What is the value of a T-shaped Education?

A debate hosted jointly with The Engineering Club looking at whether we need to reassess our approach to professional education to address the climate crisis.
Are we preparing the right sort of graduates for the modern construction industry? A T-shaped education has a broad grasp across all the disciplines and an in-depth knowledge of one. With the climate crisis influencing the education of future professionals, should this now become the norm? The challenge for professionals is to break down the silo-mentality to create a more integrated team and hence a more efficient industry. Some might argue that greater integration between design and construction is more desirable, add to this challenges such as climate change and understanding building physics, and the requirement for more ‘T-shaped’ graduates becomes ever stronger. Nonetheless the attraction of traditional courses persists due to the value attributed to the identity and culture promoted by the institutions that set the curriculum and accredit courses.
The specialist professional degree is something admired around the world and perhaps interdisciplinary education is better tackled at a post-graduate and practice level.

Are the new interdisciplinary courses a small, worthy, peripheral variation on the mainstream of construction education or a revolutionary model that should be encouraged by the institutions to grow?Or should we be creating a new construction discipline through which educational establishments can attract a new generation of graduates more attuned to the needs of the environment?

Chair: Jane Wernick EngineersHRW

Speakers:

1. Luke Olsen, Bartlett Engineering Architecture Design course leader

2. Maria Smith, Interrobang! Trans-disciplinary practice

3. Peter Roberts, Principal of the multidisciplinary engineering practice OR Engineers

4. Faith Wainwright, Arup

5. John Connaughton, University of Reading

6. Chris Stobbart, graduate of Sheffield architecture and engineering course

Venue: The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT
Timing: Wednesday 16th October 2019, Debate 6.30 – 8.00 pm
Drinks and networking - until 9.00 pm

Please come and contribute to the discussion. To attend please register by each attendee’s name here

Downloads:

ED95 trans or trad flyer

Following the Edge Climate Action Round Table and agreement in June 2019 the role of leadership in meeting the challenge of the 2050 Net Zero carbon obligation has become a critical issue.
The Edge has arranged for a number of climate and energy experts at UCL who contributed to the work of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) on net zero to lead an expert seminar examining the contribution of the built environment to the UK’s carbon emissions, the expectations of the CCC for their staged reduction and actions that the leaders of the industry might be able to take.

The seminar will address issues including the following:
• The size and character of the built environment’s carbon emissions
• The CCC’s programme for carbon emissions reduction
• Historical successes and failures in reducing building energy use
• The complementary role of demand reduction and decarbonisation of supply
• The key barriers that need to be overcome

Speakers:
- Tadj Oreszczyn, Professor of Energy and Environment, UCL
- Robert Lowe, Professor & Director UCL Energy Instute
- Rokia Raslan, Bartlett School of the Environment
- Foaad Tahir, Element Energy

The seminar will be drawn from signatory organisations to the Round Table Climate Action agreement up to a maximum of 40 attendees

Venue: UCL, Institute of Education

Downloads:

1. Edge net-zero Expert Seminar flyer

2. T. Oreszczyn NZ Presentation 190919

3. R. Lowe NZ Presentation 190919

The UK Committee for Climate Change report UK Housing Fit for the Future? (2019) highlights the need for greater levels of inspection and stricter enforcement of building standards, alongside demands that ‘as-built’ performance of UK homes must be better monitored. Without these measures (and stricter penalties for non-compliance), the 1.5 new homes planned for the next few years and the 29 million homes to be retrofitted will not perform as intended.

The RIBA has recently recommended that all member practices should offer to carry out post-occupancy evaluation (POE) as part of their standard service to clients. This could have major consequences for the housing industry and the built environment project teams associated with it. A new sustainability overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work is also in development that will include, for the first time, a POE contractual procedure.

Several urgent questions arise as POE becomes mainstream:

How should built-environment professionals and policy-makers develop and deliver housing POE as an in-built part of housing procurement?Is it affordable? Who should pay for POE – the client or the design team?What are the key procedures that need to be put in place and should they be regulated?Should the acquisition of appropriate skills to undertake POE be taught in validated programmes in Higher Education or only as professional CPD?What must be done to ensure that POE becomes routine?Do Assured Performance schemes like EnergieSprong make POE obsolete?In the current climate emergency, POE offers the housing industry a real opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from housing - for good.

This debate will mark the launch of a major new book on POE implementation, Housing Fit for Purpose: performance, feedback and learning by Fionn Stevenson. Copies will be available for purchase.

