What would the role of the construction industry be in an economic model that stayed within the carrying capacity of the world?

Progress has been measured in percentage points of growth in GDP since the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and since then those running economies have been fixated on ensuring that GDP growth is kept as high as possible. This has meant burning more and more of the earth’s fossil fuels and exploiting the world’s other natural resources to maintain ever greater levels of consumption and turnover. This is not sustainable – but the question remains whether there an alternative model that provides prosperity and a good quality of life, maintains individual freedoms and does not rely on perpetual growth; of activity; of population; of resource extraction and environmental degradation? If so, should we be investing in a different sort of infrastructure now and preparing for what the New Economics Foundation has described as the Great Transition.

A state of equilibrium requires an economy that maintains and recycles natural resources and stays within its share of global carrying capacity. The construction industry would have a major role to play in establishing and managing the infrastructure and built environment to enable such an economy and way of life. Many versions of the good, sustainable life have been developed and proposed in recent years and some are even economically feasible. Can the limited investment currently available be channelled into establishing a self-supporting and non-depleting economy, one that addresses the full range of social, economic and environmental concerns? Can we build it?

The Edge Debate discussed:
— The nature of a successful equilibrium economy

— The role for the construction industry within it

— The investment, skills and understanding required

— Managing the transition

“…the increase of wealth is not boundless”
John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, 1848

Debate held: 26th November 2012
Venue - The Lecture Hall, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Parliament Square, London SW1P 3AD

Speakers:
Chris Beauman (Chair) – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Victoria Johnson - New Economics Foundation & contributor to Zero Carbon Britain
Simon Rawlinson - EC Harris

If you would like to attend this debate please contact Simon Foxell at sf@architectspractice.com. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come basis.

Downloads:
Edge Debate 52 - Building a State of Equilibrium - Invitation
Edge debate 52 - Building a State of Equilibrium - handout
Edge Debate 52 - Building a State of Equilibrium - Debate notes
Edge debate 52 - Building a State of Equilibrium, Victoria Johnson, nef - Presentation
Edge debate 52 - Building a State of Equilibrium - Reading list

The current London Plan maintains the centralising strategy pursued in the Capital since the big bang of the 1980s despite the polycentric ambitions of Boris Johnson’s mayoral campaigns. Areas in London are becoming increasingly mono-functional and commercial sites are being consolidated to provide larger and larger scale developments. An Edge debate examined whether:

— This will lead towards a more or less sustainable and resilient London

— Where London’s value lies and whether scale has inherent value

— A successful decentralised model can be envisaged with a more balanced and less energy-intensive locational/spatial strategy

— London can develop viable ‘Lifetime neighbourhoods’ as proposed by the Mayor?

The debate drew on recent research into distributed workspaces on the outer edges of metropolitan areas (‘Liveable lives’, 2010), the role of place (‘Why place still matters in the digital age’ 2011) [see downloads below] and the impact of scale in workplaces (forthcoming report, 2012)

Debate held: 30th October 2012
City Hall, London

Chair:
Nicky Gavron – London Assembly member and former Deputy Mayor of London

Speakers:
Ziona Strelitz – Director ZZA Responsive User Environments
Michael Edwards – Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
Ben Rogers - Director of the Centre for London

Downloads:
Edge debate 51 London redistributed? invitation
Edge Debate 51_London redistributed? - Debate notes
Edge Debate 51 London redistributed? Handout
Edge Debate 51 London redistributed? Speakers
Liveable Lives [2010]
Why place still matters in the digital age [2011]
London redistributed? Michael Edwards’ presentation
The 1999 UCL report which gave birth to London Overground / ringrail / orbirail - London’s spatial economy: the dynamics of change (1999)
AJ Footprint review 8th November 2012

Built environment professionals, business leaders and politicians of all leanings all support the idea of innovation but to date there has been more discussion about ‘push factors’ (how industry can encourage innovation) and very little about pull factors (how policy can create the conditions out of which a more innovative construction industry would emerge). If the construction industry is not clear about the policies that we want to see, how can we expect governments to implement them?

The debate looked at the pull factors necessary for the UK to achieve and apply successful innovation in the built environment sector. Some commentators have observed that the construction industry is becoming ever more conservative and risk-averse while the context (environmentally, socially, economically) is becoming ever more demanding of radical change – the long term implications of this are troubling in many respects. The UK has some of the best designers, engineers and innovators in the world and yet there has been very little collective, national effort to nurture the potential benefits

— How should innovation best be supported in SMEs?

— How can conditions be created for disruptive technologies to be launched rather than smothered?

— What are the economic conditions out of which greater innovation would emerge?

— How might the idea of a circular economy drive innovation?

— What policy initiatives should be implemented to drive innovation?

Debate held: 8th October 2012
Conference Centre, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, London

Chair:
Richard Miller, Head of Sustainability, Technology Strategy Board

Speakers:
Peter Head – Chairman of the Ecological Sequestration Trust + Chairman of the Institute for Sustainability
Robert Webb – Energy Questions + Founder of Quiet Revolution
Michael Pawlyn - Exploration Architecture + The Sahara Forest Project

Downloads:
Edge Debate 50 -Setting the Conditions for Innovation: Invitation
Edge Debate 50 - Setting the Conditions for Innovation: Debate notes

The 49th Edge Debate picked up from where previous examinations at the potential environmental damage from shale gas left off and asked … If shale gas is going to be a major source of energy, both globally and in the UK, what are the implications?

Global shale gas basins

— Will a new source of abundant cheap energy bring with it easy economic growth?

— Will shale gas knock out the nuclear industry?

— Does shale gas improve the fortunes for renewable generation?

— Is there a renewable energy endgame to be played for?

— Does the need for CCS become compelling?

— Are we about to see falling energy prices and, if so, what might this mean?

— And, most importantly for our sector, what does this mean for how we plan cities, design buildings and build and operate them?

These are urgent questions that we can’t afford to answer wrongly.
What should our sector recommend?

Debate held: 23 April 2012
Institution of Civil Engineers, London

Chair:
Chris Huhne MP

Speakers:
Bill Bordass – Usable Buildings Trust
Mark Whitby – Davies Maguire + Whitby and EvoEnergy
John Miles - Professor of Transitional Energy and Arup Group Board Director

Downloads:

Notes of the debate (pdf)
Speaker presentation - Bill Bordass (pdf)
Speaker presentation - Mark Whitby (pdf)
Speaker presentation - John Miles (pdf)

Speaker biographies (pdf)

Link:
Cullinan Studio blog 17/5/2012

“At a time when there are calls for radical changes in construction procurement, there is also a need to reassess the way in which designers of all kinds are chosen, particularly those involved in the built environment.”
Design Council Cabe submission to the All Party Group for Excellence in the Built Environment Commission of Inquiry into achieving best value in the procurement of construction work, 23rd Jan 2012

A joint Edge/Design Council Cabe workshop held to discuss improving procurement practice and draft proposals for a code of procurement practice.

The discussion addressed whether:
— a code of practice was the right approach to reforming the procurement of design in the built environment?

— the points proposed in the draft code were the right ones?

— a code of practice should be mandatory in the public sector?

— such a code could be extended to the private sector?

Chair:
Robin Nicholson – Edward Cullinan Architects & Convenor of the Edge

Speakers:
Rab Bennetts - Bennetts Associates

Debate held: 13th March 2012
Design Council, London