In the past year, the industry, media, and governments have become hyper-aware of the impact their historical decisions -in the context of housing- have had on society and are using the findings, together with climate adaptation strategies, to reimagine how things could be improved.
However, I have found several gaps in the current strategic planning:
My first concern is, of course, the culture of silos within the industry. Because of it, those of us working in historical buildings, for example, often find ourselves unable to convince heritage officers to look beyond the present and into the future in order to implement solutions which will address long term accessibility, sustainability and environmental issues.
They feel committed to protecting the past at any cost and are not given the tools to consider solutions that can accommodate the changes we should in order to get ready for the future.
In Europe it is quite normal to see beautiful conversions that demonstrate there is a way to do it without loosing the heritage and hence I personally would love to see a more holistic approach in the UK too if we are to move closer to a carbon neutral future.
Another problem I see is that whilst other industries have been able to create new roles who bring the insight required to address the use of resources, the roles and mindset within construction in the UK remain based on an outdated model.
Again, learning from Europe (and the rest of the future conscious world) we should be creating new roles to help us transition to a diferent mindset. So far, the biggest advance here has been the implementation of BIM but tech on its own will not suffice. We need more.
So, my question to you is... What do you think is missing in the industry to take us to a greener, leaner and more accessible future?
