Prior + Partners recently joined practitioners from across the public and private sectors at Future of London's From Data to Decisions event, exploring how digital innovation can help support more informed planning and placemaking.
Representing the practice, Head of Digital Innovation Abhi Acharya presented the National Place Portrait, the free-to-access tool within our Place+ digital placemaking platform, sharing how its development has been shaped by a persistent challenge facing the industry.
While there is no shortage of data available to planners and decision-makers, much of it remains fragmented across multiple sources, making it time-consuming to access, consolidate and interpret. Rather than asking what more data the sector needs, the National Place Portrait was developed around a different question: how can we make existing evidence easier to find, easier to understand and easier to use?
That thinking shaped every aspect of the National Place Portrait, from the way information is organised and presented to the user experience itself. By bringing essential place-based datasets together within a single, intuitive interface, the tool reduces the effort required to establish a robust evidence base, allowing users to focus on interpretation rather than information gathering.
Abhi also reflected on the wider challenge of digital adoption across the built environment. However sophisticated a digital tool may be, its value ultimately depends on whether it becomes part of everyday practice. That means designing technology around the needs of its users, not expecting users to adapt to the technology. This principle has shaped the development of Place+, bringing together our digital specialists, planners, urban designers, economists and graphic designers to create tools that feel intuitive, accessible and aligned with the realities of planning and placemaking.
This multidisciplinary approach reflects the wider philosophy behind Place+. Digital tools should complement professional expertise, making complex evidence more accessible while supporting better conversations, stronger collaboration and more confident decisions.
The National Place Portrait represents the first publicly available tool within Place+, with further tools currently in development as the platform continues to evolve. We’ll be sharing more of what’s next at PropTech Connect this September, where we’ll be showcasing the next generation of Place+ tools and demonstrating how they support planning, development and regeneration through every stage of the project lifecycle.
Our thanks to Future of London for bringing together such a valuable discussion and creating an opportunity to share ideas with colleagues from across the built environment sector.
