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The inaugural 黑洞社区 the Future Commission conference last month sought to gather the industry鈥檚 findings.

The interim findings from the commission - 黑洞社区鈥檚 project to improve the built environment - were presented to the Westminster conference by 黑洞社区 editor Chloe McCulloch.

Panel debates and keynote speakers on topics ranging from net zero, buildign safety, productivity and digital technology took place through the day, with the audience asking questions, submitting feedback and voting in a series of interactive polls.

>>See also: What did we learn from the inaugural 黑洞社区 the Future Commission conference

>>See also: The 黑洞社区 the Future Commission: the interim findings revealed

Delegates were also invited to share there views for improving the built environment in the conference鈥檚 very own TV booth. We have highligted a selection of their quotes below and above you can click and play our highlights video from the event for more views:

Patricia Moore, UK managing director, Turner & Townsend

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Patricia Moore, UK managing director, Turner & Townsend

鈥淚 think we just saw from the audience in the room that there鈥檚 very low confidence actually that we have the skills within our industry to solve the challenges of the future. What we鈥檙e also seeing is a real decline in uptake in terms of a traditional graduate routes. And so, as an industry, we鈥檝e really got to shake ourselves up.鈥

鈥淲e鈥檝e got to make the future generations really see us as a passageway to decarbonisation and saving the planet. For me I think its about us thinking in outcomes and telling stories about the impact we are having.鈥

 

 

Simon Tolson, senior partner, Fenwick Elliott:  

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Simon Tolson, senior partner, Fenwick Elliott

鈥淓ducation and addressing existing buildings, in addition to obviously new build, are the most significant issues. 

鈥淕renfell, unfortunately, and the inquiry has demonstrated that but we don鈥檛 seem to be able to build tall buildings particularly well or we didn鈥檛 seem to be able to modernise them in terms of fire safety.

鈥淚t [building safety reform] is a massive shake up, which I think for the future is something that I think we鈥檒l all be looking at, hopefully with a slightly better purview.鈥

Rumbi Nambureti, operations manager, BPIC Network:

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Rumbi Nambureti, operations manager, BPIC

鈥淭he one thing I think we need in the industry is more young people to increase innovation. We are quitean industry that is very old and male-focused. The more younger people we get in, the more females we get in the better ideas we will have as an industry.

鈥淸We should be] going to school some more, engage with networks, go into communities, talking to younger people and reaching more diverse communities to ensure that we have a bigger pipeline of people joining the industry.鈥

Jack Pringle, managing director, Studio Pringle:  

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Jack Pringle, managing director, Studio Pringle

 鈥淲e need to find a way that we can finance the retrofitting of the domestic building stock that doesn鈥檛 hurt people鈥檚 pockets.

 鈥淚n the end they are going to spend a lot less money on the lower energy they are going to consume, so there must be a way forward to finance that.鈥

Josh Rose-Nokes, director, innovation & insight, Avison Young:

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Josh Rose-Nokes, director, innovation & insight, Avison Young

鈥淚鈥檓 going to go with..deep autonomy in building control systems, and what this really about is enabling buildings to make intelligent and optimal decisions, understanding the implications of future actions and really elevating what is currently going on in that space.

鈥淲e have smart buildings at the moment but they are not actually that smart, there鈥檚 often a loss of value.鈥

Chris Bowie-Hill, director of innovation delivery, Hydrock:

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鈥淭he National Planning Policy Framework has become a little bit dehumanised, it has become very bureaucratic.

How do we design places for people? I think for a long time we鈥檝e forgotten what people need. When you design places around people, they thrive and that鈥檚 what we need.鈥

Tony Wells, chief executive, Merit:

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Tony Wells, chief executive, Merit

鈥淧roduct-based manufacturing [is my big idea for the future of the built environment]. That鈥檚 where we are going and where we think it鈥檚 going to be. It鈥檚 a journey and it鈥檚 difficult to implement and it鈥檚 difficult to get people to be an early adopter, but eventually people like it.鈥

 

Lynne Sullivan, architect LSA Studio and chair, National Retrofit Hub:

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鈥淲e really need to motor on retrofit, because a national retrofit programme hopefully delivered at local level can deliver social benefit, skills and training, jobs and also, health and wellbeing for occupants as well as low running costs and resilience against rising energy prices.鈥

 Ian McDermott, chief executive of Peabody:

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鈥淕etting it right [on net zero] is going to be really difficult. If you think about the dispersed ownership of our built environment, then actually coordinating all of those people to come to a common conclusion is going to be really challenging.

鈥淭he start would be leadership. So actually showing leadership from government, supporting and investing in the solutions that will come as quite a lot of the solutions don鈥檛 exist at the moment.

鈥淪o we have to invest in the technology, we have to invest in training,and we have to invest in public awareness really so that people actually understand that this requires us to behave in a very different way.鈥

 

 

About the commission

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The 黑洞社区 the Future Commission is a 12-month project looking at radical and challenging ideas that could help transform the built environment.

The campaign aims to tap into innovative ideas, amplify them and be an agent for change.

The major project鈥檚 work will be guided by a panel of major figures who have signed up to help shape the commission鈥檚 work culminating in a report published at the end of the year.

The commissioners 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:

>> Editor鈥檚 view: And now for something completely positive - our 黑洞社区 the Future Commission

>> Click here for more about the project and the commissioners

黑洞社区 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鈥檚 advisory panel

 

The 黑洞社区 the Future Commission鈥檚 Report into the English Planning System