) ISSUE 02 THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SCIENCE ART AND THE (

THE POSSIBLE THE

I E

S S

U (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE 02 2 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE

Why do we do what we do?

It’s a vital question for anyone involved in designing and building cities. Even the smallest of our daily decisions can P16 have profound ramifications for the people who will live in the places we create, and the societies that they make up.

So it’s a question that we’ve found ourselves asking again and again in this issue of The Possible. Mark Bessoudo calls for a new type of “wisdom-loving philosopher- engineer” who can apply the lessons of moral philosophy to fields such as driverless cars and artificial intelligence,

P42 while Gordon Gill challenges architects to think beyond buildings, and their clients to accept a wider interpretation of a brief.

And what are the limits of city density? Just because we can build tall, should we? How do hyper-dense cities affect the social and psychological wellbeing of their P18 THE ART AND SCIENCE OF inhabitants? As the global population grows, that’s something else we’ll have to consider in much greater detail in the years ahead. Let’s start now.

Tom Smith, WSP

“It sounds like science fiction, but the cities we live in today would look like science fiction to people from 100 years ago”

Karl Sharro, PLP / page 23

Editor-in-chief Julie Guppy Editorial consultants Mark Bessoudo, Cover illustration by Noma Bar Published by Wordmule © WSP Editor Katie Puckett Jason Brooks, Steve Burrows, Bridget wordmule.co.uk 1600 René-Lévesque Blvd. W Production editor Nick Jones Kennerley, Bill Price, Paul Tremble Design by Supermassive 16th floor Creative director Sam Jenkins Printed by Greenshires Montreal, Quebec H3H 1P9 Canada wsp.com 5 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONTENTS 07.2017

48 CONNECTED THINKING THE HUMAN FACTOR 6 42

Our panel of columnists take on the future … INTERVIEW: Steve Burrows engages with digital natives 7 GORDON GILL Jonathan Ledgard builds a droneport 8 Neil Cadenhead rethinks hospitals for a post- One of the architects of the 21st century’s antibiotic world 10 most iconic buildings takes down some of Teemu Jama and Tuija Pakkanen measure the era’s sacred cows urban-ness 11 Alex Copley detects tremors in the megacity 12 Who builds your architecture? 14 Mark Bessoudo gets philosophical 16

SPACES 48 TEAM ANGST

18 Constant connectivity and new collaboration 18 tools are changing the way design teams work

together — and not always for the better. It’s HOW CAN WE LIVE LIKE THIS? never been more important to understand what really drives our relationships at work Urban populations are set to double by 2050. The question is, how dense can cities get?

42 TOOLS 26 THE SMARTEST PLACE I KNOW 54

Grimshaw partner Keith Brewis picks a 1990s city with an intuitive labyrinth of public transport MARVELLOUS MUTATIONS 14 26 66 Future cities will be built not from miraculous new materials but familiar ones — radically re-engineered to be stronger, lighter, greener, and even programmable

28 54 THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION 44

Education is at a crossroads, as the Fourth Industrial Revolution looms. So how can schools 66 and universities prepare students for a world that doesn’t yet exist? BLANK CANVAS

Can we create a totally recyclable building? Three WSP engineers weigh up the real cost 7 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE

#NEXTGENERATION #VIRTUALREALITY #SILICONVALLEY

AFTER THE DINOSAURS We need to start looking at the world through the eyes of digital natives, writes Steve Burrows — they’re the ones who will be solving the problems we’ve created

’m spending a lot of my weekends hope that the next generation will do ONE, for example, is looking at how wear a VR headset and feel like we’re I talking about engineering at the something better. we could grow buildings instead of present, turning our heads to talk to the moment — and answering a lot of To really inspire children, we need to assembling them and what sort of food person next to us? They are also looking questions about it. I’ve been involved in make better use of the technologies that we could farm within a city. Perhaps we at how to share data files so you can walk making Dream Big, a US$15m IMAX film have shaped the digital generation now will consume protein from insects that through a virtual project. We could walk created to inspire children to join the built graduating around the world. When I talk don’t require much water per pound through the space with the client, making environment industry. Actually it’s more to Silicon Valley start-ups, the word they of protein. I met another company that live changes in response to feedback. than a movie — it’s a movement. The use a lot about the construction industry was reconnecting the maker and design For the children I talk to, this is the intention is to reach 20 million children is “dinosaur” — getting new technology industries with hands-on models that business they want to join. They can’t over the next two years. I’m speaking adopted is one of the biggest problems interact with the digital world. They’ve believe how we do things now. When I tell to packed houses of 350 children, they face in a male-dominated industry, created workstations where you model them that we take a 3D model, produce encouraging them to become engineers. where the average age of the leadership shapes in clay, and it’s data-enriched so a 2D document, send it via email and These inquisitive young minds ask is in the 50s. The problem is not creating as you work the clay, you get feedback expect the other person to understand whether you can be interested in biology, new tools, it’s getting the industry to on what you’ve done. If you’re designing it in 3D, they say things like “you can’t or art, or psychology and still become accept and adopt them. a city, you can pull a tall building up and be serious”. I tell them that the future is an engineer. I tell them that rules-based But the kids don’t see the world that see the square footage, cost or energy theirs to shape, and that it’s the greatest mathematics and physics will soon way. If we want to attract the next use, restoring the touch and feel that 2D time in history to be an engineer. be done by an algorithm. In the future, generation, we’re competing with screens have taken away. engineering will be about being able to companies like Google, Apple and Then there was a firm called Visual Steve Burrows is executive vice president think creatively and consider the impact Twitter. If we want our children to follow Vocal, looking at the future of meetings. at WSP and a visiting lecturer at Stanford of what they create — a field for people in our footsteps, we need to look at the Could we create a room where we all University from all backgrounds who simply want to world through their eyes and do things change the world for the better. differently. For digital natives, BIM is not Their parents ask me questions too. optional, and virtual reality is essential. They’re typically not too proud of what For the last few years, I’ve been to the “When I tell children that we take a 3D model, produce a 2D has been built in their lifetimes — Design Futures Council event in San Paddy Mills Paddy document, send it via email and expect the other person to concrete apartment blocks and highways Diego, where there are plenty of people

Portraits through the middle of cities — and they thinking about things like this. Terreform understand it in 3D, they say things like ‘you can’t be serious’”

P32 9 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONNECTED THINKING

#DRONEPORTS #AFRICA #AI

impact. Large parts of Africa are very shipbuilding or in construction and said, arid; it’s a real problem watering the soil. we’re just going to do it cheaper. They “There are many things that have to be proved about this UNDER AFRICAN SKIES It’s pretty easy to imagine that within had access to regional markets, and had the next two or three years we’ll have an educated workforce. In Africa, there technology, and the most obvious thing is whether humans very cheap, super-advanced drip-feed are much more intense demographic Jonathan Ledgard leads a team of roboticists, architects and irrigation. You take a piece of hosepipe, and environmental pressures. I think actually want a robot flying over their heads” logisticians seeking to build the world’s first droneport in Africa. By add one robotic widget, connected with the African path of development is 2030, he predicts, there will be one in every town in the tropical world AI, which might cost you 20 bucks. going to be completely different, and Suddenly you have drip-feed irrigation it’s a great opportunity to think again tech but can be incredibly smart. will follow. There are many things that may add 20-30% to your output over about very basic questions. For example, We know there is not going to be much that still have to be proved about this the year, while saving water. should we allow new megacities to be money in the system, but that AI and technology, and the most obvious thing I think that robotics will also play a shaped by the motor car or should we other technologies, particularly renewable is whether humans actually want a The Possible: Why drones? You’ve said and, eventually, for e-commerce. healthcare, with the logistics system? We thing is the ecosystem. Who is going to very significant role in warehousing and try to get rid of most cars, or make them energy systems, will come online. So you robot flying over their heads. Even if that cheap flying robots will be one It doesn’t have so much utility in richer felt that the aerospace side needed to be repair these things? Who will operate in logistics. It seems counterintuitive sharing vehicles, and entirely rethink the want to aim for a sharing economy that is things make cognitive sense, it doesn’t of the most important innovations for countries, but in the tropical parts of defined, and that we could have a go at them? How do you train them? If you for areas with very high rates of infrastructure? mostly lower-tech but occasionally super mean that people are comfortable with Africa this century. What possibilities the planet, I anticipate that most towns defining that space in an innovative way. think about a motorbike in the African or unemployment to seek out automation. high-tech. The crucial point is to cut out a them. The biggest potential drag on do they offer that others don’t? should have a droneport before 2030. Indonesian context, then there are plenty For its own sake, where it rips out the TP: 20th-century cities were built lot of middle technologies — your motor this technology is that the craft are not We’ve tried to define the typology of the TP: You’ve made the point that it’s of mechanics who can fix anything. guts of local employment, automation around the car. How might 21st- car, your air conditioner. beautiful enough, not quiet enough. JL: You have to think of it as a sort of building: it’s cheap, very low carbon, and inevitable we’re going to make more When you talk about a droneport, is not to be welcomed. But you have to century urban areas built around the At the moment, we’ve got a disastrous Maybe they crash a couple of times. supplemental transportation system. in particular it’s a civic building, like an use of the sky, but not that flying there are questions that you wouldn’t remember that these countries have very drone differ? situation where cities are growing Maybe someone actively campaigns It’s not going to beat the motorbike, the early railway station. It has a lot of shared robots and landing sites will be necessarily think about elsewhere. In limited amounts of industry. So adding incredibly fast. And so we’re going to end against them. bicycle is amazing, the pickup truck is value for the community — almost like a engineered for poorer communities. Africa, unless you lock everything down in some automation that provides a lot JL: I would never ever go as far as to up with ten or 15 megacities in Africa But it’s definitely worth pushing it as incredible. And railways beat everything sort of marketplace or forum. How can designers ensure their ideas all the time, your droneport is going to more efficiency can be really positive. say that any city will be built around the where the entire infrastructure has been hard as possible, because the history else. Cargo drones are just going to add We think this technology is going to benefit those who need them most? get stripped out in the first week. drone. I would think that a city has to be imported from industrial China and some of aviation shows that you start with a an extra layer of connectivity, particularly happen, so how, from an engineering TP: One of the big trends of the next built around the bicycle or the motorbike, middlemen have made a large profit on it, military solution and end up with a mass, in poorer countries where there’s not and architecture point of view, could it JL: It’s really three simple things. One is, TP: You’ve said that robotics and AI 10-20 years will be Africa joining the the bus, the whole range of transport. But but it’s not suited for purpose at all. civil application. I don’t think many people enough money to build tunnels or happen in a way that is more likely to obviously, price. On a community or town are really going to mess up developed global world as south and east Asia did the drone illustrates a future direction of get into an EasyJet plane today and think, bridges. There are roads, but they’re very favour poorer people? That’s the whole basis, you have to hit a pretty aggressive economies but will have a much more 20 or 30 years before. But how might the interface between a small piece of TP: You’d like to see droneports along “Oh my God, this could be a bomb”. circuitous, overcrowded and slow, and in guts of our project. We started to think price point. Then you really have to think positive effect on poorer countries. In its path be different, given the very very advanced technology and a lot of the shores of Lakes Victoria and They’re just flying to Berlin. I think that’s the rainy season, they often wash away. about how we could shape the industry, about the durability of design. A cargo what areas will they have the greatest different technology that’s potentially low technology. I think the ideal future Tanganyika by 2020. How likely do you probably the future for cargo drones. I would imagine cargo drones can add and what happens on the ground. Where drone would have to be a combination of transformational impact on Africa? available today? city will be both much denser and much, think this is to happen? 4-6% to transportation capacity, for high- would these drones land, how would a VW Beetle and a Star Wars fighter. The much greener; with a lot of tarmac Jonathan Ledgard is founder of the Afrotech value, time-dependent items. They will they be stored? How would they be end result is something futuristic, but JL: Robots in all fields of agricultural JL: In South Korea, they looked at stripped out, and large amounts of JL: They will definitely be on Lake initiative at the École Polytechnique Fedérale be valuable for healthcare, for spare parts repaired? How would they interface with very modular, tough, utilitarian. The third productivity can have an enormous what Western industries were doing in shared infrastructure, which is quite low- Victoria by 2025, and all the waterways de Lausanne, and of the Red Line cargo drone

