Envision
To ensure that the project meets citizens' as well as municipal aspirations, implementing participatory, cross-cutting and interdisciplinary co-creation initiatives is key. Intersections of experiential and expert knowledge make it possible to move progressively through the design process, using shared foundations, to the development of innovative concepts tailored to the particularities of the project's socio-demographic and land-use context.*
How should the project experience be envisioned in a way that extends beyond the program functional and technical parameters and that encapsulates its essence?
By setting the table for innovation
- Identifying potential opportunities for research and innovation in the project that would be worth exploring.
- Reframing, if required, the timeline and resources so that the project team can deploy an exploratory approach.
- Questioning, if required, the regulatory requirements, including making the necessary representations to policymakers.
By drawing inspiration from transferable best practices
- Exploring, as a team, case studies that document the intended concepts and best practices of the project (e.g., videos, themed backgrounders and publications of the Quality Toolkit).
- Discussing, as a team, completed projects of a similar nature that could provide avenues for solutions.
By comparing diverse scenarios
- Exploring various programmatic scenarios and their formatting, using charrettes, design workshops or ideas competitions.
- Experimenting with prototyping methods.
By challenging the preliminary vision
- Adjusting the preliminary vision statement based on the outcomes of studies, consultations and collaborative idea-generation sessions that explored and tested various scenarios.
By anchoring the final vision to the budgetary and scheduling metrics
- Ensuring that the Quality Vision and objectives to be achieved are realistic, budget- and time-wise.
- Identifying complementary sources of funding as a lever for enhanced project funding (e.g., funds for implementation of green infrastructure, carbon-neutral or heritage restoration projects; sustainable development and mobility program; contaminated land remediation program).