d+a | Issue 116 • Jun/July 2020

95 A t Gensler, we are deeply committed to shaping the future of cities. Prior to the planning and design of a client’s project, we go through a process I call Strategic Visioning. It encourages alignment and focus among the client’s various stakeholders, has a unity of purpose and ultimately yields master plans and facilities well-suited to the present and poised for the future. It explores and challenges the client’s assumptions, and encourages them to take a long view of what they are wanting to do that is both broad and strategic. It moves the conversation from “how” to “what”. Thinking about what could be done, rather than how to get it done, keeps great ideas from being dismissed prematurely. As designers, we hold tremendous power to conceive what doesn’t yet exist. We need to focus on what we want our future to look like, and only after that has been decided, should we attempt to figure out how we will bring it to reality. A project that we applied this to was Rochester Commons, a mixed-use development currently under construction, located in one-north, Singapore. It will provide grade A offices, a shared executive learning centre, hotel and F&B options. Some of these will be housed in the 12 conservation-status colonial bungalows on the site. The larger objective of the project is to establish a global landmark of learner- focused support within a collaborative learning environment. To accomplish this and accommodate the diverse programmatic elements in an integrated whole on a challengingly compact site with significant elevation changes, a Knowledge Trail, comprised of elevated decking, connects the bungalows with the main building, a mixed- use high-rise, creating a central activity spine that transforms a relatively congested site into a cohesive and stimulating three-dimensional learning ecosphere. In this case, the integrating Knowledge Trail element was the key “how” discovery, but it didn’t become a part of the project until the “what” questions of program and function were settled.” David Calkins, Regional Managing Principal, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Gensler “