P18 11 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONNECTED THINKING

#INFECTIONCONTROL #POST-ANTIBIOTIC #HEALTHCAREMYTHS #URBANCAPACITY #WALKABLECITIES #HELSINKI

he success of a city today is based extension, we found that there will T on its ability to support the new be more small and medium-sized economy of the 21st century — an businesses, so the economic benefits of economy that requires a very different creating new SME workplaces would be kind of built environment from previous much greater than for a traditional ring- models. Jobs in the new economy are road plan. concentrated in areas where young Urban capacity has a great impact entrepreneurs, future leaders and experts on traffic too. The number of trips want to live. Unfortunately, cities based per person does not change, but the on 20th-century models and built by modes that people choose do. Within conventional urban planning do not neighbourhoods with good urban appeal to them. The planning of suburbs capacity, a lot of services are close by, and highways does not reflect the new and walking and cycling are the most economic reality, either locally or at a convenient ways of getting around. Land- global level. We need to adapt. use models based on highways, on the In the 20th-century vision of the city, other hand, lead to more car journeys — outside of downtown areas the defining the resulting sparse land-use, combined parameter was traffic infrastructure. with long distances between services, Employment was concentrated in a makes it hard to organize efficient public P21 FIVE THOUGHTS ON HOSPITALS small number of large companies, so transport systems. planners focused on regional connectivity The economic impact of urban measured by travel time. But this kind planning should not be underestimated. Neil Cadenhead considers comfort, mythology and design in a post-antibiotic world of connectivity is not as relevant to the Even though planners are working to new economy or to the social interactions far longer timescales than economists, on which it is based. The internet has HOW TO their decisions will have a profound and set people free from location. In the potentially immediate influence — the 21st century, urbanism is based on ad- quality of the urban environment is, after 1 2 3 4 5 hoc interactions between people and MEASURE A BUZZ all, the value base for both business and services, enhanced by mobile technology the housing market. From this point of The warnings are out Different times, different Are we as understanding of Do we even make spaces that There is a lot of mythology in and intelligent location-based services. The new economy will flock to areas of high view, it is remarkable that the paradigms there … attitudes infection today? are comfortable? healthcare design in different The most attractive and profitable “urban capacity”. Teemu Jama and Tuija Pakkanen of global economics and local urban countries places are no longer those that are the planning are so out of alignment. We’ve had SARS, Ebola, MERS, Victorian fever hospitals were I would love to see the scientific Pictures of Victorian wards at most accessible to cars. What’s far more explain what it is and how to calculate it Ironically, an example of ignoring the Zika, A(H7N9), yet few places designed before penicillin and the paper that actually demonstrates night will show the nurse wearing I have a German client who is important is the structure and balance importance of urban capacity concerns have really engaged with how other pharmaceutical treatments whether moving to six air changes her cape — because they turned keen to reduce the clinical hand of the city at a neighbourhood level. the mega-companies of this new such diseases should affect we rely on today. Look at the an hour in a hospital bedroom down the heat so that patients wash basins, and scrub troughs, Dispersed urban structures need to be economy. Organizations such as Apple, hospital design. The Singaporean measures they had for controlling has made any different to patient could sleep, and no doubt to save and increase alcohol points in his sewn together. In our work, we define Facebook and Google are building their government is one of the more infection — before you went onto outcomes, and what science it money. There’s some pretty good project. The view is that washing neighbourhood as the area within 700m network. We can measure all of this planning would measure traffic own campuses outside of city centres. advanced. In one competition the ward, you were stripped of all was based on. What is “fresh air” research into sleep patterns that your hands increases the cohort of a given location — in other words, the using geospatial data and geographical connectivity. We can identify the areas Their goal is to provide more space bid, they asked designers to your clothes. You waved goodbye anyway? I love asking engineers shows that humans like sleeping of potentially infectious material easily walkable area. The entrepreneurs information systems (GIS). with the most “buzz”, or with the most more affordably, and to protect their demonstrate that they could to your relatives and might not that question. They’ll say things at an air temperature of 16°C, on the unit! Is this where the leading the new economy want to access Urban capacity is highest in areas that versatile services, jobs and dwellings. intellectual property by cutting out inter- isolate a section of the hospital see them again until you came like “It’s air free of pollutants”, or with colder head and science is? Do we learn from a mix of uses and experiences within are densely built up, where there is a We can see where the most interesting company connections. But this approach from the rest, in the case of out. The idea was to protect the “It’s air with a certain amount of feet. But today hospital others, or is each country siloed in their immediate vicinity, and so do the lot of activity within a highly connected places to spend time are, and we can to development does not create resilient an outbreak of something like general population from infection, oxygen in it”. Then I ask, “Is that engineering decides its own healthcare traditions? As workers they need to attract. So to be street network. In other words, the more decide which planning solutions will or appealing city economies. That’s why SARS. The departments would and to protect the patient from the the same sort of air that I feel that all bedrooms will a start, perhaps all guidance on successful, cities need to create varied, possibilities there are for people to create the greatest value. many Silicon Valley employees prefer to act normally as part of the infection in the general population. walking down a beach in be 18-28°C, typically national hospital standards should vibrant neighbourhoods that combine interact, the higher the urban capacity. The method is scalable, depending on live in San Francisco, and the giants of general hospital, but you could You couldn’t do that now — there’d winter after a storm?” This interpreted as a fixed include references to the original places to live, work, socialize and relax. Features that diminish urban capacity the available data, and how accurate it the new economy are left running old- isolate some diagnostics, wards be a riot if people weren’t allowed matters because we are 22°C, all day and all science they’re based on. We call this ”urban capacity”, and we include highways and massive shopping is. For example, we can include parks in style transit networks to get their workers and outpatient areas to create to visit their relatives. But it shows increasingly moving from night. I’d like to read some developed the CITYROI methodology centres, because they limit interactions the calculation to identify their effect on where they need them to be. a completely separate hospital you the different attitudes to natural ventilation to sealed proper science into the comfort Neil Cadenhead is an architect to measure it. We calculate urban and accessibility. urban environments, or bring in external within a hospital. controlling infection. buildings in the quest for conditions associated with director in BDP’s healthcare team capacity by combining all the properties This analysis allows us to detect data such as house prices. Teemu Jama is head of urban architecture energy savings. waking and sleeping, and patients’ in an area, the activities that take place development potential in existing cities When we applied CITYROI to the and Tuija Pakkanen is a city analyst at WSP circadian rhythms. within them and the connecting street and future plans, just as conventional redesign of Helsinki’s ring-road II in Finland cityroi.fi 13 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONNECTED THINKING

#EARTHQUAKES #MEGACITIES #ASIA

1,000,000+ city Magnitude 7+ earthquake Earthquake with 10,000+ deaths

THE ENEMY BELOW

In their rush to centralize populations in ever greater cities, governments and policymakers are in danger of ignoring one of the biggest threats to the built environment — and to human life, writes Alex Copley

s the global population increases parts of Asia, such as Delhi, Istanbul, Earth’s tectonic plates are bending the administrative psyche as in regions that dramatically reduced the numbers of A and is concentrated into Xi’an, Karachi, Almaty and Tbilisi. rocks. This bending happens until the experience regular shaking. Many of earthquake-related deaths in seismically “The original settlements were established along coastlines and megacities, there are widespread issues This is not a coincidence. The original rocks break, causing an earthquake. In the world’s megacities are therefore in active areas including Chile, Japan and relating to pollution, overcrowding, settlements from which these cities have the oceanic margins, such as Sumatra regions that are guaranteed to experience California. However, these methods the edges of mountain ranges, which were formed by repeated poverty and health. But there’s another grown were established on ancient trade and Japan, the threat is from a single large earthquakes in the coming years to do not allow us to predict when an major threat to life and infrastructure that routes running through Asia and the well-defined fault. But in the tectonically centuries, but which have been built with earthquake will occur — widely thought earthquakes … This means that Asia’s megacities are is often overlooked: earthquakes. Middle East. These followed coastlines active areas of the continental interiors only minor consideration of this hazard. to be an intractable problem. concentrated in the areas of highest earthquake hazard” Many megacities in Asia have grown and the edges of the mountain ranges there is a large network of active faults, A major research area in the Earth Identifying and studying active faults is from smaller settlements that have been — which were formed by repeated each accommodating a small proportion sciences involves identifying active faults not a complete solution to the problem destroyed by earthquakes numerous earthquakes — because the interiors of the overall plate motion, and each before they rupture in earthquakes. of understanding earthquake hazard. times in the past. Take Tehran, current of the mountains and the intervening breaking infrequently — but in large The backbone of this work is the use of Although rapid progress is being made, level is similar to that in nearby regions between Earth scientists, policymakers population around 10 million, which deserts were too hostile. This means that earthquakes. The time intervals between satellite data to identify signs of past the large numbers of active faults in with known faults. This is the cautious and governments, and those involved in was badly damaged by earthquakes in Asia’s megacities are concentrated in the successive events on a given fault can events preserved in the landscape, and the continents means that only a small approach, and the cost of mitigating creating the built environment. 855, 958, 1177 and 1830. These events areas of highest earthquake hazard, as therefore be large — from centuries to chemical techniques to date the age of proportion have yet been studied in earthquake hazards in regions where all happened when the city’s population the map opposite shows. tens of thousands of years — and only a offset deposits. We are able to identify detail. In addition, local geological effects it may not be necessary will inevitably Alex Copley is a lecturer in the Department of was a small proportion of its present- Nor is a long time interval between small proportion have ruptured during the locations and likely magnitudes of can make some faults invisible — for place a heavy burden on resources. Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. day total. If an equivalent earthquake seismic events a cause for comfort — in recorded human history. However, such future events, and this information can example, if their surface expression is On the other hand, ignoring a hazard He is a member of Earthquakes without occurred today, the death-toll would fact, the opposite could be true. The long timescales mean there may be large be used to regulate building standards, buried in sediment deposited by a large in regions with no visible faults could Frontiers and the Centre for Observation probably be in the hundreds of thousands frequency with which earthquakes population growth between earthquakes, strengthen existing structures and put river. Opinion remains divided on how to result in devastating loss of life. Finding and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes or millions. It’s a similar story in many happen in a given location depends upon and that awareness of earthquake hazard in place earthquake preparedness and assess earthquake hazard in such areas. the optimal solution between these two and Tectonics (COMET), two research major cities across the tectonically active the rate at which the motions of the is not as prominent in the public and response plans. Such measures have One option is to assume that the hazard extremes will require close collaboration partnerships on earthquake hazard and risk

