A conversation between parts of the construction and insurance industries at a time of significant regulatory change, increasing risks and a hardening of the insurance market in terms of cover and affordability.

Some may argue that we are where we are and the market reflects the current risk situation. Others will argue that the present arrangements give little comfort to clients and that the fragmentation of design and construction procurement feeds conflict and litigation at considerable cost.

The combination of the climate and biodiversity emergency, the Grenfell tragedy (and the near misses in Scottish schools) and the desire of the Government to build 300,000 homes a year has led to unprecedented  activity around Fire Safety, Building Regulations, Future Homes and other standards, the planning process and Procurement for Value.  While all these are very necessary, they are leading to significant changes in how we all procure, design and build with increased risks, not least those arising from the race to achieve net-zero carbon construction.

This roundtable is being held under the Chatham House rule to ensure the greatest openness and creative thinking.  We are asking you to seize the moment and imagine a better way of doing it and then how we might get there but please be brief in your opening remarks (5 minutes). The aim is to identify a few issues that we could usefully follow up in more public debates.

The Roundtable was a collaboration between the Edge and Howden

Chair: Fergus Harradence, Deputy Director, Infrastructure and Construction, BEIS

The insurer’s perspective:

• Tom Barney, Howden Professional Indemnity

• Mark Brundell, Zurich Head of Professional Indemnity

• Mark Sommariva, Brunel Professions’ UK sales director              

Are there alternatives?

• Kevin Thomas, MD and a founding director of Integrated Project Initiatives (IPI)

What do clients need?

• Rob Lane, Group Commercial Director, Clarion Housing Group

• Robert Knight, Igloo regeneration Operations Director for people place and planet.

• Graham de Roy, Planit Ventures Partner and formerly director of Griffiths and Armour

The designer’s perspective

• Nigel Ostime, Hawkins Brown Architects Partner Project Delivery and Chair of RIBA Client Liaison Group

• Judith Sykes, Senior Director, Expedition Engineering and Useful Projects + Edge

Downloads:

Tom Barney, Howden presentation

Notes from the Roundtable

beyond declarations, what is the plan?

While the Covid-19 pandemic is unresolved it is essential that we do not overlook the far greater existential threats of climate change and ecological breakdown. As Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize winning atmospheric chemist, has warned, we are in a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which humans’ impact on the earth rivals that of nature.

Dieter Helm has proposed responses to both these existential threats in two recent books:

In Green and Prosperous Land: A Blueprint for Rescuing the British Countryside he details the policy changes needed to manage the UK’s natural resources in a way that will allow us to pass on a better environment to future generations and for us to stop depleting natural capital without, at least, recognising the value of what is being lost.

In Net Zero – How We Stop Causing Climate Change (2020) Helm reminds us that, to our shame, we have largely wasted the last 30 years. He investigates the issues of a net zero economy and approach to agriculture, transport and electricity and proposes a ‘no regrets plan’ with a focus on two key issues – a carbon tax and the principle that the polluter should pay.

This discussion will address the issue of what such a ‘no regrets plan’ should deliver and the responsibility for implementing it, from politicians, with their hesitancy over enacting the necessary policies, to the public, with their unwillingness to accept change. What are the barriers to achieving positive outcomes and how do we overcome them?

The session will pose three questions for the speakers and the Edge audience:

1.     What are the policies required and how can we influence them?

2.     How can we ensure that policies, once enacted, achieve their aims?

3.     How do we ensure that the pace of change is sufficient?

Introduction:  

Robin Nicholson, CBE, the Edge

Speakers:      

Sir Dieter Helm, CBE, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Oxford and Chair of the Natural Capital Committee 2012-20

Dame Fiona Reynolds, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Chair of the National Audit Office

Shaun Spiers, Executive Director, Green Alliance

Online:                Zoom

Timing:           Tuesday 16th March 2021, 16.00 – 17.00

To attend      Please register at: https://edge114-climate-ecological-emergency.eventbrite.co.uk

 Downloads:

• Invitation flyer & Speaker biographies

• Net Zero and Green and Prosperous Land leaflet

•  Video recording of Edge Conversation 114 - 16/3/21

Further reading:

Daniel Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, said that ‘humans are exquisitely adapted to immediate problems, but not so good at more probable but persistent dangers , like global warming. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5530483&t=1612702619366

Is humanity doomed because we cannot plan for the long term? Robin Dunbar and others (August 2020). https://theconversation.com/is-humanity-doomed-because-we-cant-plan-for-the-long-term-three-experts-discuss-137943

Anthropocene. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth

Can a review of the key emerging ideas and current urban planning trends, identify a path ahead for city makers?

