Building’s ambitious year-long project to improve the built environment has taken soundings from a group of its commissioners.
The Building the Future Commission convened a meeting of its high-profile panel of experts at Gleeds’ office in central London.
Each commissioner put forward ideas that would improve construction and held a wide-ranging discussion discussion with Building’s editorial team.
Commissioners attending included Katy Dowding, vice president of Skanska, Kay Hughes, design director at HS2, Mark Wild, chief executive at SGN, and Simon Tolson, senior partner at Fenwick Elliott, Martha Tsigkari, senior partner and head of applied R&D at Fosters, Simon Wyatt, sustainability partner at Cundall, Neal Shasore, head of school and chief executive at the London School of Architecture, Richard Steer, chair of Gleeds, Andrew Mellor, partner at PRP, and Rebecca Rees, partner at Trowers & Hamlins, completed the line-up.
Building will report on some of the ideas generated through the discussions in the coming weeks.
It was the first of several meetings to be held with commissioners, who are drawn from the worlds of business, policy, research and education.
This week we also held a virtual meeting with members of the Building the Future Young Persons’ Advisory Panel. This group, made up of people under 35 from organisations spanning architecture, housing, cost consultancy and more, discussed pathways into construction and we will have coverage of their perspectives online next week.
As part of our wider consultation with the industry, the Building the Future Commission is undertaking a UK-wide tour of roundtable discussions with experts around the regions in partnership with Constructing Excellence.
On 27 September, Building will also host a special Building the Future Commission conference to gather more evidence for the project.
After 12 months, the aim of the commission is to develop a report that sets a vision for the future of construction and contains proposals for change in each of our eight workstreams.
The Building the Future Commission
The Building the Future Commission is a year-long project, marking Building’s 180th anniversary, to assess potential solutions and radical new ways of thinking to improve the built environment.
The major project’s work will be guided by a panel of 19 major figures who have signed up to help shape the commission’s work culminating in a report published at the end of the year.
The commissioner include figures from the world of contracting, housing development, architecture, policy-making, skills, design, place-making, infrastructure, consultancy and legal. See the full list here.
The project is looking at proposals for change in eight areas:
- Education and skills
- Housing and planning
- Energy and net zero
- Infrastructure
- Building safety
- Project delivery and digital
- Workplace culture and leadership
- Creating communities
>> Editor’s view: And now for something completely positive - our Building the Future Commission
>> Click here for more about the project and the commissioners
Building the Future is also undertaking a countrywide tour of roundtable discussions with experts around the regions as part of a consultation programme in partnership with the regional arms of industry body Constructing Excellence. There is also a young person’s advisory panel.
We are inviting readers to submit ideas for how to improve the built environment through our online form which will form part of our Ideas Hub coming soon
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