When we look to the future, there is excitement about the possibilities, but it's no wonder people are anxious

The fact that the effects of climate change are already evident across the globe does not lessen the need for environmentally sustainable solutions in the built environment, despite what some of the world’s so-called political leaders say. Quite the opposite, in fact. The climate and biodiversity crises demand that our future projects continue to push the boundaries beyond net zero. There will also need to be a greater focus on designing buildings to suit a changing climate, as more extreme seasonal weather and water shortages become standard.

There is a pressing need to look at our existing building stock and make the necessary interventions to lower energy and water demand through intelligent fabric improvements, identifying and fixing poorly operating building services, and decarbonising heating systems. These are largely the challenges we have been wrestling with for many years, but it is more important than ever that the industry brings an urgency to delivering more sustainable outcomes.

Technology will play a bigger part in helping us to achieve our goals, both in terms of optimising the design and successfully operating and maintaining buildings. More powerful computational tools will use real building performance data to refine our solutions, whether that is aimed at lowering embodied carbon or driving down the need for energy. Equally, structured data will enable greater automation of design processes, which will change the way we work.

Smart technology will increasingly feature in the buildings we design, which will enable users to run and maintain their buildings more efficiently and cost-effectively. Enhanced monitoring of systems and the ways in which we use our buildings through the collection and analysis of real-time data will mean that building managers are better informed about how their buildings are running and the way in which they are being used. Smart buildings will ultimately be able to use the data to make sensible decisions that manage comfort, energy use, security and planned preventative maintenance regimes. 

A great deal of this new technology is being described as artificial intelligence (AI), raising concerns about job losses and a threat to critical thinking and human creativity. The reality is that these new tools are here to stay, and they will evolve quickly to become useful assistants that change the way we work. However, our focus should be on using technological advancement to hone our ideas and deliver more creative solutions. 

Ultimately, most buildings are for people, and the need for humans to be involved at the heart of the process of designing buildings remains immutable. There are challenges ahead, but we should be optimistic about using our agency to meet those challenges in a positive way that benefits us all.