P64 15 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONNECTED THINKING

#WBYA #GLOBALIZATION #ETHICALCONSTRUCTION

INCONVENIENT

TRUTHS In collaboration with Graph As construction becomes increasingly global, a Commons, Who coalition of New York-based designers and educators Builds Your Architecture? has formed to ask one urgent question: maps connections Who Builds Your Architecture? between building projects in four cities: Chicago, New York, Istanbul hether majestic skyscrapers, eye- We named our group with a question in and Doha W catching museums or sprawling order to jump-start a discussion among residential complexes, buildings emerge our colleagues in architecture and related from intricate, lengthy processes of disciplines. For us, this one question design and construction that involve a sparks many others. As a field, we need host of different actors, from architects to rethink ethics, new technologies, DESIGNERS vs ABUSE and engineers, to clients and banks, to professional practice, activism and contractors and construction workers. education, especially in relation to Five ways that architects and engineers can improve labour practices These relationships operate within a architecture and labour. Ultimately our global network of knowledge transfer, aim is to investigate contemporary forms manufacturing and labour — people and of globalization where architecture takes materials moving around the world, often central stage. What are the architects’ in uneven and unequal ways. ethical responsibilities towards those Founded in 2011, WBYA? is a New York- who erect their buildings around the 1 2 3 4 5 based coalition of architects, activists, world? Where do these construction scholars and educators that tackles workers come from and what does Employ human rights experts Demand improvements in Specify for higher skill levels Deploy architectural Expand site observation to the pressing question: who builds your architecture demand from them? on design teams basic standards documents as toolkits include labour practices — and architecture? As major projects unfold in How do new technologies transform Designers can use architectural boycott abusive contractors the Middle East, Asia, Africa and around construction methods as well as Architects collaborate with In some countries, the lack of drawings and documents as a Architects already produce a the globe, with architects from the US communication? Do they address labour- structural and mechanical rights for immigrant workers vehicle to raise labour standards range of contracts, construction Architects and engineers increasingly working abroad, we examine intensive manual labour, workers’ rights engineers, facade specialists, makes protesting about poor and improve construction sets and other information to consult with on-site construction the links between labour, architecture or site oversight? And if low-cost labour sustainability consultants and treatment impossible and practices. For example, the send to clients, contractors and managers and contractors via daily and the global networks that form around enables architects’ uninhibited creative others who are often based in dangerous. Architects can use installation of certain components subcontractors. They could also virtual communication and regular building buildings. From workers’ rights expression, what is the human cost? offices around the globe. Project their position and expertise to requires workers with specific skill send documents that pertain to site visits. They could broaden to construction practices to design teams for global architecture improve the living and working sets. Skilled workers are typically local labour laws, international the scope of site observations processes to new technologies, WBYA? The WBYA? Collaborative Group is projects should include regional conditions of migrant construction better trained than unskilled labour agreements and best to recognize abusive labour explores the ethical, social and political Kadambari Baxi, Jordan Carver, Laura experts who can advise on local workers in host countries. workers, they receive higher pay practices for the protection of practices and refuse to work with questions that emerge under these Diamond Dixit, Tiffany Rattray, Lindsey human rights and labour issues. and they are much more likely to human rights on the construction contractors or subcontractors who relatively new circumstances. Wikstrom and Mabel O. Wilson belong to a union. site and workers’ housing. mistreat construction workers.

P16

17 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE CONNECTED THINKING

#PHILOSOPHER-ENGINEERS #TECHNO-OPTIMISM #EUDAIMONIA

Engineers may indeed be standing on the shoulders of giants, but we’re never encouraged to spend too much time looking down at those we stand on, or stopping to consider our place. We’re encouraged to look up, innovate and never look back. Innovation is something that the practice of engineering particularly prides itself on, but few in the profession ever question the pursuit itself; still fewer question our culture’s techno-optimistic assumptions about progress. Instead, institutions and corporations resort to trite cliches about the many blessings that the pursuit of technological innovation bestows upon us: greater efficiency, material progress, economic growth, and so on. The act of innovating becomes the end goal, rather than a means to some other, nobler end. In The Republic, Plato proposed that the ideal city-state could not be realized without being ruled by wisdom-loving philosopher kings. “Until philosophers PLATO FOR PLUMBERS rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and relevance of philosophy to engineering questions about epistemology and the it cost?”, we must also ask: “Is it good? In his award-winning essay for New Philosopher magazine, adequately philosophize,” Plato warned, must be made more visible to encourage nature of reality. Does it contribute to wellbeing? For WSP’s Mark Bessoudo explains why engineers should “… there can be no happiness, either the creation of a more humanistic Then there’s the tricky possibility whom? By what standard?” read more philosophy public or private, in any other city.” approach to engineering. What’s needed, (inevitability?) of one day inventing an To critically reflect on the meaning Devoid of the cognitive toolkit in other words, are wisdom-loving artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a of life and the future of civilization necessary to enquire about the philosopher-engineers. machine or system that can perform in this way is perhaps a new form of social, moral and environmental An understanding of human values and intellectual tasks better than any human humanism. And, as is appropriate to our impact of their work, engineers have moral decision-making will soon mean can. This would require solving some progressively engineered world, it is an the capacity to create artefacts and big business in the tech industry. Many of very old problems in moral philosophy. approach in which engineers could — “To be an engineer and nothing but Behind the scenes, this technical public, rarely stop to ask: “Should we from the iron of a bridge that collapsed systems that can negatively impinge the classical thought experiments once Once again, it is engineers who are being no, must — lead the way. an engineer means to be potentially infrastructure is being planned, designed, do this, simply because we can? Is this (twice) into Quebec’s St. Lawrence upon those around them, often with confined to the classrooms of Philosophy relied on to program concepts such as Pen and paper are rarely used by everything and actually nothing.” constructed and maintained largely actually good for the betterment of River in the early 20th century. The unintended consequences, like a kind of 101 may soon become part of everyday goodness, benevolence and morality engineers today, so the iron ring no José Ortega y Gasset, History as a by one type of person: the engineer. humanity or for the planet?” disasters were blamed on a combination technological secondhand smoke. reality for the tech workers in the open- into the AGI. And if you believe, as some longer serves the same purpose that it System (1934) Whether we realize it or not, it is the Questions about value, virtue, beauty of negligence, structural deficiencies What’s urgently needed, then, plan offices and labs of Silicon Valley. experts do, that the invention of an AGI once did. There’s no noticeable clang! humble engineer who now forms the and justice cannot be factored into any and faulty calculations. In all, almost 90 is obviously not for philosophy to Moral philosophy may even become a key poses a unique existential risk, then even when one works on a desktop, tablet t’s a truism to remark how much clay which moulds not only our external of the engineer’s equations and so are people were killed. replace technical training, but rather industry sector. our solar system’s very existence may or smartphone. Gone are the frequent I our world is becoming increasingly environment, but also our mind’s interior easily dismissed. Yet, for anyone with The ring is therefore meant to be for philosophy to complement it. The Take, for example, self-driving cars well depend on engineers converging reminders of our obligation to ethics. technological, exponentially complex. realm. As we enter the geological era eyes to see, the connections between worn as a reminder of our professional and the issue of safety with automatic on the correct answer; furthermore, we Who knows — maybe in the end, The pace of change is evident in our known as the Anthropocene, the engineering and the good life are obvious. commitment to public safety and to collision detection. It is engineers who may only be afforded one chance to despite all our best efforts, technology everyday experience. From the grand engineer has also become, perhaps Like other engineering students in maintaining the highest standards have been handed the task of having accomplish it. itself will find a way to obstruct any feats of transcontinental flight to the unwittingly, an ecological force on a Canada who are close to graduating from of ethics. It’s worn on the little finger “It is engineers who have to solve multiple real-world versions of “I wish it would dawn on engineers,” attempt of ours to instil more humanism mundane tasks of flushing the toilet planetary scale. university, I participated in a ceremony of the dominant hand so that each been handed the task of the “trolley problem” and code it into wrote the Spanish philosopher José into engineering. to the seemingly miraculous joy of There’s just one problem: at almost called The Ritual of the Calling of the time the engineer puts pen to paper it software. Or virtual reality. Although in Ortega y Gasset, “that, in order to be accessing the world’s knowledge no point in their education, training, or Engineer, a peculiar and somewhat creates a noticeable, if dulled, clang! The solving multiple real-world its infancy, it is already changing many an engineer, it is not enough to be an Mark Bessoudo is research manager and through the smartphone in your pocket, practice are engineers given the proper secretive tradition (developed by the frequent reminders are meant to be both of our assumptions about personal engineer.” I, too, hope that my fellow sustainability consultant at WSP in Toronto. we are at once passive and active intellectual tools with which to reflect, British writer Rudyard Kipling, no less) tactile and intellectual, like the Stoics’ versions of the ‘trolley identity and what constitutes the self. engineers will take it upon themselves to He is also founder of platoforplumbers.com. participants in a landscape that has in any meaningful way, on themselves, which culminates with each student unification of the technē (the practice problem’ and coding it into According to philosopher and cognitive start thinking clearly about what it means This essay was originally published in New become progressively mechanized, each other, or their world-transforming receiving an iron ring. of an art or craft) with the epistēmē (the scientist David Chalmers, VR is reframing to be human. To the questions like “Is it Philosopher magazine, as the winner of the digitized, and automated. enterprise. Engineers, and the general Legend has it that each ring is made theory of knowledge). self-driving cars” some of philosophy’s most enduring more efficient?” and “How much does Writers’ Award XI on the theme of technology

P33 19 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

By 2050, the urban population will almost double to 6.3 billion — two-thirds of all the people on the planet. Cities are gaining 77 million new residents each year, equivalent to the population of Turkey or Germany, or twice the state of California. Much of this growth is sprawl. During the first three decades of this century, the global increase in urban land cover is expected to be greater than all urban expansion so far in human history.

WORDS BY JOEY GARDINER

umanity is moving inextricably to H cities. For many people, there is only one response: to make cities denser. Adding the threat of climate change just reinforces the argument: dense cities can support the kind of local services and transport infrastructure that gets people

out of CO2 emitting cars. Fifty years on from the high-rise social housing experiments that failed so badly, the UN’s “principles for sustainable neighbourhood planning” favour high density. It’s official: density is good for us. Developers and architects have embraced this new orthodoxy, seizing the opportunity to raise development values with ever more ambitious and complex designs. But urban density is still viewed with suspicion by much of the public, who associate it with rundown 1960s tower blocks, the spectre of Victorian overcrowding, or the nightmare future of Blade Runner’s vertical cities. Nevertheless, densification must happen or else the world has to sacrifice an unprecedented volume of precious countryside. As Andrew Altman, the masterplanner behind the regeneration of London’s former Olympic Park, now managing principal of Fivesquares Development in Washington DC, says: “We’re going to have to densify, and in terms of the rehabilitation of cities, this is a good thing. But it’s not a choice.” So, planners, developers and designers are having to consider what higher density should look like, what it will mean

Shutterstock Photo for the people living in cities, and how far 21 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

