Over the last couple of days, there has been an event discussing the future for architects at the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA), and lifecycle data management at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). The two events were both compelling, but could not have been more different. The latter, organized by Bentley, was titled BS1192, and had a range of industy leaders, from across a wide range of disciplines and parts of the industry, talking about the changing nature of delivery to meet government agendas. Sustainability was high on this agenda. The former, organised by Building Futures, focused more on the architect's role, answering three questions - who will design our built environment in 2025? what roles will those trained in architecture be doing in 2025? and how might practice change in 2025?
It is clear that to create a sustainable built environment, we need to radically change the processes through which buildings and infrastructure are designed and re-designed. Sustainability is not achievable if design and operation are disconnected. Yet, too often designers start with 'a blank sheet of paper' and end up giving too little information about their design back to end-users, owners and facility managers. In our research, we are addressing the new connections between design and use that are made possible by digital systems, with an ICE briefing sheet on value to clients through data handover, and concerns about how we learn from buildings in use, and re-design in the context of existing infrastructure, which are discussed in a recent piece on Sustainable Design in the Digital Economy, page 10 in Reading Research Review.
