This contrasts with traditional building construction, where these elements account for upwards of 10% of the building’s heat loss..

Studies have shown that contact with nature has a significant impact on mental health.This is another example where multiple value drivers can be augmented in tandem; increasing diversity, improving well-being, supporting productivity and creating educational environments.. How can we reduce waste materials, and, moreover, incorporate them into the built environment, reusing plastics and other potential throwaways?.

How do we look at all these things together to find the best business, aesthetic and environmental solutions?.The answer is simple and difficult.Thinking more broadly with the widest purpose, giving the right culture and encouragement is easy for a time.

Creating the space, the willingness to change, requires a great deal of energy.There is an opportunity to work and think differently; no longer do you have to assume that working for and with the environment will push a project over budget or make it untenable..

While form might follow function, function is much more complicated today.

And this will only increase over time.The solutions may be different, but the principles we are exploring here have very positive ramifications for other areas.. Local/central government: the principle of making information interoperable and shareable, or policies more machine-readable and rules-based, while smoothing flow of information ‘before use’, is applicable in many areas: domestic planning, perhaps, where we could unblock permitted development and focus more on sustainable development; or major infrastructure projects where incompatible information systems breed wasted time and resources.. Local plans: are all based on evidence, which is all based on data.

Data fixed in time is by definition out of date, while digitisation in the holistic context – as this project is demonstrating – gives us the opportunity to keep data and evidence current, informing and improving engagement and decision-making.. Next steps: collaboration to foster continuous improvement.There are others operating in this space.

This project has the potential to enable effective and creative collaboration between all of them, providing the shared basis on which other projects can connect, operate and develop.Involving more people and projects to test the process and demonstrate value would also be a good thing..