Building Insights

In the third episode of Building Insights, Antony Wood, executive director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), speaks to the managing editor of Architects' Datafile, James Parker, about the future of tall building design.

 9/11 was supposed to be a watershed – when our global fascination for building tall towers came to a halt. However the opposite was true, globally the pace of tall buildings construction has increased exponentially in the 21st century. While China has made some interventions in the past few months to limit its race to build tall, the pandemic has only made a slight impact on development, and climate change less still. However, building owners now need to bring workers and residents back to city centres, post-pandemic. As Architects Datafile’s recent survey of architects showed, the emphasis is shifting to more attractive, more sustainable mixed use buildings – which offer spatial qualities not seen before in dense city clusters.

Antony Wood is an architect with a fascinating career, trained in the UK and having designed tall buildings in the far east before returning to the west to head up the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in Chicago. From being enamoured by science fiction and future visions of cities from an early age, he remains a devotee of high-rise density in urban settings. However he has some strong views about the free-for-all planning that has held sway over recent decades in many cities, which has given urban centres a homogenous feel that’s damaged the reputation of tall buildings.

Speaking to Antony gave some great insights into the need to make such designs more context specific, how high-level, horizontally-connected structures might be part of the answer, and whether timber is going to be a key structural material. He also explained how the Council on Tall Buildings is taking this agenda forward globally. With the urbanisation of the global population on an inexorably upward trajectory, architects and planners have to quickly grasp the potential to create the healthy cities of the future we need.]

Thanks to OnLevel, Siderise, Construction Specialities, and Ash & Lacy for sponsoring this episode. 

In the second instalment of Building Insights, Dr Gavin Dunn of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers speaks to the managing editor of Housebuilder & Developer, James Parker, about how the Future Homes Standard can be delivered.

The Future Homes Standard is probably the most far-reaching and onerous set of quality requirements which housebuilders have had to confront, certainly this century. 

The aims are laudable, to shake up Building Regulations to improve the efficiency performance of all new homes, and help drive the UK towards our 2050 net zero carbon targets. The standard includes big efficiency improvements to meet an updated Part L (covering thermal performance), but also Part F (ventilation). But it’s not all about the 2025 deadline. With 20 per cent of our carbon emissions coming from new and existing homes, there’s an interim step too, which is now looming.

Currently CEO of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, Dr Gavin Dunn trained as an architect, and after working as a director at the BRE for several years, including overseeing the BREEAM standard, he joined the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) at what was then the DCLG. In 2018 he moved to chair BRAC’s Future Homes Standard Working Group, and so was instrumental in developing the standard, and the consultation process with the industry. He is the ideal person to speak to on what housebuilders need to do to achieve compliance, and he duly provided some clear insights during our revealing chat.

Thanks to our sponsors WMS, Recticel, Epic Insulation, LG, Schock and Mitsubishi Electric.

In the first episode of Building Insights, James Parker, editor of Architects' Datafile Magazine, interviews Sarah Lewis, architect and research and policy director at the Passivhaus Trust. 

Passivhaus is being hailed as the UK construction industry's best hope for achieving zero carbon in 2050. Sarah Lewis is a key advocate of the low-energy building design approach, having spread the word far and wide via her work at the UK's main body promoting the method – the Passivhaus Trust. Takeup is still relatively low in the UK, however, as ADF magazine's recent reader survey and White Paper confirmed. 

In a revealing and in-depth conversation, Sarah gave some candid insights into the likely reasons, but also put the positive case for Passivhaus going forward.

Thanks to our sponsors, Lamilux and Schock.