often confounded by reality. According World population by urban area density “You can have vertical sprawl. to figures from Savills, Kensington & Large urban areas / population per km2 / 2017 HONG KONG Chelsea, London’s most desirable and If it’s all high-rise, if it’s not expensive borough is also one of its GOES HYPER 4.8% densest, with 135 dwellings per ha, the 9.4% linked to transport networks, majority set in low and mid-rise 19th Supertall neighbourhoods century mansion blocks. In comparison, if we haven’t learnt to create 0.9% connected by supertram London’s postwar housing estates were places that feel humane, then often developed at lower densities than 15.2% David Tickle, principal at Australian architect the streets they replaced, with an average 18.3% Hassell, has just completed a piece of research that’s going to be a problem” of 78 dwellings per ha. with WSP examining how already dense Hong There are many reasons why density 0-2,000 Kong might be densified even further. Andrew Altman, Fivesquares is seen as a good thing, but in short it is 2-4,000 Tickle describes its conclusion, entitled Development regarded as more sustainable, in the full 4-10,000 “superdensity”, as a new model for vertical sense of the word — environmentally, urbanism. It is based around the addition 10-20,000 socially and economically. Cities offer far of giant 500m-high structures throughout 20-40,000 it can go. Will increasing density lead greater opportunity for the interaction the city, each accommodating thousands of 51.4% over 40,000 us to a more dynamic, wealthier, socially and exchange that generates economic homes, public spaces, parks, schools and even a just and environmentally sustainable growth. So while they currently house hospital. These would be accessed by a 10km- future? Or will it make the dystopian around half of the world’s population, they long pedestrian ramp winding up the structure blight depicted in science fiction into a are, according to the UN, responsible and an inclined supertram running from ground reality? And if a degree of density is a for 80% of global GDP. Greater density to summit, stopping every 80-100m. good thing, is there a point, as we reach puts more people in practical reach of Tickle says that in this model “people who live further into the sky, at which the benefits the services that businesses provide. high in towers will be closer to public spaces and start to break down? Manila, in the top 20 most packed cities facilities. Much of life can be lived well above the in the world, accounts for 47% of the ground plane and in fact, the more self-reliant How dense is dense? Philippines’ GDP, despite the fact that it Densest major cities / over 2.5 million people this system becomes, the more effective it is.” is home to just 12% of the population. In Dhaka / Bangladesh / Population 16,235,000 The density of each neighbourhood could reach Across the world, urban density is the same way, density gathers together Hyderabad / India / 2,990,000 2,500 dwellings, or 7,500 people, per ha. hugely variable. Statistics on the subject demand for social infrastructure such as Mumbai / India / 22,885,000 are conflicting and often misleading, hospitals, schools and nurseries, as well Hong Kong / China / 7,280,000 depending on how it is measured (in as cultural and leisure activities. Surat / India / 5,935,000 terms of people or buildings), how Karl Sharro, director at architect and At the heart of the environmental City limits space for whatever it is intended to But according to David McAlister, global wide a net is cast around a city, and how high-rise specialist PLP, and a writer on Population/ha 4,410 argument is the assumption that high accommodate. As Sharro says: “The director of transport and infrastructure at much of the less dense suburbs are both urban density and humanism in density means less land take. Adam So if high density is better for us, the higher up you go, it becomes not so WSP, this is not a barrier to development, 4,120 included. For example, while Manhattan urban design, has a phrase for the way Crozier, director at town planner Barton economy and the planet, the logical economical to do so.” quite the opposite. It is the increased island is seen as a 20th-century these benefits spiral upwards: urban Willmore, which has masterplanned next question is whether there’s a limit. Of course, high density is not just development values generated by benchmark for density, with residential intensity. He says: “It’s a social and a projects in the UK, the Middle East and Increasingly, the technical answer from about height, but the close proximity taller buildings that helps to pay for areas reaching 4,250 people per hectare cultural thing, where with density you’re Asia, says: “If we are building up rather engineers is no. Designing “supertall” of tall buildings to one another. A vital infrastructure, he says. “Density (ha), New York City as a whole is low able to create more opportunities for than out, we’re making a lesser impact on structures higher than 300m (the height word has been coined to describe is something you leverage to pay for density by world standards, with just informal encounters — for business, for the natural environment around us.” of the Shard in London or One57 in New neighbourhoods like this which typically infrastructure. Without the density, you 180 people per ha. Dhaka in Bangladesh exchange, for art and culture. It tends to 2,600 The book Power wrote with architect York) is becoming more common, with contain more than 500 homes per ha: wouldn’t get the infrastructure. Hong 2,570 is currently rated the highest-density increase the intensity of human activity Richard Rogers in 2000, Cities for a more than half of the world’s 111 supertall hyperdensity. Hyperdense cities, of Kong proves that: its transit system 2,550 whole city in the world, according to and human interaction.” Small Country, is still a key text here. It structures built since 2010. As work which Hong Kong is the classic example, is almost entirely subsidized through US consultant Demographia, with just The other key argument is argued that doubling the development continues on the kilometre-high Jeddah potentially put enormous strain on the development fees.” under 4,500 people per ha. The city most environmental. London School of density in the UK to 50 homes per ha Tower in Saudia Arabia, previously provision of infrastructure — transport, Those working in this field believe an synonymous with density in the 21st Economics professor Anne Power has would remove the need to find greenfield remarkable structures are becoming sewers, energy — given the sheer even bigger change can happen when century — Hong Kong — is actually only estimated that a minimum density of land for around 1.5 million homes. Its routine, with 84 towers above 200m built numbers of people who need to use it. people start to embrace the idea of fourth in global terms, with little over half around 30-50 homes per ha reduces view that “by living together in close in China in 2016, including 11 in the city of the population density of Dhaka. dependency on cars by making the proximity, we can accommodate far more Shenzhen alone. While individual developments can provision of public transport viable and of the world’s population, use less energy, In recent years, the main limits on the be incredibly dense, what determines effective, while the placing of shops, concentrate goods and services, design height of towers have related to the “The question is, if you’re on the 50th storey, and you need to the overall figure is how wide an area services and workplaces within walking ecologically sensitive buildings and move provision of lifts. As height increases, the go to the 30th storey of another building, could you actually do this extends over. Thus, the perception reach can get people out of motorized around more efficiently” is now effectively lifts and core take up a greater proportion

that high-rise equals high density is transport altogether. Demographia Source the orthodoxy. of the building’s floorplate, leaving less that without going down to the ground?” Karl Sharro, PLP

P46 23 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

P21

living in “vertical cities” — environments in 2000, they are “particularly harmful to where all their needs can be met without the environment”, using three-quarters necessarily having to go down to ground of the world’s energy in 2% of its land level. This approach is being pursued by surface. Moreover, each city dweller uses architects including PLP and Australian more resources than the global average, firm Hassell, which has just completed a not fewer: a recent research paper on research project with WSP on how Hong megacities published in the Proceedings Kong might be further densified. of the National Academy of Sciences Sharro argues that for this model to found that while the 27 largest cities hold take off, the necessary final step is for 7% of the global population, they use 9% people to be able to move between the of the world’s electricity, 10% of its petrol upper levels of buildings themselves. and produce 13% of its waste. “The question is, if you’re on the 50th The reasons for this high energy use storey, and you need to go to the 30th are not fully known. Mark Bessoudo, storey of another building, could you a sustainability specialist at WSP in actually do that without going down to Toronto, points out that high-density the ground?” He insists this is not far off. areas depend upon low-density A research project within PLP’s office hinterlands. “What’s not often taken is already exploring the possibility of into account,” he says, “is the fact that installing lifts that can move both laterally to keep them running, these cities also CROWDED PSYCHOLOGY and vertically on the outside of buildings. require industrial lands, ports, suburbs. In “I know it sounds a bit like science fiction, other words, the environmental benefits Does hyperdensity pose but the cities we live in today would look of a city’s dense urban core can be a risk to mental health? like science fiction to people from 100 outweighed by the resource-inefficient years ago,” Sharro points out, adding that yet essential areas on its periphery. Colin Ellard, director of the Urban Realities he is simply “envisaging strategies for They’re two sides of the same coin.” Laboratory at Waterloo University in Ontario, uses how these three-dimensional cities we’re Others believe that the heavy transport virtual reality environments to test the negative talking about could be connected”. and other infrastructure needed for impact of dense environments on mood. His tests hyperdense cities is not as efficient as have revealed that one key to triggering negative Reasons to be fearful assumed, in part because it has to be feelings is the amount of visible open sky, and that run constantly, including at times of low people also react against environments they can’t The fact that something is physically and demand. Hyperdensity also results in easily navigate. logistically possible doesn’t, however, much less roofspace per dwelling for the Ellard thinks physical density may prompt more tell you whether it’s the right thing to kind of solar energy generation that could negative interactions with other people — a key risk do. And there are a growing number of otherwise power new homes. factor in psychological illness. This has implications thinkers arguing against this hyperdense These doubts combine to limit for the greater incidence of mental health problems vision of the future — particularly in the the importance that hyperdensity’s in cities, which cannot be explained away by context of fast-urbanising nations such supporters, such as Sharro, can place demographic and social factors. “Even when you as China. Here, rapidly built high-rise on environmental arguments. “A lot take all of those other factors into account,” he says, neighbourhoods are often poorly linked of people who are in favour of the “there still seems to be a suggestion that there’s to transport systems, and do not provide sustainability agenda are quite sceptical,” something else that’s happening to people in cities. adequate access to the services people he admits. “We need to be really careful When people are in these very dense environments need. “You can have vertical sprawl,” about making [sustainability] claims. that increase negative emotion … it can also impact says Altman at Fivesquares. “If it’s all Because whenever they’ve been made upon how we get along with each other.” high-rise city, if it’s not linked to transport in the past, they’ve been open to critique.” As well as the impact of streetscapes, Ellard also networks, if we haven’t learnt to mix uses If the sustainability argument isn’t cites research showing that people tend to be more and create places that feel humane, then clearly supportive of hyperdensity, emotionally negative if they live on higher floors, that’s going to be a problem. Planning there are others that are decidedly because of the relative lack of encounters they have can get sacrificed because it’s all negative. One centres around the social with their neighbours. He does not claim to have Manhattan island is seen as a happening so quickly.” implications of the commercial business found a maximum urban density or building height, 20th-century benchmark for Even where hyperdensity is done model that often delivers high-rise. but says that there is enough evidence to urge density, with residential areas thoughtfully, the environmental case is Duncan Bowie, an urban policy academic caution around high-rise. “If there’s another way to reaching 4,250 people per ha. not necessarily a slam dunk. First, cities at the University of Westminster and build it, we’d probably be wise to consider it. What But New York City as a whole should not be thought of as benign in adviser to former London mayor Ken are we getting from high-rise that we couldn’t get

Nicola Lyn Evans Nicola Lyn Photo has just 180 people per ha themselves: as LSE’s Power pointed out Livingstone, says that the density of new from mid-rise?” 25 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

development in the city has ramped up in environments with limited access to in developing countries — and it’s also recent years to 150 homes per ha, with as natural light, goes against the grain of a controversial concept among many much as 60% provided in developments people’s natural affinity with nature — designers. PLP’s Sharro, for example, that are above the density levels known as biophilia — and their circadian is “completely opposed” to the idea of recommended in the city’s guidelines. rhythms, as well as research linking mid-rise blocks of just a few storeys. The upshot, says Bowie, is simply behavioural problems to lack of access “It means you have to have blocks which that land has become more and more to nature. “There is increasing evidence are very, very close to each other and very expensive, which then enables developers that children shouldn’t spend time in generic, simply because of this fear of to argue that they can’t provide social or high-rise environments where they height. By accepting height you can have affordable housing. don’t see faces,” he says. “Studies are a hierarchy of high and low-rise, which Last year, Bowie told the London linking stress levels and how the brain we always find gives the best result in Assembly (an elected body that fires when you deprive it of that kind of design terms.” scrutinizes the activities of the mayor): sensory impact.” For Sharro, this debate is an example “Bluntly, when you get to very high of the ways in which architects are failing densities, you do not get family units The sweet spot? to tackle the scale of the challenge posed and you generally do not get affordable by rapid urbanization — something that housing. We have to recognize that there McLennan’s view is that there is a mid- the likes of Le Corbusier in the 20th are quite negative consequences of rise “sweet spot” at which the benefits century at least attempted. “I’m not pushing hyperdensity to the extent we of density can be found, without the saying, ‘let’s do what [the followers of Le are. We have to … look at what type of problems of hyperdensity. “There’s truth Corbusier] did’. But they came up with housing we are actually trying to build.” in the notion that density is good for answers for their time. There’s a much If hyperdensity has the potential to sustainability — low density has a huge broader crisis and we’re not coming up be socially exclusive, others argue that impact upon the environment. My thesis with the new answers.” it can be psychologically problematic is that there are diminishing returns too. There are many studies connecting beyond a certain point, and indeed that The future urban environments to negative impacts we start going in the wrong direction.” on our mental state. These include a McLennan identifies the sweet spot as So where do these new answers lie? comprehensive 2004 study by Kristina developments of between four and eight The most appealing route is perhaps set Sundquist, published in the British storeys that preclude the need for “super- out by Altman — that it is not density per Journal of Psychiatry, which found scaled, mass-people-moving systems se that matters most of all, but attention an association with depression and that end up using even more energy”. He to detail. “Promoting density in and of psychosis: the more densely populated sums it up as “enough density to allow for itself is not sufficient,” he says. “It’s not the area, the greater the association, with car-free living in a city that is resilient and a blanket solution. The question is how those in the densest areas up to 77% walkable, while keeping us close enough it’s designed,” he says. By taking care to more likely to develop psychosis. to the ground to maintain our relationship develop places that make a virtue of their Now some, such as Canadian with the Earth and with one another”. density, projects can allow the potential neuroscientist Colin Ellard, director of the It’s a thesis seemingly supported by the in cities to be realized. The difficulty Urban Realities Laboratory at Waterloo success of traditional European cities is that Sharro’s challenge remains: University in Ontario, are starting to such as Barcelona, Paris and Vienna. spending so much time agonizing draw measurable connections between This mid-rise urbanism, inspired in over individual schemes can mean the these negative effects and the physical part by pre-20th-century development, desperate need of people just to be make-up of cities. Ellard says his tests, is being attempted in some northern housed can be forgotten. “It’s a luxury we which use virtual reality to chart people’s European cities — for example in can’t afford,” he argues. reactions to a variety of environments, Copenhagen’s Bellakvarter project, In developing countries, the pace of show that “high-density settings in designed by COBE and Vilhelm Lauritzen urbanization cannot be underestimated. which we’re surrounded by very tall Architects — and also influenced Left Copenhagen’s Meanwhile, in established cities such and oppressive structures … can have a Altman’s masterplan for the former Bellakvarter as London, planners, developers substantial effect on your mood”. Olympic Park in Stratford, London. There, project, designed and designers often reach elegant One of the most important voices in Altman actually reduced the density of by COBE and and thoughtful solutions only after the density debate is architect Jason the masterplan he inherited in order to Vilhelm Lauritzen long debate, which leaves housing McLennan, creator of the Seattle-based make the new communities feel “more Architects, is one of woefully underprovided. Templates for Living Future Institute and a former like the existing London DNA of terraced several European neighbourhoods that are dense, mixed- COBE and Vilhelm Lauritzen and Vilhelm COBE Architects winner of the Buckminster Fuller Prize. housing and mansion blocks”. projects taking a use, transport-based and, above all, He argues that the idea of living your However, this kind of development is mid-rise approach quick to deliver are surely a challenge

Visualization life high above ground, in artificial still largely the exception — particularly to urbanism worth putting our minds to.

