Miriam Fitzpatrick looks at the key challenges facing the building design industry today. Top of the list is environmental performance…
Changing the way we design, build and operate buildings to make them more environmentally sound is probably one of the greatest challenges facing building design in the next five to ten years. Environmental performance used to be little more than an after-thought in the design process, but it is now a prerequisite demanded by clients who seek long-term benefits from their building while also meeting the regulations set out in energy use legislation. There three main aims are:
- Establish standards
The industry needs to establish performance standards to meet the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Kyoto agreement. This would help to benchmark claims for greenness and begin to quantify how buildings perform and the cost or benefits associated with specific design measures.
- Understand the issues
Designers will need further training to understand the implication of green design and how it can impact on social issues like reducing social exclusion. Getting the basics right, like reducing energy waste, will be critical. Greater integration of green thinking will defy current practice as it will demand long-term cost modelling, the early appointment of an integrated design team, potentially require higher investment in capital costs and challenge the demand for appropriate technologies, products and materials.
- Invest to design the best
Some buildings and particularly housing - including recent housing - will struggle to meet the energy criteria. It is thought that this could result in some geographical clustering of poor-performing neighbourhoods, which will require major investment to keep pace.
Given the scale of public sector investment planned for infrastructure, health and education as well as the public sector's role in delivering new housing, the challenge will be to create a worthwhile legacy. This is a massive opportunity, of a scale not witnessed since the Victorian era and its legacy will live with us for the next 100 years or more. The challenge will be to deliver mature design that is responsive to environment and context, through procurement routes involving private finance - such as PPP and PFI.
Having raised the public's interest in building design, the real challenge will be to make sure that what gets built lives up to the public's expectations. As 90% of the current built fabric in the UK will still exist in 30 to 40 years time the challenge will be to fulfil the expectation for improvement with incremental change. Around 1% of all buildings in the UK are affected annually by new construction and 2.5% by refurbishment. Resisting short-term gains in favour of long-term satisfaction will be key.
Resisting the desire for the spectacular one-off building in favour of - or at least supplemented by - the slower transformation of urban design is a challenge being raised in current critiques of regeneration schemes. The challenge will be to spread investment from the media-worthy statement architecture to urban design as a whole.
Successful building design results from the use of a skilled and multi-disciplinary team. The roll of credits at the end of a film is a familiar sight. Building design involves an equally impressive array of skills, yet all too often these contributors are forgotten in favour of the lead architect. From lighting designer to landscape architect, from public health engineer to patron, the multiple talents which collaborate in building design need to be celebrated to reinforce the status of building design.
With increasing pressure to produce a fast return on investment for shareholders in development companies, together with treasury guidelines for public bodies, complex procurement routes and high professional indemnity, those involved in building design will be challenged to maintain innovation and an element of beauty and delight in what is designed.