Judicious use of AI, a more proactive approach to sharing insights and design that starts with sustainable materials were among key findings in our recent roundtable
The urgency to reduce carbon emissions from the built environment is not lost on architects. With 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK coming from the construction and use of buildings, much is riding on the ingenuity of architects and clients to think and act differently.
The challenge is multi-fold. Balancing upfront embodied and operational carbon is a key issue; ensuring that buildings perform as designed is another. And then there’s working out how to integrate considerations into workflows to help make the right decisions and steer their clients down more sustainable paths.
RIBA Journal assembled a group of architects and design professionals to discuss such pressing matters and examine how technology can be harnessed to help reach these decarbonisation goals. The round table was held in association with Autodesk and chaired by RIBA Journal deputy editor Jan-Carlos Kucharek.
Key points included the need for a holistic approach to sustainability; integrating embodied and operational carbon considerations; increasing biodiversity; and the importance of education and behavioural change. Participants emphasised potential of AI – but were concerned about the vast amount of energy its processing will consume. They also highlighted a need for accurate data and real-life intuition, something AI cannot always deliver.
The conversation also touched on the potential for interoperable solutions to democratise access to decarbonisation tools and help big and small practices alike. The event produced five key messages.
Fundamental change
Participants believe technology can support designers on the path to decarbonise but felt strongly that it should not simply be used to support and augment what they do already. We need to fundamentally change our resource-intensive practices. Instead, technology should help drive radical change, rooted in first principles of architectural design.
‘I worry that conversations about using technology sometimes centre on efficiency and optimisation, and I think that can veil the need to make more systemic change,’ said Smith Mordak, CEO of the UK Green Building Council. ‘We don’t want to just do what we’re doing, only harder and faster. We’re still fundamentally trying to recreate buildings from a high carbon era, but with a bit less carbon. But there are many other ways of building that we have known for thousands of years, and a lot of us have forgotten the lessons they teach. As architects, we’re all trained in what is beautiful architecture, what is great architecture, and often what is being heralded is inherently high carbon and inherently unsustainable. But the problem with a lot of AI is that it’s been trained primarily on practices from the 20th century.’
Mordak said part of the problem was that a client’s brief, or ‘back of the napkin sketch by the genius’ was often the starting point for decision-making about design and then it was a case of finding materials to deliver that. Instead, it would make sense to ‘reverse the order of decision-making and start with the resources we have and then design back from that, but it is very difficult within the current roles and systems’, adding: ‘We need better mechanisms for deciding how we’re going to use all of our resources. Technology has a role to play in helping us make those decisions together.’
Others, including Claire Brady, associate director of Useful Projects, agreed, hoping that technology could be used to help drive innovation in the way buildings are designed. ‘The ability to ship any material from anywhere and use unlimited resources, which is the approach we have adopted in the past, has allowed us to become a bit lazy,’ she said.
It was certainly felt that with so much change afoot, this was an exciting time to be an architect and to play a part in changing many traditional assumptions. Simon Sturgis, author of the RICS Wholelife Carbon Standard, said that today’s need for housebuilding is on a scale not seen since the 1970s, and yet we must address this demand in a way that still meets our net zero ambitions. ‘It’s not impossible, but it does mean we have to build those houses in a way that hasn’t been done before.’
Democratise carbon intuition
There was a strong agreement that over-reliance on technology to measure carbon impacts is potentially damaging in the hands of those who do not understand the foundations of carbon data inputs and carbon calculations. ‘I’ve seen quite a lot of people presenting their carbon assessments, and you think what on earth are those figures all about,’ said Sturgis. ‘We’ve got to use our natural intelligence – and develop a sort of “carbon intuition”, so that you know the impact a material might really have on embodied carbon and be able to spot mistakes if you input the wrong information.’
Elias Anka, senior environmental specialist and associate principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, agreed: ‘I think technology and simulation is the way forward to make better-informed decisions about decarbonisation. But it’s very important to highlight education and make sure that everyone knows what they’re doing.’
Golnaz Ighany, architect- sustainability director, BDP, said her philosophy was that all designers need to be part of sustainable design considerations – and although everyone does not need to know everything, they needed to have a baseline understanding to be able to ask the right questions of an expert group within the practice.
