Sustainable thinking with a Design to Value approach

The focus should be on leveraging AI for time-consuming tasks (like unit layouts) to free up architects to focus on their core competencies and creative work.

The starting point is industry collaboration — a united focus on raising the industry’s understanding, knowledge and skills in relation to sustainable building.We need to be investing in colleges and universities, educating our young people and making sure they get the right training from the outset.

We must have an industry-wide effort, focused on sustainability in design, one where we can all contribute, rather than having a few people in senior positions trying to force the issue.. We need to do more with passive design, whether it be a fully certified, Passivhaus approach, or simply using sustainable design features more generally from the start through to completion: early design stages, technical design, procurement and construction.Nothing lost along the way.We need to involve contractors and manufacturers, with contractors pushing their supply chains to make sustainability-led improvements in their products and materials..

Yes, there are challenges, but if this industry (not famed for collaboration) would commit to working together, they are surmountable.We’ve definitely seen an increase in collaboration in the past months.

There’s a lot of enthusiasm around sustainability in design, but we need it to manifest.

The next generation are incredibly aware of the climate emergency and these types of issues, but we can’t wait for them.Developing these is a critical part of developing a clear understanding of the stakeholders and their individual paradigm of value.

Engaging with the different groups will further enhance the knowledge and often change, modify or clarify the needs.Creating, innovating, and assessing design ideas can only be done within the context of this captured understanding.. What needs to be remembered is that Value is not generated at a single point, there is a value chain.

For instance, a good experience at a restaurant may start with the availability of the menus, ease of booking, adaptability to your needs.Then move on to the welcome, the ambience, the food, the price, and so on.. And in the Value chain there may be clear ambiguities or conflicts that need to be resolved.