P23 27 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

THE SMARTEST PLACE I KNOW KEITH BREWIS / ARCHITECT

“Hong Kong was a very vibrant, sometimes overwhelming place. It had an “THE DESIRE TO OWN A CAR extraordinary density of living and working, but people just got on with it” WAS NEVER FURTHER AWAY”

struggle with the ideal of a “smart” ong Kong used to be like that. ow people moved around the city he minibuses were absolutely he other reason it was such a ince 1997, with the introduction of oes bureaucracy hold smart he difficulty I have is calling it I city because it suggests that every H I lived there in the early 1990s, H always fascinated me. The need T unique. They could transport 15-20 T unique place was because of the S central government, an additional D cities back? In many ways, I T “smart”. It doesn’t feel like it’s part is planned and intentional. That before it was returned to China in or desire to own a private car was never people, providing a kind of door-to-door relationship with food. The apartments layer of bureaucracy has slowly grown. think it does. The governance almost smart, it just feels wonderful. It’s often detracts from human experience. 1997, and it was a very vibrant, and further away. There was an amazing service. There was an approximate route are very small, and they’re regarded as The fabric and the intensity of the city holds back the blindingly obvious about vibrancy, but a vibrancy that is Every vibrant city is actually an amazing sometimes overwhelming place. It had labyrinth of public transport options: the but it was adjusted depending on where places you sleep, not really set up as has stayed, but the rate of change at a advancements that people want to underpinned by a kind of collective organism in its own right. If a city an extraordinary intensity and density of MTR system, buses, trams, minibuses, the passengers wanted to go. You got living spaces. The living space is the city, micro level, and the activity that comes make, and becomes a great source conscience. Rather than a digital or becomes too smart, it will ultimately living and working, but people just got taxis, ferries, water taxis. Everything on the bus and you spoke to the driver and it was more likely that you would eat with it, has become less frenetic. This of frustration. Hong Kong was a very a technical solution, it was more of a become sterile and undesirable. Part on with it. Then there were marvellous seemed to be set up for highly efficient and he adjusted his route. He knew all street food or in a market. It was probably affects many western cities. Things that free-spirited, independent, Chinese human solution. of a wonderful city is that a lot of the untouched pieces of ocean and transfers of people, so the movement of the passengers on the bus, the order that as cheap to eat out as it was to eat in, used to happen because people just got place under a fairly loose-fit British legal behaviour of the city and its inhabitants countryside, real places of retreat. So you large numbers of people was intuitive, people would get off, and he would drop and that created this amazing communal on and did them get blocked or slowed. system. Because of that, there was a Keith Brewis is managing partner for is free-forming. had this great duality where urbanism and very straightforward, without you off precisely where you wanted. Data eating. You didn’t eat alone in the place The planning of the city is simply too great social order that wasn’t constrictive international operations at Grimshaw was true urbanism and nature was complex interchanges. could obviously start to replace that, but that you lived. You ate out with everyone considered in many ways and therefore it and allowed it to be extraordinarily protected and very highly regarded. the human interaction was great. else, with friends and strangers. becomes bland. progressive as an urban model. Shutterstock Photo

29 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

Education is a trillion-dollar industry …

… and it’s getting bigger. Average OECD countries devote global 11.3% of public spending expenditure to education, an average of on education US$10,493 per student per in 2000 year. Spending per student on primary and secondary education has increased by [1] US$1.3 US$3.3 almost 20% since 2006. UNESCO’s Sustainable trillion Development Goal 4 is that trillion every one of its 193 member states spends 4-6% of GDP and/or 15-20% of total public expenditure on Average [2] education by 2030. global expenditure on education It’s growing in 2012 “There are going because there are more young people to be more people to be educated. 30.2% in the world who But also because the level of Population / education among the global percentage 2000 6.1bn aged 0-14 are studying, and it population is increasing. 26.1% The UN’s Millennium will be easier and WORDS BY KATIE PUCKETT [4] Development Goals aimed 7.3bn for universal primary 2015 cheaper — you can education by 2015. 23.6% study in a very By 2015, 91% of children in developing regions were 8.5bn well-known university enrolled, up from 83% in 2030 2000 — an increase of wherever you are. 43 million children.[3] People will be much Global literacy rate among 2015 91% more educated. That’s 15-24 year olds 1990 83% fantastic for the future of the world” Sten Wetterblad, university developer, [1] OECD [2] UNESCO Institute for Statistics; World Bank; Sweden OECD [3] UN/MDG Monitor [4] UN DESA, World Population Prospects: 2015 Revision 31 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

People are making the link between Education must adapt to the education and economic success. Fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology is transforming how we live, work, play and think. And it’s happening more quickly, and on a The OECD evaluates 72 Students enrolled in tertiary education [1] larger scale, than at any point in human history … national school systems 1970 33 million using the PISA targets, 2000 100 million testing 15 year olds on 2010 182 million science, mathematics, 2014 208 million reading and problem- Education needs to This is a very solving. It estimates that equip today’s young people with different world to the one “Mass education [2] if every child met the 0.9% 1.6% 2.6% 2.9% of global population the skills to thrive in tomorrow’s “Half of today’s our schools and universities targets, the GDP of upper- world. Even if we don’t know what it work activities could be were designed to serve. was the ingenious middle-income countries looks like yet. automated by 2055” Formal education came into machine constructed would be 16% higher over Less than 5% of occupations being around the time of the the next 80 years. The Computers can not only be programmed can be automated completely, first Industrial Revolution, and by industrialism to GDP of lower-middle- Students enrolled in tertiary education [3] to fulfil many human tasks, but learn but 60% could see 30% of early schools were less about produce the kind of income countries would how to do things for themselves, their constituent activities improving children’s minds than [6] be on average 28% higher Africa Asia Europe North America South America Oceania applying their processing power to automated. producing a punctual, obedient adults it needed … over the next 80 years. massive datasets. Within just a few workforce for the new factories. to pre-adapt children years, developments in technologies As a conveyor belt for sorting, 9% 1% such as artificial intelligence, robotics, training and disciplining future for a new world — a Since 1970, 6% 2014 nanotechnology and 3D printing will workers, they were a kind of world of repetitive indoor there has been a 2010 transform most occupations. factory themselves. 13% 9% 1% massive expansion 6% 2000 “If you look at early images of toil, smoke, noise, in tertiary education 1970 the factory and early images of 15% machines, crowded around the world. 8% 1% the school room, there’s not a lot As universities have 6% “This will lay the foundation of difference,” says sociologist living conditions, become more accessible, 18% for a revolution more and education specialist collective discipline, a enrolment has soared. On 30% 15% 2% John Holm at SocioDesign in average, 36% of today’s comprehensive and Australia. “The children are in world in which time was young adults in OECD rows, they’re facing front and to be regulated not by countries are expected all-encompassing than they’re looking unhappy.” to graduate at least once 15% anything we have ever seen” In many respects, things the cycle of the sun and from tertiary education have changed little. In today’s moon, but by the factory [4] before they are 30. 19% 22% World Economic Forum classrooms and lecture theatres, students are still expected to sit 26% whistle and the clock” in rows, listening to the teacher. The greatest This “industrial classroom” is Excerpt from ‘Future 41% expansion has taken no longer fit for purpose, argues Shock’ by Alvin Toffler place in Asia. By 2020, complex educationalist Erica McWilliam: Korea has the highest problem-solving “Schooling as a preparation proportion of graduates: will be a core skill for the future continues to 67.7% of 25-34 year olds for 36% of jobs anticipate a social order that is have been through 41% on the wane.” tertiary education. [1, 3] UNESCO Institute for Statistics 56% 50% Just 4% of jobs will We need to reshape it [2] World Bank [4] OECD [5] Future of Jobs require physical for the 21st century. Survey, World Economic Forum, January strength or 2016 [6] McKinsey Global Institute dexterity [5] 33 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

How do you teach a digital native Attention at the back! when they can just Google it? Interview: Martin Fischer “Now that information is widely available, we see the student taking an increasing amount of ownership and guiding their own The Stanford engineering professor on the challenges of teaching the instant-gratification generation to think learning, with the teacher providing mentorship and context along the way” Jason Lembke, DLR Group

With a world of motivated. That’s where we’re getting “The attention span of readily searchable knowledge at to as educators. We know that if we today’s students is definitely our fingertips, we don’t need to mix different ways of engaging with shorter,” says Professor Martin Fischer, memorize facts any more. information, we get a better learning who teaches civil and environmental In fact, many things we traditionally outcome. We also recognize that learning engineering at Stanford University. learned at school might start to feel is a social process and that learning with “They’ve grown up with mobile devices, a little pointless in the digital age: others seems to have better outcomes.” so being able to chat with somebody, handwriting, the rules of spelling and text at the same time or quickly look up a grammar, foreign languages … That means blurring webpage is normal. It can be a challenge traditional curriculum boundaries. to get them to dig into concepts and But we will need new skills to help us Instead of splitting learning into different really understand them. I try to show manage the formidable tools at our subjects, topics are taught in a more them the importance of defining the disposal. We need to know how to holistic, real-world way — so a lesson problem, but they get frustrated. But if interpret search results, critically assess on the Vikings might include learning you try to jump to the solution before the quality and veracity of information about history or geography, writing you’ve agreed on the problem, you’ll and make ethical judgements about how stories or working in a group to design never agree on the solution. to use it, and we’ll need to think creatively and build a boat. “I was talking to my PhD students to come up with solutions to increasingly and I said, ‘Guys, you need to spend complex global problems. This is “phenomenon-based more time with each other’. I would learning”. It emphasizes skills such as have never finished my PhD if I hadn’t In the future, work will be structured communication, creativity and critical spent Wednesday afternoons with around projects, not processes. That’s an thinking, and better prepares students two of my colleagues. I knew as much important trend in education too. to apply their knowledge in the 21st- about their PhDs as they did about mine “Active” or “problem-based” learning century workplace. and vice versa. They just looked at me, seeks to engage students’ natural flabbergasted. They said, ‘We never do curiosity, rather than simply presenting It’s big in Finland. Long recognized as anything for an entire afternoon’. The them with information. “That’s the big having one of the world’s most successful concept was totally foreign to them.” shift in the way we’re teaching: we’re education models, Finland is adopting On the other hand, when students “They just looked at me, flabbergasted. They said, ‘We never starting to mix things up,” says John phenomenon-based learning for an are freed from tedious processing tasks, Holm at SocioDesign. “Instead of just increasing proportion of teaching time. they can spend a lot more time thinking. do anything for an entire afternoon’. The concept was totally Before BIM: 95% of saying ‘here’s stuff to remember’, it Under its National Curriculum students and teachers, this new learning The introduction of building information foreign to them” teaching time was spent says ‘here’s a problem to solve’ and the Framework 2016, students will journey is uncharted territory. So how can modelling (BIM) into the curriculum has creating the schedule — students get involved in that problem.” participate in at least one interdisciplinary the teacher lead? radically changed the focus of Fischer’s drawings. All the time spent making a schedule. But there wasn’t time a task that can now be done by module each year — which they will help classes. “In the past, you’d look at the lists and comparing them and adjusting to reflect on whether it was a good computer. Just 5% was “When my children decide they’re to plan and assess themselves. Educationalist Erica McWilliam has drawing and count things and make a them, we no longer need because all that schedule, how it could be better, what spent on analysis interested in something, I’m amazed characterized a shift from the teacher as list of materials and prices. There wasn’t information is in the model. you do with it as a manager and how Now: Up to 80% of time is at how much relatively unstructured In this new world, the the “sage on the stage” to the “guide on time to teach more than the mechanics. “So we can create the schedule you could control it. But that’s the more spent on analysis information they can hold. They both teacher plays a very different role. the side” to the “meddler in the middle”. Then we started to work on 3D models, much more quickly, and now I can talk interesting part. Now we can get to more went crazy for Pokémon Go and they Today’s students are the first generation The meddler in the middle learns and since 2008, we only teach project about what you do from a management meaningful concepts and questions and could tell you the properties of 150 to have grown up with the internet, and alongside students, challenging them management with BIM. In my class, perspective. Before, by the end of the we can get to a scale and complexity that little creatures. That’s because they’re the first to be educated by it. For both to expand their horizons. students no longer learn how to read trimester, they would have just produced just wasn’t possible before.” 35 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

