relation to sustainability suggest that: • Sustainability outcomes can be achieved through strong leadership and commitment from a project team – sustainability doesn’t happen on its own, but needs the right knowledge, rigour and

Idox Information Service | Delivering better places by design: lessons from major events

Case study: Volunteering at Manchester 2002

Over 10,000 volunteers were required for the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. Pre-Volunteer Programmes meant that a substantial number were recruited from economically deprived parts of the North West. To ensure a lasting legacy, the Post-Games Volunteer Project was then established. This project showed that it was possible to convert event volunteers into committed long-term volunteers.

Case study: Emerging East

The London Legacy Corporation’s Emerging East project offers grants to help forge connections to the Olympic Park by improving indoor and outdoor public spaces. This covers improvements to local streets, parks, playgrounds and towpaths and encouraging design-led community activities and events. Commissions of up to £9,000 for small projects and a few larger ones of up to £40,000 are available to local groups to transform disused or tired areas into thriving community spaces.

POLICY | RESEARCH | EVIDENCE

Idox Information Service | Delivering better places by design: lessons from major events

perseverance.• Much reporting on sustainability focuses on what can be counted, but not everything that has an economic and environmental impact can be quantified. Creating buildings with longevity that will be well-used in legacy was a key sustainable outcome.• Setting benchmarks of health, safety, security, quality, and inclusion and committing to achieving the benchmarks can change people’s opinion of sustainability.• It is necessary to make sustainability visible and engage and articulate the value wherever possible so that it drills down to every decision-making process.• It’s not the specialists who are going to make sustainability work – it’s everybody else. Specialists will push things forward, but everyone else will make the change work.• Sustainable design and flexibility doesn’t have to cost more – there is a range of small solutions appropriate to every project.

Greening Glasgow 2014

Glasgow 2014 aims to be the greenest Commonwealth Games yet, with the Games Partners agreeing a joint ambition to ‘Go for Green’.

Glasgow is drawing on ISO standards used in London 2012 to measure sustainable events management, which itself built on experience from Melbourne 2006.

Sustainability has been a key factor in procuring services for the 2014 Games. This has included developing existing infrastructure rather than building from scratch, as well as using temporary overlays which will transform existing structures during the Games.

Where new buildings have had to be built – such as the athletes’ village – these have been made part of the city’s long-term plans. The athletes’ village will become 750 low-carbon, low-cost homes. The existing Polmadie waste site will become the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre, which will power major venues and housing sites, as well as creating skilled jobs and apprenticeships.

Creating a placemaking legacy

Design affects how we live, work and play. Major events provide a chance to engage residents in thinking about community-led design at a local or neighbourhood scale. If local people and businesses are involved at an early enough stage, then the infrastructure and major investments associated with events can be shaped to meet local needs.

Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that the places created are sustainable, well-liked and well-used. By building knowledge and capacity about design, we move towards a more joined-up approach to transforming

communities.

A design-led approach can help:• Make the most of existing physical assets and get the most impact from new investments;• Improve the environmental sustainability of our urban areas;• Encourage active transport and healthier lifestyles;• Create partnerships and networks to support change at a local level;• Generate knowledge and skills, to help create dialogue and understanding of different groups’ priorities.

When considering how London 2012 could attain a lasting legacy, a number of critical success factors were identified, which are applicable to all regeneration projects (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 2011):• Encourage patient and sustained commitment: wider regeneration benefits often arise over a long timeframe (20+ years). After events are staged, momentum is often lost. As so much investment has already been committed, it is essential that long term aspirations are maintained.• Maximise the value of the public’s stake in the new infrastructure: a balance needs to be struck between recouping costs and delivering social benefits.• Delivering regeneration in the city generally, rather than merely transforming the event sites and venues, encourages wider buy-in from communities.

Further reading

London 2012 meta-evaluation (Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 2013) https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/london-2012-meta-evaluation

Inspired by 2012: the legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cabinet Office, 2013) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-olympic-and-paralympic-legacy-inspired-by-2012

Lessons from masterplanning and designing London 2012 (Olympic Delivery Authority, 2012) http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/lessons-from-masterplanning-and-designing-london-2012.php

Case study: Melbourne Common-wealth Games

Following the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, the Athletes’ Village was redevel-oped to offer up to 1000 dwellings, includ-ing 100 social housing flats, an aged care facility, community centre, childcare facili-ties, shops and a children’s playground. Buildings were intended to showcase how environmentally sustainable design and construction could be incorporated into a major development. The new residential areas included solar-assisted street light-ing and recycling and rainwater collection systems.

The Government also offered grants to local communities to undertake building or repair of community infrastructure and to restore heritage assets. (Insight Econom-ics, 2006).

5

7

6

POLICY | RESEARCH | EVIDENCE

An evaluation of the Commonwealth Games 2014 Legacy for Scotland (Scottish Government Social Research, 2012) http://www.sdpscotland.co.uk/media/465370/evaluationreportoct2012.pdf

The promotion of cycling in London: the impact of the 2007 Tour de France Grand Depart on the image and provision of cycling in the capital, IN Journal of Sport and Tourism, Vol 17 No 1 Feb 2012, pp43-61

The 2012 games: the regeneration legacy (RICS Research, 2011)

Creating an impact: Liverpool’s experience as European Capital of Culture (University of Liverpool, 2010) http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/Papers/Creating_an_Impact_-_web.pdf

London’s Olympic legacy (London East Research Institute, 2009) http://www.uel.ac.uk/londoneast/documents/20101008-CLG-OECD-2012.pdf

An evaluation of the Commonwealth Games Legacy programme, (Ecotec/Manchester City Council, 2006) http://www.manchester.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/2810/evaluation_of_the_commonwealth_games_legacy_programme

Triple bottom line assessment of the Melbourne XVIII Commonwealth Games (Insight Economics, 2006) http://fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2007/commgames/tblfinalreport/tblfinalreport.pdf

Measuring success 2: the economic impact of major sporting events (UK Sport, 2004) http://www.uksport.gov.uk/docLib/Publications/Measuring-Success-2.pdf

Idox Information Service | Delivering better places by design: lessons from major events

The Idox Information Service specialises in resources in public and social policy. We provide intelligence and current awareness services to a wide range of organisations. We can also provide literature reviews, policy insights and briefings on request.

iu@idoxgroup.com www.theknowledgeexchange.co.uk