Chair:

Andy von Bradsky, Head of Architecture, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government

Speakers:

• Fionn Stevenson, The University of Sheffield and author of Housing Fit for Purpose: performance, feedback and learning (2019)

• Claire Murray, Head of Sustainability, Levitt Bernstein - Architect

• Katie Clemence, Max Fordhams, Chair of CIBSE Technology Committee - Engineer

• Oliver Novakovic, Technical and Innovation Director, Barratt Developments PLC - Housing Developer

• Emyr Poole, Homes England, Senior Projects Manager, Planning, Enabling and Development team - Government Policy Adviser

Venue: FCBStudios, 20 Tottenham Street, London W1T 4RG
Timing: Tuesday 17th September 2019, Debate 6.00 (for 6.30) – 8.30 pm
Drinks and networking - until 9.00 pm

This event is by invitation only. Please come and contribute to the discussion.
To attend please register by each attendee’s name on Eventbrite here

Downloads:

ED93 Housing Fit for Purpose flyer

On the 20th June 2019 representatives from 25 built and natural environment and other stakeholder organisations met with the Chair of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), Lord Deben, to discuss the need for action in the face of climate breakdown. The meeting accepted in full the CCC’s recommendations in their May 2019 report that the UK must and would be able to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and welcomed the Government’s announcement that this was shortly to be enshrined in legislation.

The following organisations* have now agreed to collaborate on an urgent and concerted response to achieving the 2050 target; to continue to work together to establish shared standards and practice; and to continue to develop professional resources, capacity and competencies within the sector capable of meeting that aim both domestically and internationally. The organisations have accepted the invitation of the CCC to co-operate on meeting the UK net zero carbon objectives.

• British Standards Institution (BSI)

• Commonwealth Association of Architects

• Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE)

• Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT)

• Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

• Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH)

• Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)

• Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)

• Construction Products Association (CPA)

• Forum for the Future

• Good Homes Alliance

• InnovateUK

• Institute of Chartered Foresters+

• Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA)

• Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

• Institution of Structural Engineers

• Landscape Institute

• Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

• Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)

• Society for the Environment (SocEnv)

• the Edge

• UK Built Environment Advisory Group

• UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)

• University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

+ Institutions added following issue of Press Statement

Downloads:

Edge Climate Action Round Table Press Statement 190701

Committee on Climate Change Net Zero report

UKGBC - Net Zero Carbon Buildings: A Framework Definition

The Challenge to Achieve Real Change

Are you ready for a paradigm shift to achieve and future and live in a world we want to live in?

As Kirsten Henson, sustainability consultant and speaker in this session, has written: “We are running out of time in our fight against planetary destruction…add to this the increasing frustration against the lack of opportunity for social mobility, unequal access to education and healthcare and it is not surprising that people are starting to call for a different type of leadership - new disruptive business and economic models are required to create a paradigm shift.”

A paradigm shift is certainly needed if we are to achieve a future and live in a world that we would want to live in.

We will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions and by the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

This session was developed by the Ecobuild Conference at Futurebuild together with Louise Clarke of Berkeley Homes and Julie Godefroy of Julie Godefroy Sustainability and the Edge

Chair: 
Professor Peter Guthrie - University of Cambridge

Speakers: 
Lowri Bond - Igloo Regeneration
Kirsten Henson - KLH Sustainability
Ben Smith - ARUP & National Park City
Omer Kutluoglu - Yes Recycling

More Than Houses

Land valuation, home ownership, family living: such historic and cultural practices are being thrown into question by the housing crisis.

Why have we still got a ‘housing crisis’ in the 21st century? ‘Solving’ this complex issue calls for more than a succession of government targets for numbers of new homes to be built each year; the industry also needs to raise its ambition and innovate. So how can we really ensure that we build the right homes in the right places at the right price for the right people? The government has scrapped the cap on how much councils can borrow to build new homes, which is welcome. James Brokenshire, as Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), has expressed the government’s commitment to “building the right number of homes in the right places” and is appointing a ‘New Homes Ombudsman’, although this appears to encourage and support home ownership.

But many questions remain to be answered:
- Should anyone be ‘homeless’ in the 21st century? This may be an extreme expression of inequality, but we cannot escape the overall inequality of our social structure.
- Does our cultural attitude to home ownership suggest that renting your home is a sign of failure and so put pressure on the ‘need to buy’, despite unrealistically high prices?
- How are we addressing changing demographics with more single person households, and catering for groups such as elderly people, who may have varying needs for homes and place?
- What are our new housing models in today’s housing landscape of private developers, local authorities and housing associations?
- How can land be valued for the benefit of the wider community (including the provision of high quality social facilities) instead of being a lottery based on hope value and scarcity?
- How do we ensure that ‘affordable housing’ is affordable when the cost of housing seems to have become detached from earnings?
- How can we raise our ambition and ensure that all our citizens have safe and affordable housing in line with SDG 11, with access to sustainable transport and employment?
- Should we also improve protection for tenants, as is available in many European countries?
- How can we ensure quality both of building and place, not just quantity of dwellings?
- Do we need a comprehensive national and regional spatial plan?
- Is it time to rethink ‘housing’?