City 2040 project

There is little doubt that cities face unprecedented economic, social and environmental challenges over the next 20-year period. Yet, with the right policies and resourcing, cities could be uniquely placed to harness their human and environmental potential, guiding urban growth towards greater social and environmental equity.

The City 2040 project seeks to better understand how the future city of 2040 will change through a study of the critical issues that are changing our cities including; climate vulnerability, growth, health, resource efficiency, technology, governance and rights to access and use of land.

Produced by the Edge in collaboration with Taylor Wessing and the University College of Estates Management (UCEM), the project addresses the new and changing infrastructure of cities, how they are brought about and their impact on the housing, lifestyle and wellbeing of citizens.

Themes

In November 2020, the first series of CITY 2040 online debates tested a range of initial propositions with a diverse cohort of industry experts and city stakeholders. The conversation reflected on multiple and varying topics, including emerging patterns of living and working in cities, the impact of the Covid19 crisis and aspirations for a ‘green/clean’ recovery.

These lines of enquiry were explored through four core themes:

1. Equity and Exchange

2. Public and Private Land

3. Clustering and Proximity

4. The Impact of Clean Air

Objectives for the final debate

The key outcome of this debate will be the mapping of a collective, open vision for these aspects of the city of 2040. Only with such clear vision will it be possible to suggest the way ahead for city planners and policy makers. 

Our final session will review the Edge's draft recommendations with the aim of agreeing the outlines of a future vision for UK cities in 2040.

Chair:             Joanna Averley, Chief Planner, MHCLG 

Speakers:      Prof Peter Bishop, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

                         Prof Thomas Perroud, Université Paris II, Panthéon- Assas

                         Esther Kurland, Director, Urban Design London

                         Simon Birkett, Director, Clean Air in London 

Online:            Zoom

Timing:           Tuesday 16 February 2021, 17.00 – 18.30 (GMT)

To attend please register at: https://city2040_the-path-ahead.eventbrite.co.uk

The climate emergency requires that the built environment will have to be zero carbon. All new buildings must be zero carbon by 2025 and the existing building stock will require significant retrofitting to be carbon neutral by 2050.  A whole-life interdisciplinary approach is essential, which will require mainstreaming decarbonisation skills in all the built environment professions.

Education and training are key for ensuring the professions can achieve this. How will the current higher education curricula adequately meet the challenge and what can be done to positively plan for the future?

In November 2020, the refereed journal Buildings & Cities (B&C) published a special issue ‘Education and Training: Mainstreaming Zero Carbon’, guest edited by Fionn Stevenson and Alison Kwok. All papers are free to access here. The special issue raised three challenges:

• How can education and training be rapidly changed to ensure the creation of zero-carbon built environments? 

• How can this transition be implemented successfully? 

• What positive examples and models can be drawn upon or adapted?

This joint virtual event with B&C will use the themes and challenges from the special issue to discuss a rapid change agenda for built environment education.  It will be seeking solutions that are top-down as well as bottom-up and look for a new range of interdependent processes to occur across:

• Central government

• Accreditation bodies and Professional institutes

• Universities; and

• NGOs

Convenor:        Richard Lorch, Buildings & Cities

Chair:               Bill Gething, University of West England

Speakers:        Fionn Stevenson, University of Sheffield

                              Alison Kwok, University of Oregon

                        Gavin Killip, University of Oxford

                        Katy Janda, University College London

                        Malini Srivastava, University of Minnesota

Respondents:    David Gloster, Director of Education, RIBA

                        Lynne Jack, Heriot Watt University & Past President, CIBSE

Online:              Zoom

Timing:              Monday 1st February 2021, 17.00 – 18.30

Videos of speakers at the debate, courtesy of Building & Cities:

•  Fionn Stevenson and Alison Kwok - Key themes and challenges

• Gavin Killip - A reform agenda for UK construction and practice

• Katy Janda - Preparing ‘middle actors’ to develop zero-carbon building trtansitions

• Malini Srivastava - Shifting allegiances: a new pedagogical approach to the deign studio

• David Gloster

• Lynne Jack