Software tools can quickly inform clients to choose more sustainable options
Participants flagged up the huge benefits of being able to call on various tools to guide more sustainable decision-making early in the design process. For example, Anka said that being able to use AI-enhanced tools for daylight and wind modelling, or even safety and public heath studies, often involved sending designs to be modelled by consultants, for which results would have taken two to three weeks to arrive in the past. ‘So we have to try to tap into engines and platforms that produce outputs quickly, not necessarily focusing on accuracy, but more on trends and patterns. When you’re doing parametric or iterative design, that’s very useful.’
Anka also pointed out that carbon assessment tools were very useful in discussing options with clients as they could be used to easily demonstrate the impact of certain designs or materials on energy performance.
The ability to ship any material from anywhere, and use unlimited resources, has let us become a bit lazy
The technological transformation is here – and small practices will benefit
Meeting net-zero goals will require bringing together data, analysis and insights and then making sense of a huge sea of information, said Marta Bouchard, AEC sustainability lead at Autodesk. ‘And we need the professional expertise of architects to help make sense of all that data in the context of the project, because tech can’t do it alone.’
The traditional ‘silo’ way of working has resulted in siloed use of technology, pointed out Bouchard. ‘But the new generation of technology enables a more integrated relationship between [it and] AECO professions, including interoperability, connected data and workflows that support more connected teams. I really think this is the next frontier, where technology providers enable access to sustainable solutions through an open and diverse tech ecosystem.’
Tomas Millar, co-director at Millar Howard Workshop, was also enthusiastic about the way technology was becoming more democratic, citing the likes of OpenAI.
‘Software is becoming easier and easier for people to use and programme themselves. So it’s not unrealistic that even a small provincial practice like ours could be creating its own software, especially with the use of AI. What’s exciting about that is it means that we’re potentially going to start using software that’s being developed from the ground up rather than the top down, as has been the case in the past.'
Share what good (and bad) looks like
All agreed that the task of cracking the net-zero challenge needed to be solved at scale rather than on a project-by-project basis – but there was disappointment at the industry’s lack of transparency. Everyone is addressing decarbonisation in their own way, observed Sturgis, and there was no willingness to share details that could genuinely help others. He reminded the group that the industry had come together to produce the new UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard frameworks like the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment, yet the data to validate the results of these methods is riddled with gaps.
Businesses, of course, need to protect their own IP, but data on building performance could be shared anonymously in the effort to upskill the wider profession.
Encouragingly, the round table participants said they were detecting the start of some quite informal knowledge-sharing on the ground – with small practices more likely to swap ideas, said Millar. BDP’s Ighany concurred, adding she was part of an informal network of sustainability experts who share ideas and support each other.
What one benefit do you think technology can bring architects in optimising embodied and operational carbon to accelerate decarbonisation?
Simon Sturgis, Targeting Zero and author RICS Wholelife Carbon Standard
Enhancing natural intelligence – helping people understand better and provide carbon intuition.
Tomas Millar, co-director Millar Howard Workshop
Sharing knowledge is key to all this, and I think technology could be used more to enhance the knowledge-sharing process.
Golnaz Ighany, architect and sustainability director, BDP
Enabling architects to think out of the box and go beyond traditional, conventional way of designing. Technology can support them to be bold and go beyond boundaries.
Elias Anka, senior environmental specialist – associate principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (International)
If technology can help optimise both operational and embodied carbon, that would give architects and designers the time and resources to focus on things other than carbon like health and wellness, adaptability, and accessibility.
Marta Bouchard, AEC sustainability lead, Autodesk
I think a great benefit of technology is to do the heavy lifting – such as simulations and analysis – to free up the ingenuity of human resources, and technology offers the opportunity to do that in one place.
Smith Mordak, architect, engineer and CEO, UK Green Building Council
We have loads of technology already. Some is thousands of years old, and we’re forgetting it. So, I would like to see humans making best use of the technologies that we already have to produce more sustainable buildings.
Claire Brady, associate director, Useful Projects
Technology could be used to help with a feedback loop of information. There is knowledge out there but if people aren’t aware of it then they’re not accessing it, and we’re missing opportunities.