Resumen de University and innovation district symbiosis in the context of placemaking: Insights from Australian cities
Surabhi Pancholi, Tan Yigitcanlar, Mirko Guaralda, Severine Mayere, Glenda Amayo Caldwell, Richard Medland
Innovation districts are a new land-use type, where public and private actors work towards fostering, attracting, and retaining investment and talent to revitalise urban areas and boost knowledge/innovation economy activities. Developing innovation districts has become a popular urban strategy across the globe. They are often co-located with universities to act as a critical anchor in their socio-spatial and operational matrices. Despite the role of universities in the knowledge/innovation economy being researched extensively, university and innovation district symbiosis, particularly in the context of placemaking, is an understudied area of research. This paper aims to investigate the socio-cultural role played by anchor universities in facilitating placemaking in innovation districts. The study adopts a qualitative approach to analyse how stakeholders perceive Australian innovation districts. The findings reveal that: (a) Universities play pivotal roles as facilitators of placemaking through societal integration in innovation districts; (b) Universities act as platforms for collaboration and exchange of knowledge by adopting extroverted and collaborative approaches; (c) Universities help in developing a sense of trust within the community and establishing innovation districts as democratic, cohesive and prosperous localities; (d) Universities contribute to socio-cultural and organisational maturity of innovation districts.