Next-generation learning spaces will be ‘flipped’. Collaboration will be a core skill.

“We have moved away from the notion of students in rows reverently listening to a guru at the front, to more interactive, technology- “You don’t just learn in the classroom or lecture hall, you learn from each other, you learn outside, at the dining table or the coffee rich learning environments where the relationship between teacher and student is radically different” Stefan Jakobek, HOK shop. Two or three students sitting around a table with their laptops is a wonderful learning environment” Stefan Jakobek, HOK

The teacher-as- As routine tasks ways,” says Philip Ross, founder At one end, you might have a disparate departments: computer meddler doesn’t need are taken over by and CEO of consultant Unwork. secure laboratory, at the other a science, computer engineering, to stand at the front of computers, workers will social space where researchers software engineering, information the class to impart their be valued for the creativity “Design is about creating ways to from different disciplines can just systems and bioinformatics. “The wisdom, and students don’t and intuition that only the bring people together, who may sit and talk about the meaning of university leadership understands come to class just to listen. So human mind can offer (for not be used to the idea, into a rich, life. We’re looking to interconnect that all science is now computer they don’t need to sit in rows now). They will be prized for their collaborative environment,” says people physically and visually — science. If they are to move the facing the front. And why do we ability to innovate, communicate Stefan Jakobek, education lead at the atrium at the Crick Institute in university forward they know even need a “front”? and collaborate in global teams. HOK. “The idea is to put disparate London allows users to look up or they must create a new cross- people together in one place, so down at what’s happening. Ideas disciplinary college to influence In the education system of the For universities, innovation maybe if a person studying Ebola happen in the corridor almost thought across every discipline future, homework will happen is crucial as they compete bumps into someone focused on as much as the laboratory. What on the campus. It must become a before the lesson. “Teachers can for funding — scientific the human genome, they might you don’t want is a building full of catalyst for new ideas.” record structured content for breakthroughs can be patented have this great conversation and enclosed spaces.” you to absorb at your own pace,” and licensed, and a high research new ideas are sparked.” More social says John Holm at SocioDesign. ranking helps them to attract This is a common theme for models of learning “Then when you come into the fee-paying students. “They’re Much of this work university design. HOK is also work better as tertiary classroom, they can help you beginning to break down the silos must take place in secure currently designing a College education has expanded, solve the problem.” for faculties and departments and labs. “So you create layers of of Computer Science and says Holm. “When my instead talk about the need to space, some of which are discrete Engineering for the University generation was at uni, there were glue people together in different and others more collaborative. of Kuwait to combine five 60 people in a lecture and 10-15 This is the “flipped” in a seminar. These days, there classroom. It’s bigger: Holm might be 300 people at a lecture says that traditional desks in rows and 60 at a seminar. Previously allowed around 1m2 per student. the person with all the knowledge In an active learning space, that could engage with everyone in the rises to 3m2. room. Now most of our systems [1] are too large for that personal And it’s totally wired: multiple connection to work. So moving monitors allow students to review to small group learning reflects course materials and look things LEADING BY EXAMPLE … an acknowledgment that the old up on the internet as an intrinsic The modern workspace owes a lot to the university campus: social, fluid and agile. But, in return, style of didactic teaching isn’t part of the classroom experience. educational institutions are taking lessons from corporates too working any more.” This combination of traditional teaching and online media is At Northern Beaches Christian Lee High School in Baton Rouge, Missouri Innovation Campus called “blended learning”. School in Sydney, there are no Louisiana (above) opened a is described as “academia meets restrictions on where students can US$54.7m campus in 2016, Google”. Some 1,800 students aged “Work is no longer a place that you go, it’s something that Schools and universities will go: they are entrusted to develop designed by DLR Group and 16-30 will learn alongside each you do, and it’s the same for learning. We’re moving away need a much wider variety of their own learning space. According GraceHebert Architects to resemble other on a workplace-like campus, places for learning — from spaces to architect WMK, it’s “not so much a Silicon Valley start-up, offering a designed by DLR Group and Gould [1] Lee High School, photo by from fixed technologies that anchor you down to a piece of where large groups can work studying as knowledge cross- “personalized, customizable learning Evans. Learning and teaching will Michael Robinson Photography wood. There’s still a need for specialized spaces for different together to secluded corners for pollination in a vibrant, learning experience”. Its spaces are divided happen everywhere, and all spaces [2] One Parramatta Square at activities, but the emphasis is now on a mix of spaces and concentration, and everything lifestyle … with teachers as mentors, by floor-to-ceiling glass walls and will be used by all disciplines and Western Sydney University, photo in between. experts and guides”. can be configured in different ways. programmes. by Nicole England [2] giving people a choice” Philip Ross, Unwork 37 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

Technology is at the heart of the learning INSIDE THE HEADSET space of the future. Can virtual reality replace real-life experience? At Deakin University in Victoria, engineering students can “walk” inside virtual buildings and other “Every screen we put in, the first question we get asked is whether it’s a touchscreen. If not, why not? Universities have to use stickers environments to see potential design flaws and touch and feel the components — long before the creation of a saying ‘This is not a touchscreen’ because people are so used to being able to walk up and do stuff” Roneel Singh, WSP physical prototype. The VR CAVE is the first of its kind in the world, with audio systems including a 27-point surround-sound loudspeaker system designed by WSP and MultiTek Solutions. It is a completely immersive environment, with high-resolution 3D vision and haptics “When technology We are entering the technology to simulate touch. arrived in the classroom, all it was age of the “superlab”. The future is Other Deakin students can also use technologies doing was enhancing the blackboard or also about teaching at scale. Superlabs developed in the VR lab. Wearing an Oculus Rift the whiteboard or the projection surface,” are multidisciplinary, saturated with headset, midwifery students can experience a simulated says Roneel Singh, technology systems technology, able to accommodate much delivery with “Verity”, a life-size model of a pregnant director at WSP in Australia. “We wanted larger groups but also much smaller ones woman. They can feel her stomach, measure the to look at how it could enhance the without wasting any space. The first strength of contractions during labour and deal with content or the role of the teacher, rather opened in London in 2006, at London distractions such as nervous expectant fathers. than just having the teacher behind a Metropolitan University. It could hold But how would you feel about going under the knife Starship Enterpr-style control panel.” up to 280 students taking part in 12 if your surgeon had never held a real one before? At simultaneous classes. Flinders University in South Australia, trainee surgeons In the mid 2000s, Singh’s team learn how to perform operations in the same way. “You started working with the Association But other kinds of teaching space are can put on a pair of virtual reality glasses, pick up a of University Technology Managers to getting smaller, as students no longer haptic scalpel, and perform a virtual operation,” says develop technology in teaching spaces, need to be in the room. WSP designed John Holm at SocioDesign. “The scalpel will mimic the taking inspiration from some unlikely the building services for One Parramatta feeling of cutting through layers of tissue.” sources — such as U2’s pioneering “in- Square, a 14-storey “vertical campus” for Could that really substitute for the real thing? It might the-round” staging from the 360° tour. Western Sydney University. It built up have to be, he says. “Thirty years ago, medical students “It was all about changing the style of rather than out, right in the city centre so spent a lot of time in an anatomy lab. Some institutions teaching, to make it more intuitive and local workers can access courses easily. have reduced that to about 12 hours of anatomy a year interactive. To make lectures as valuable “There is no lecture theatre, just lots of in your first three years, shared between a group of five. as possible while people are there, so 48 and 60-person seminar rooms,” says Five classes in one room at Australia’s first superlab That’s a very thin experience versus a virtual reality one they’re not just listening to something Singh. “They’re expecting another 20 or where you can have as much of it as you like.” they could have watched on a video. They 30 people to join remotely. The intent is The award-winning X-LAB at the University of Sydney is We will also use VR to engage with teachers or peers are actually able to immerse themselves to create a seamless environment. They’ll Australia’s first superlab. It seats 240 and is designed to make on other campuses. And in time, we may no longer in the environment.” be able to ask questions and be part of the greatest use of multimedia while minimizing distraction. It be interacting with another person at all, but with a the session as well. The lecturer can walk can accommodate both large second-year classes and smaller, sophisticated algorithm, that uses our replies to tailor In this new kind of learning space, around and write on any whiteboard, more specialized groups, with up to five different classes taking our learning. Will we be able to tell the difference? [1] students use multiple media sources and it’s all captured on cameras and place simultaneously. simultaneously, sitting alongside people microphones all around the room. So There are eight demonstrator stations throughout the lab, and from different disciplines who are solving the whole room is a live session.” academics use a touchscreen to push up to three different HD Life on the digital campus very different problems, alone or in video streams to student computers, or pull content from one groups. “Learning shouldn’t be a one- The next frontier is group to show to the class. Even though the benches are only At Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, Heatherwick Studio has rethought the university building for the way flow of information,” says Singh. a totally immersive teaching 1.5m apart, adjacent students may be listening to completely information age. Here’s how NTU envisages a typical day: “Engineering freshman Nicholas Lim is raring to go for “The technology needs to support experience. Tools for 3D models different things. So WSP’s audio design effectively creates his tutorial at the Learning Hub, where he’s making a presentation on how the study of astronomy has transformed real-time student-to-student, teacher- and visualizations already exist — now smaller, acoustically isolated areas within an open-plan space, in the last century. He stops by the Library Outpost to retrieve his reserved book using an automated book to-student and student-to-teacher we just have to make them work at using ultra-directional speaker systems. dispensing machine that scans his matriculation card. Then he goes for a quick one-to-one coaching session at interaction. Today we can use the scale in the classroom or lecture theatre: The university had projected that it would need five extra the Communication Cube to polish his presentation skills before his tutorial. During his class, he uses his handheld flexibility of data networks and software “Being able to take 3D models and teaching labs by 2020, or 9,700ft2 of additional space. Building tablet to take an individual quiz based on the previously assigned readings. He then discusses his own answers to create dynamic learning environments, interact with them will become the the superlab saved more than 1,000ft2, as well as the need for on the quiz with his classmates, and his professor helps to clarify their ideas. After his class, Nicholas heads off for without the huge cost and rigidity of norm,” says Singh. “We’re maybe five, at walls and corridors between separate spaces, and consolidated lunch at the student-run cafe downstairs with his friends, before joining a film screening also attended by his peers [2] traditional AV infrastructure.” most eight years away.” staffing requirements too. from the arts and business schools …”

[1] Photo by Hufton + Crow [2] Photo courtesy of Deakin University 39 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

Transforming education will be expensive. How can we pay for it?