This session will explore the issues and we will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions. By the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

This session was developed with the Ecobuild Conference at Futurebuild

Chair: 
Jane Briginshaw, Director, Design England

Speakers: 
Paul Chatterton - University of Leeds & author of Unlocking Sustainable Cities A Manifesto for Real Change
Heather Cheesbrough - Croydon Council
Jon Sawyer - Manchester City Council
Susan J Smith - University of Cambridge

Connecting education, research, practice and professionalism.

Reinforcing the connections between education, skills, research and professional standards to develop the future workforce we need.

If we want a sustainable built environment we need to ensure that we can deliver this through a competent, and especially environmentally competent, workforce. We need a positive vision to attract a workforce for the future. Education, skills, research and professionals standards are, or should be, closely interwoven. We need to inspire in our courses from professional education to skills training and apprenticeships, disseminate relevant research to provide an evidence base for decision making and ensure that our professional standards are taken seriously as an asset, not an obstacle. This session will explore these challenges to see how we can do better.

We will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions and by the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

This session was developed with the Ecobuild Conference at Futurebuild.

Chair:
Sunand Prasad PPRIBA – Penoyre & Prasad

Speakers: 
Flora Samuel - University of Reading & Vice President for Research RIBA
Dr Emma Wilcox - CEO Society for the Environment
Simon Foxell - The Architects Practice & author of Professionalism for the Built Environment
Alexander Wright - University of Bath

How can we enhance the environment in a post-Brexit world?

How environmental protections can and should be strengthened and enhanced in post-Brexit Britain.

There are some critical questions around resources, such as water and soil, which will be fundamental to future environmental sustainability and will need protection, conservation and improvement. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Commission for Economic Justice report ‘Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for a new Economy’ stated that, “Environmental sustainability must be at the heart of economic policy.” So when the government makes the pledge, “to make ours the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it,” there is a great deal at stake for the future of the UK. Will natural capital accounting help to protect the environment or should we recognise that we cannot value everything in monetary terms? When the Prime Minister launched the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan she confirmed that, “We will use the opportunity Brexit provides to strengthen and enhance our environmental protections – not to weaken them. The EU Withdrawal Act (2018) required the setting up of an independent ‘watchdog’ to hold the government to account, and this was debated extensively throughout the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) consultation on Environmental Principles and Governance. The government has now proposed an Environment Act, which should provide legal underpinning for the 25 Year Environment Plan. How can we influence the Environment Act? Is there the necessary cross-departmental support and resources to give the act the breadth it needs to be truly effective? This session highlights SDGs 2, 6, 13, 14 and 15.

We will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions and by the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

This session was developed with the Ecobuild Conference at Futurebuild and IEMA

Chair: 
Eloise Scotford - University College London

Speakers: 
Maddy Thimont-Jack - Institute for Government
Martin Baxter - Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA)
Alastair Chisholm - Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM)
Ece Ozdemiroglu – eftec & Member of the Committee on Climate Change

Delivering on the ambitions of the £420m Sector Deal

Applying innovative technology and techniques to deliver homes, major buildings and infrastructure and transform our industry under the Construction Sector Deal.

The Construction Sector Deal policy paper was published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) in July 2018. This stated, “The construction sector reaches every corner of the United Kingdom and touches each of our lives. We are in the early days of one of the greatest construction programmes in our history, from delivering more homes that people can afford, in the places they want to live, to major infrastructure projects…the pace of this change, and the size of this opportunity, demands a construction sector that is the best in the world.”

The programme is very ambitious with a joint sector-government budget of £420 million to invest in new technology and techniques. The Construction Leadership Council is building on the Sector Deal’s strategic principles of Digital, Manufacturing and Whole-life Performance through a series of cross-industry groups. The CLC’s ‘Procuring for Value’ report makes practical, long-term recommendations for both government and industry to facilitate change. This is a subject that should be central to the work of all those engaged in the built environment at a time when we need to restore confidence in the construction industry, and relates particularly to SDGs 9,11 and 12.

We will invite the audience to contribute their own suggestions and by the session end we will identify three key recommendations as the most universally applicable.

This session was developed with the Ecobuild Conference at Futurebuild.

Chair: 
Andy Mitchell - Construction Leadership Council & CEO Thames Tideway

Speakers: 
Ann Bentley - RLB & Construction Leadership Council,
Sam Stacey - UK Research and Innovation (UKRI),
Peter Caplehorn - Construction Products Association,
Lynne Sullivan - LSA Studio, Good Homes Alliance & Green Construction Board,
Julia Barrett - Willmott Dixon