What is a Masterplan and why do you need it?

These simple, but very relevant, questions were posed by a client during our initial meeting. 

They were redeveloping an existing campus of buildings and intuitively knew they wanted to prepare a masterplan, but they hadn't ever commissioned one before and could not explain to their stakeholders why it was needed. Why couldn't the architects just design the buildings? Or the landscape architects just replant the gardens, or the engineers just put in new services? 

Everyone knows why an architectural design for a building needs to be prepared, or why a structural design for a bridge needs to be done, or why the landscape for the entrance plaza has to be designed. There are obvious space utilisation, aesthetic and safety issues that, amongst other things, these exercises address. And these efforts all result in or enable the delivery of physical spaces which can be sold or rented. 

But why commission a masterplan, and what purpose does it serve?

The reality is that you don't always need masterplans for small projects - for a single building a simple site analysis and a site plan will give you all you need to make sure the building fits into and responds to its context (it is useful, but not essential, to have a masterplanner prepare these). On larger and more complex projects however, a masterplan is arguably the single most important and cost-effective way of designing and managing the project - and, just as importantly, of making sure that the development results in the shaping or making of a place instead of just a collection of commoditised buildings and spaces. In these developments it is crucial that an overarching approach and strategy is prepared before any design of buildings, infrastructure or the public realm is undertaken.

Why? Simply because the high-level vision and thinking that a masterplan represents informs the place making and lifestyle offer of the development and can guide the designs of buildings, infrastructure and landscape to be more efficient and effective thereby saving time, resource and money in the process. The orientation of a cluster of buildings from a climate or use adjacency perspective, for instance, which costs virtually nothing at the masterplan stage, can avoid expensive measures to mitigate the impacts of an incorrect decision later in the development.

By definition a masterplan is a broad and all-encompassing strategy which can mean many things to many people. It is important therefore that prior to starting a masterplanning effort all parties involved, including the client the consultant and the key stakeholders, are clear about the purpose of the masterplan which is to be prepared so that the effort, and the results, are acceptable, productive, useful and usable. 

It is worth stating the answer to the original question in a straightforward way as it forms the basis of what a client needs from a masterplanning exercise. A masterplan serves multiple purposes and produces many things, but usually not all of them are pertinent, or important, to all projects and all clients.

It can be:

• A vision for the future, it defines and relates the story of what the development (and its developer) wants to be and what it will offer to its users – it is the aspirations, goals, desires, and outcomes for the project and the site;
• A road map for achieving the vision and how we get to there – what are the components, what are the core principles, what is the path to follow, what is the spatial structure and what layers is it composed of;
• A blueprint for the development – how do we deliver the vision, what are the hard (infrastructure, landscape, buildings) and soft elements (environment, experience, lifestyle, brand), what are the phases and stages;
• A charter for agreeing goals with the stakeholders – internal and external;
• A business plan for what needs to be achieved – how do we make it invest-able, viable and beneficial for all stakeholders.

Not all masterplanning exercises need to focus on all of these aspects of course, however these elements can identify the type of masterplan that is required. Before starting a masterplan exercise, it is important that each of these are taken into account - either from work previously done, to be delivered during the current exercise, or in follow up efforts - in order to be clear about which stage of the design exercise the project is in order to avoid any misunderstanding. 

Two more things to keep in mind when commissioning and preparing a masterplan:

• Whilst architectural designs result in specific built elements, i.e. buildings, a masterplan is more about an approach than it is about a finished product. Sir Winston Churchill once said, "a plan is nothing, planning is everything" - by the same token the actual masterplan drawing, or report, is not the product of a masterplanning exercise; it is the vision, the offer, the strategy and the approach to delivery contained within these documents that defines a masterplan. The masterplan needs to be flexible and adjustable to respond to market, user, environmental and other variables; it is the master-planning which is defined. 
• Unlike buildings, which are seen as well as used, a masterplan is not an object. It is an environment which can only be experienced - and it should be conceived of and designed as such. 

And who should prepare a masterplan? The honest answer is that anyone can do it - most architects, landscape architects, planners or engineers have the design and technical background to foray into masterplanning. Not surprisingly masterplans prepared by these specialists can tend, however, to give importance to their specific discipline - the architect might focus on buildings anchoring the scheme, the landscape architect could emphasise the open and green spaces, the engineer may try and solve the 'problem' by designing complete and efficient systems for movement and services, and the planner will likely create easy to understand land use zoning. In order to capture the best value from the interaction of various elements of the urban form it is best if the masterplan is prepared by someone conversant with every discipline involved in the design of the built environment, but not specialising in any one. Someone who knows building typologies inside out, is knowledgeable about the public realm, understands the principles of transport and infrastructure needed to support development, is familiar with the planning context needed to obtain approvals and is also aware of the basic commercial principles of development. Someone who is looking at the whole and not distracted by any component part. The Urban Designer - a specialist who is the jack of all trades of the design world!

As urban designers and masterplanners at Studio MO2 we make sense of the intangibles and prepare holistic masterplan visions that enhance user's experiences and add value to our client's proposition. 

No easy task, but we enjoy every moment of it!