“The challenge for governments is how to finance all these new schools and universities when they also need to finance a lot of other things” Fredrik Bergström, WSP

Between 2010 and 2014, 10 out of 25 OECD We need more, better quality 1 2 3 4 5 countries introduced funding models that education buildings saturated increased tuition fees. In OECD countries, 30% with the latest technology. As Use standardized buildings Use facilities more efficiently Forge stronger links with industry Use public-private partnerships Ask students to pay more of funding now comes from private sources — a education expands in the east, much greater share than at lower levels of education. there is a need for new teaching Stockholm is Europe’s fastest growing city, Schools and universities could open up By engaging with corporate interests, In the public-private partnership (PPP) The most significant trend in global Two-thirds is contributed by households.[4] spaces to accommodate a rapidly its population expected to rise by 20% by their facilities to the community. “ Today, institutions can secure funding and new model, a private company builds the higher education is a shift from free to growing student body. Meanwhile, 2020. Every day, it has 100 new residents many schools are used well before and opportunities for their students. The facility and rents it back to the public fee-paying models. As governments seek the schools and universities of the — and demand for school places is soaring. after the bell rings every day,” says Jason University of Warwick’s Manufacturing services provider for an agreed period alternatives to public funding, policymakers west — many built in the immediate This has prompted SISAB, which builds and Lembke, principal and K-12 educational Group is building a National Automotive and cost. PPPs are often viewed as an in many countries are contesting that those postwar period or the 1960s and maintains 600 of the city’s schools, to look leader at DLR Group. “Communities Innovation Centre where its academics innovative way to provide education for who benefit most from education — the 70s — are ill-suited to new learning for more efficient ways of doing it. aren’t necessarily willing to put forth large will work alongside researchers from all, and to expand or improve education individuals themselves — should bear more styles and in need of refurbishment. sums of money to multiple government industry. “It’s a move away from the systems efficiently. But there are also of the costs. Students and their families are But who’s going to pay? One answer has been a standard constituencies, such as K-12 institutions traditional ‘us and them’ approach,” explains concerns about accountability and their true contributing a greater share via tuition fees, template for preschool buildings, for and universities. They are looking for Jonathan Jones, associate director at WSP. impact on learning outcomes and access, and foreign students often pay significantly children aged one to five, which can be commonality and congruency in what those “Organizations such as Jaguar Land Rover quality and cost. As a recent UNESCO more than domestic students. configured for five, six or eight classes. spaces can do for them.” Combining those are seeing a bunch of guys beavering report noted: “Evidence on the performance “A lot of elements are already designed, resources can make them go further. away in universities and they’ve noticed of PPPs in providing social goods and Rather than beneficiaries of a service, especially internally, so we don’t have to that they’re doing the same as their R&D services as compared to traditional state students are now paying customers — start with a blank sheet of paper each time,” Another option is to displace school teams. So they’re collaborating with them provision is highly contradictory and, which puts them in a far more powerful explains Claes Magnusson, SISAB’s chief activities to buildings off-campus. directly and funding their experiments, by ultimately, context-specific.”[3] role. To survive, each university must executive. “We can build more quickly and Fredrik Bergström, analysis & strategy creating new posts and research projects, compete to attract the highest-paying To meet the UN’s economically, and at a higher quality as well, director at WSP in Sweden, has noticed and therefore new teaching environments. students in a marketplace that is more fluid Sustainable Development Goal because when we designed the template schools experimenting with new models of For the university, it allows them to create a and more demanding than ever before. on education, an additional we took the best parts from all the schools provision, particularly in the independent better graduate experience.” 26 million teachers will be we’d done.” So far, it has built eight, there sector: “It’s expensive to build a whole needed by 2030.[1] are seven more under construction and a gym, so instead students might use the The line between corporate and further 20 planned. Magnusson would like facilities in a local gym instead. Some academic interests will continue to blur. to apply the same methodology to schools schools no longer have a canteen, they We will see new players, new alliances — for older children — but that’s more difficult. give pupils money to eat in discounted and perhaps the expansion of “corporate “It costs a lot to build “Institutions used to see “The buildings are much larger, so they’re local restaurants. They even come to the universities”, established by tech giants to new schools. PPP is not themselves as the drivers more difficult to fit into their environment.” restaurant in our office.” ensure a supply of talented graduates. “The possibilities are endless,” says Yasser necessarily cheaper in the for change, but they are Tufail, project director at WSP in the UAE. “As tech companies such as Google, long run, but it’s cheaper recognizing that the student “The big push is to get Facebook, Amazon and Apple expand, so in the short run because today is not necessarily does their need for specialist knowledge. more schools places to A 2006 study of Conventional education has largely been municipalities don’t have to the same as yesterday. The UK universities found that the unable to meet this demand, as the meet the increasing size median space utilization rate technology sector has evolved so rapidly. put up the money immediately” student is now the driver of was just 27% over the core One scenario could be that students are Fredrik Bergström, WSP change” Jason Lembke, of the population, and the teaching week. Rooms were channelled through a structured, tailored maximum quality for the [1] World Economic Forum [2] UK Higher Education used for just over half the time, corporate curriculum, to become career DLR Group Space Management Group [3] Public-Private and when they were used, they professionals almost seamlessly. This will minimum cost” Partnerships as an Education Policy Approach: Multiple were just under half full.[2] not happen overnight and there won’t be a Meanings, Risks and Challenges, UNESCO, February total shift, but it will be part of the mix.” Jonathan Jones, WSP 2017 [4] OECD Education at a Glance 2016 41 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE SPACES

In the new global marketplace, When you can study online, why would institutions must compete for students. you want to go to a campus?

“Economic growth and technology are globalizing the education sector and it’s having a profound impact on leading universities: “If I have the choice to study a module from my local institution or at MIT out of Massachusetts, their biggest challenge today is adapting their estates” Yasser Tufail, WSP there’s a huge differential in terms of prestige” John Holm, SocioDesign

Students are more mobile than ever. Universities travel too. Branch campus openings[9] Institutions can have So how can local “We need to make campus areas International experience is prized, and a qualification from a prestigious Many have set up international a global presence just by putting institutions compete? attractive, so that you get something more Before 1999 35 institution abroad is highly desirable for the growing middle class in the east. branches, often part-funded by their courses online. And students In 2016, 58 million By focusing on the experience of going than you do from your computer,” says Between 1990 and 2014, the number of students who enrolled abroad tripled.[1] governments to build their “soft power” can study at a globally renowned students took 6,850 to university. State-of-the-art learning Wetterblad. “In the future, it’s going to be abroad. Today, institutions from 33 162 university without even leaving the online courses from 700+ spaces, inspiring architecture, affordable hard for universities that are not attractive, countries have branch campuses in 76 house. Massive online open courses universities. 23 million but high-quality accommodation, a that do not have a good reputation or a 2009 1.3 million 2.1 million 5 million host countries.[6] The biggest source — or MOOCs — are distance-learning people registered good atmosphere on campus, a strong nice campus.” countries were traditionally the US, UK programmes with no entry requirements, for a MOOC for sense of community, cafes and bars, 1990 2000 2014 and Australia, and their hosts were in the completed via the internet, and available the first time.[10] sports, leisure and retail … oh, and great Universities have leapt at the chance to boost enrolment — and their coffers. Persian Gulf and, more recently, Asia.[7] 247 to an unlimited number of participants. teaching too. On average, foreign students pay US$8-10,000 more in university fees than domestic students.[2] To attract them, institutions have been investing in new In recent years, the appeal of the branch MOOCs were invented in 2006. Stanford As Alex Solk, partner at Sheppard Robson, Or to put it another way, the 2017 facilities and student accommodation, and promoting themselves in key markets. campus has waned, with questions over 22 began offering them in 2011. In 2012, edX puts it: “If the collaborative campus enrolment numbers, quality, return on Future was founded by Harvard and MIT, to offer experience was optional instead of being physical buildings and their investment, and reputational risk. courses from the world’s best institutions. essential to a university’s educational surroundings will become Forty-two have closed.[8] It now has 90 global partners, and offer, wouldn’t the Open University model In 2012, 53% of foreign students more than 1,500 courses. “MOOCs will dominate the marketplace?” more important than ever … 53% came from Asia. China, India and Globalization works both ways. In 2018, Peking change the landscape and make this South Korea were the biggest University — one of China’s most prestigious a global market,” says SocioDesign’s source countries.[3] institutions — will open a branch of its HSBC Holm. He predicts the education sector’s Business School in Oxford, UK. many small and medium providers will eventually consolidate into a few market- leaders. “Globally branded universities Carry on campus There are less risky ways to “We see smaller communities reaching will start to become true global brands. Traditionally, the top destinations for students were the US, UK, France, Germany internationalize. Global partnerships out through technology to e-mentors That hasn’t happened before because HLM Architects and and Australia. In 2014, OECD countries hosted three foreign students for every can increase institutions’ appeal in the that might exist anywhere in the world,” you always had to go and sit in class.” WSP have designed one of their own citizens studying elsewhere. But western universities will face domestic market, or make them more says Jason Lembke at DLR Group. a new Learning and growing competition for these visitors. Asia is also becoming a destination, attractive regional destinations. “Students can access opportunities Top five MOOCs providers by Teaching Hub for the particularly for students within the region. The number of Indonesian students in beyond what might physically exist in registered users[10] University of Glasgow, China has grown by 10% every year since 2010. The number of South Koreans Sten Wetterblad is a developer of their own communities.” the first phase of an more than doubled between 2003 and 2012. In 2011, China became the world’s university buildings in Sweden. His 1. Coursera 23 million ambitious expansion third most popular destination, beaten only by the UK and US.[4] daughter studied at Stockholm’s KTH, In the future, institutions could have 2. edX 10 million programme. It’s but her degree was also awarded by multiple sister campuses around the 3. XuetangX 6 million about placemaking Stanford. “She only went to the US world, he adds. “So I’ll be based at my 4. FutureLearn 5.3 million and a better student Asian twice, for two or three days. Her exam home campus in Nairobi, but I might do 5. Udacity 4 million experience: the countries have discussion with her professor was in a stint at my sister campus in Boston. new building opens 2020 2020 set ambitious 2025 person, but the rest of the time she had That will allow me to take greater [1, 3, 5, 7] ICEF Monitor [2] OECD Education at up links across targets for 500,000 300,000 250,000 her lessons from Stanford online. ownership of my academic career, a Glance 2016 [4] Project Atlas, Institute of campus and with attracting because the cultural experience I get International Education [6, 8] C-BERT database the community foreign “She has friends from South Korea, from travelling and interacting with [9] Observatory on Borderless Higher Education; and aims to offer [5] students. Serbia, Germany — they met just twice others beyond my home campus further C-BERT database [10] Class Central [11] high standards of China Japan Malaysia but worked together online.” broadens my perspective.” [11] Visualization courtesy of HLM Architects wellbeing. 43 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE THE HUMAN FACTOR

ordon Gill might be the classic G Chicago architect. His forebears invented the concept of a city skyline, and then strove tirelessly to make their mark on it; today, Gill’s practice is responsible for a considerable number of the world’s tallest towers, with a string of constraint- defying, epoch-defining structures to its name — notably the 1km-plus Jeddah Tower taking shape in Saudi Arabia. But far from exalting his clients to ever-greater heights and engineering feats, in conversation Gill is more likely to talk them into something that isn’t necessarily a building at all. He gives the impression of constantly searching for better answers, with an amused, quizzical air and a habit of responding to one question with another, or three more. “WE’RE PROBLEM- And it seems that he inspires the same attitude in his clients, which is perhaps why he finds himself having “all sorts of peculiar conversations”. SOLVERS WHO “Someone hired me, and I said, ‘why do you want me to work on this job?’ And they said, ‘I want you to poke the HAPPEN TO BE gorilla’. I said, ‘I’m not sure what that means. Where’s the gorilla?’ The irony is that sometimes they’re the gorilla. So be ARCHITECTS. careful who you ask.” Height isn’t everything

