Today I wanted to remind myself (and anyone who could benefit) to look beyond the obvious when designing, specially when designing anything related to the Built Environment.
Very often it is expected from our work to only meet the current needs of our clients or the surrounding community, however, given that we live in a fast changing world, this is not close enough to where we should be heading towards.
If you think about it, the timeline of urban scale projects in particular, is such that what you are planning for today will only materialise in three to five years time and hence it is insufficient to look at current demands.
We need to think ahead, be innovative and build both resilience and adaptability within our designs. I personally think that frameworks and statutory obligations should evolve to facilitate this.
Currently, by using the same processes in all types of projects adds excessive length to tiny ones and a vast number of soon-to-be obsolete detailing to large ones.... just to get through planning.
Furthermore, whatever politicians say, the housing crisis, in particular, won't be addressed if we continue to expect developers (i.e. businesses whose objectives are focused on the short term and whose access to capital for future projects relies on profiting from current projects) to be the ones meeting the housing targets.
Why? Because it is both impractical and unrealistic within their existing business model which, among other things, relies heavily on overseas purchases, for example, which price out the locals and increase the number of empty homes.
So, should the business model change?
My view is that it probably should. After all in a market such as the one we are in, with stretched supply chains and a workforce whose availability is subject to political decisions, the gap between supply & demand is expanding much too fast.
And unless we choose an agile model based on partnerships with local authorities (i.e. the ones with the data needed to meet projected demands of the area) and bring affordability (as well as technology) into the business plan the maths will never work. What's your view?
