Stop building for demolition
ISG’s board director, Richard Hubbard, talks to WIRED's Deputy Global Editorial Director, Greg Williams on measuring the true value of property assets.
Stop building for demolition with ISG | WIRED Briefings
As the world continues to urbanise, the impact of physical infrastructure is being scrutinised like never before.
In order for the construction industry to reposition the importance of buildings and the value they deliver for people and communities (not just bricks and mortar), the industry needs to commit to collaborating and bringing all the right parties to the table at the right time.
“We’ve got a lot of the component parts to make a change but when I think of how buildings are built, the decisions are already made”
Richard Hubbard, Board Director, ISG
“It’s all well and good saying ‘let’s have a modular solution’ but if the building has been designed and reached planning approval, you can’t then shoe horn in that kind of stuff retrospectively” continues Richard. "So for me, it’s a fundamental shift in the traditional roles that we see in construction today and a different degree of collaboration is needed between local authorities, companies, designers, consultants and building contractors.”
This all starts in the planning conversation and shifting the mindset from just designing for aesthetics and building for demolition to the whole lifetime asset value and performance.
Hubbard says technology is “critical but it will remain a gimmick and in the periphery unless we can change mindsets that actually not everything has to be bespoke because what we’re talking about here is a standardised kit of parts.”
“The end point of all this is, to take it to it’s furthest extreme and really put sustainability and ESG at its core, you would end up with a materials bank that you could endlessly take apart and rebuild as something else. That's where you get real circularity.”
Richard Hubbard, Board Director, ISG
Through ISG's latest research and insight report ‘Sustainable Buildings Monitor: Redefining Value’, they are establishing a purpose-driven framework to measure the true value of property.
Read more insights from Sustainable Buildings Monitor: Redefining value here.