SOMETIMES THE Gill co-founded Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill in 2006, alongside Adrian Smith and Robert Forest. All three had senior roles SOLUTION IS NOT at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the uber Gordon Gill is behind some of the world’s tallest buildings. But he Chicago practice. The firm grew rapidly doesn’t believe that higher is the only solution — in fact, there’s a lot to 200 employees, but post-recession about current design thinking that doesn’t convince him has settled at around 100. Today, it has JUST A BUILDING” about 50 buildings on site and Gill is

Nicola Lyn Evans Nicola Lyn Photos about to head off for a whistle-stop tour 45 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE THE HUMAN FACTOR

of projects in Dubai, India and China. The dark side of wellbeing Many of these are tall buildings, for “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to give you all the comforts of which the practice has a well-earned Gill is fascinated by the psychological reputation — at SOM, Smith designed aspects of comfort and performance, home when you’re not home, unless I’m trying to hold you the Burj Khalifa — but Gill is at pains which leads him to take issue with to point out that it has diversified, with another of the shibboleths of 21st- there. And that would be a little twisted” several major masterplans that easily century architecture: wellbeing. “I hear, equal the scale of the Jeddah Tower. “I ‘Design it like this and you’ll have 10% can’t really tell you that we have a ‘plan’, more performance from your staff’. I was but whatever we do, we’re going to do our in a building the other day and they said best to do it well. We will work on almost to me, ‘Isn’t this a wonderful working any scale project if it has a challenge environment’. It’s got the nice cushy sofas and a quality to it. We’re looking for the and the ping-pong tables, and every day intellectual challenge behind the design.” someone comes around at 3pm and if Take Gill’s response to a perennial you’re the highest performer that day, you human mould. His maxim is “form Gill admits that the practice’s process His fastidiousness is also a natural question in architecture: how high can get a massage. No kidding. You can have follows performance”, an update of Louis of persuasion is “somewhat antithetical”. function of Gill’s acute awareness of the we go? It’s one that he’s better positioned your dry cleaning delivered there, and Sullivan’s modernist mantra “form follows For him, a commission is an invitation impact of such large-scale developments, to answer than most, but he takes it in food. They said we have an entire kitchen, function”. This turns buildings inside-out to a dialogue, and just as the client both on present-day cities and the long- a different direction, puzzling over the and showers, and bikes. Holy crap, I said, and the design process back-to-front, so has a brief, so does he, with a set of distant future. To date, only five buildings implications of mega-tall structures for you could just live here. And he looked at that minimizing the resources a building expectations for his own work. “We feel over 150m have ever been intentionally their inhabitants. “We’ve taken it to a me and he goes, ‘exactly’. When he said will consume and maximizing the energy that our job is to take you to a place that demolished, and none over 200m. Which mile, and we realise that the structural that, it was like, ‘oh my God’.” it could produce are the basis for its you never expected you could go within raises the likelihood that many of today’s characteristics of the building have That’s when the scales fell from Gill’s shape, rather than improvised solutions the context of what you’re asking us to supertall towers could be standing for to change completely. The design eyes. “Is it right, is it good, to make to a predetermined structure. do. I tell people all the time, we’re not hundreds of years to come. module has to change completely. In environments so comfortable that you The practice’s other buzzword is sales people. I’m not trying to sell you “It is a tremendous responsibility 2008, when we were working in Dubai, never want to leave? In my previous “context”. “We’re very interested or convince you of something. What I’m when you think about the lifespan of a Sheikh Mohammed asked us to do a position, I would literally throw people in the impact a building has on its going to do is present to you a set of tall building. It is not a light load. So 1km-tall building on the opposite side of out of the studio and I try to do the same surroundings. From a carbon standpoint rational analyses, that speak to problems we tend to be very diligent and, frankly, Sheikh Zayed Road to counterpoint Burj thing in my office now. I’m not sure but also in a practical way. What are we or issues that you may have as it relates firm with clients and with consultants Khalifa. It had a million square metres of that it’s a good idea to give you all the doing to the guy next door? If there’s no to your brief. Then I’m going to tell you on the quality of the systems that we programme. So we just broke it up.” comforts of home when you’re not home, guy next door, what’s he going to have to how we think we could solve those within employ. On the one hand, with They designed three towers connected unless I’m trying to hold you there; and deal with when he shows up?” the context of your needs. Then I’m going cutting-edge systems, with things with three-storey triangular bridges, if I’m trying to control you, then that’s a So the concave surface of the to offer you something that is hopefully that are pushing the boundaries, that’s the tallest with a slenderness ratio of little twisted.” Jeddah Tower becomes a giant solar superior to what you expected from the good. On the other hand, we’re not 1 in 28. This meant that they could He is similarly perplexed by the electric concentrator, while the Federation of brief. If you agree, we have a project. bleeding edge. We’re not going to draw in enough daylight for the homes car: “It bothers me, I can’t figure it Korean Industries is rippled to angle its “If you don’t agree, as we go through experiment on a building that has life- and offices, but it also made this giant out. How can you tell me that sprawl photovoltaic panels towards the sun. the analyses, then I can adjust the way safety issues associated with it. Or development more habitable, Gill is related to the automobile, and that Sometimes the answer is not a building that we’re thinking about your problem. that could multiply its failure over its explains. “From a humanistic standpoint, densification is good, and then give me at all — with AS+GG’s competition But in the end, I think it’s a conversation lifespan by 1,000 times because of one what we’re really doing is creating an automobile I can just plug into my entries for Chengdu Great City about what your expectations are.” little detail that fails.” a complete neighbourhood, so you house like my vacuum cleaner, and drive masterplan and Astana EXPO-2017, it So does he have any regrets? “I don’t can now move horizontally as well as around all day long? I don’t understand was an economic model that clinched it A heavy responsibility think we’ve had any regrets of things vertically. So I think you can occupy that those two relationships.” for the practice. we’ve designed so far. I have had regrets type of scale. Density is something that Gill spends a Gill says that the firm has won This also makes it hard to walk away. on projects where we haven’t been able “The question is going to be the lot of time thinking about. As his Chicago bids simply by saying that a site On occasion, the practice tries to have to get the full scope, or we’ve just been psychology behind it: do you want to live forebears invented the 20th-century should remain empty. “Clients have it written into the contract that it will be asked to do one aspect of it, and you on the 250th floor and spend three days city, he wants to reshape Gotham for the a preconception that if we touch involved post-design stage to oversee go back and there’s a disconnect. Or up there without having to come down?” 21st-century in a greener, more holistic, something we’re going to put a building quality during construction, and it will someone didn’t take the care to build it there. I think we approach problems a also monitor the building’s operations for properly, which is very painful. There’s little differently. We’re problem-solvers as long as a client will allow. “We really nothing worse than going and seeing a who are architects, and so if the solution want to understand how the building is project that didn’t meet its potential. “The question is going to be the psychology behind it: do you is physical, we express ourselves through performing after we’ve left and how the It’s like seeing a person when they’re a want to live on the 250th floor and spend three days up there architecture. Sometimes the solution is client is operating it. I think sometimes child and again 15 years later and nothing not physical, or if it is physical it’s not a they’re suspicious, but we just want to has happened. I only regret the things I without having to come down?” building. It’s a park.” understand if what we said was true.” can’t get to.”

P18 P46 47 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE THE HUMAN FACTOR

FORM FOLLOWS PERFORMANCE Five Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill projects that turn architectural wisdom inside-out

1 2 3 4

FKI Tower / Seoul / South Korea / 2014

This tower for the Federation of Great City masterplan / Chengdu / China / 2020 Korean Industries has a sawtooth facade with photovoltaic panels When complete, this new eco-town outside Chengdu will provide homes, workplaces and healthcare integrated into the spandrel. This facilities for 80,000 people, with every part accessible from anywhere else within a 15 minute walk. Of takes advantage of South Korea’s the 7km2 site, only 1.3km2 will be built on and the rest left for agriculture. But Gill believes its greatest generous renewable energy payback innovation is a financial model for the housing units that makes city living affordable for young professional policy, while solving one of Gill’s pet couples from one-child families, while enabling them to look after two sets of parents living close by. peeves: all-glass offices where the occupants are forced to pull down the shades against the glare. The PV is angled towards the sun, while the 5 glass is tilted inwards 15° to reduce the thermal load on the building and the glare inside the space. From the outside looking up, those close by see their surroundings reflected back at them, the ground plane transitioning to sky. There is one drawback: when you’re in the space looking out, the ceiling light system Jeddah Tower / Jeddah / Saudi Arabia / 2020 is reflected back at you in the tipped Pearl River Tower / Guangzhou / China / 2011 glass, so the ceiling ideally needs It’s the first building to be measured in kilometres to be kept neutral with the lighting Designed while Smith and Gill were at SOM, as the headquarters for — and, with its tri-petal concave shape, a giant solar placed somewhere else. “We like the Chinese National Tobacco Company, this building was intended to concentrator. “We realized that we were heating this wall so much that we call it our be the world’s first supertall tower to produce most of the energy that it EXPO-2017 / Astana / Kazakhstan / 2017 up the entrance,” explains Gill. “So we enlarged ‘typical wall’ and we simply modify consumes. It uses wind turbines, solar collectors, PV cells, radiant heating the lobby, created a bump-out at the base to it now. If the client is looking for and cooling from the ceilings, and underfloor air distribution. Its response For this year’s World Expo in Astana, Gill says it was another economic model that secured the practice the accommodate the arrival sequence and then laced something simple, rational, if they to the wind is one of the most significant elements. It is shaped to direct job. “Even though I’m very proud of the architectural design, that’s not the only reason we won it. They had it on the rooftop with PV and hot water. So we’re don’t want to get too complicated the powerful winds that assail a supertall to openings in the mechanical a 1.4km by 1.4km site, but the plan was really just a 25ha circle and the rest was blank. So we proposed that generating a little bit of power and a lot of steam on their exterior wall, it’s a really floors, where they are used to ventilate the building and to drive the micro- they parcel it out and sell it, and we designed a community and then adapted it for the Expo — instead of 1. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture / Jeddah Economic Company 2. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture / Namgoong Sun 3. Tim Griffith 4, 5. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture Smith + Gordon Adrian 5. 4, Tim Griffith / Namgoong Gill Architecture Sun 3. + Gordon Smith Adrian Company 2. / Jeddah Economic Gill Architecture + Gordon Smith Adrian 1. off the roof of this building and at the same time simple way to get a unique turbines to produce energy. Working with the wind improves its structural designing it for the Expo and then trying to figure out what the heck we do with it after.” Every parcel was

protecting the interior.” characteristic in a building.” Images performance, reducing the weight of material required for the structure. sold, and the practice designed the guidelines and advised all of the developers on behalf of the client. 48 49 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE THE HUMAN FACTOR THE HUMAN FACTOR TEAM ANGST We are all taught to believe in the power of collaboration, but what really drives the relationships that create our built environment?

WORDS BY NAOMI SHRAGAI

They’re fragile units, the teams masterpiece without a genius” interpersonal conflicts, their unique ways Archer says. “If you have all three, then it’s that come together for a short time “A is how Rem Koolhaas describes of making decisions, taking risks and stable on rough ground. If you pull one to design and construct our built the Rockefeller Center in his book, tolerating complexity and uncertainty — of those legs away, then it falls over. And environment — regularly forced apart Delirious New York. The description which is why collaboration is potentially often what we see is that people spend by egos, power struggles and even the neatly summarizes the multitude of such a messy affair. a lot of time on governance, quite a lot technology that’s supposed to bring talents that contribute to buildings, from of time on process or systems, and not them together. Software tools such as their conception to completion. Beyond the transactional enough on behaviour. And that’s where building information modelling (BIM) But as building projects have grown the points of conflict often happen.” are supposed to make collaboration in scale and complexity, understanding Collaboration can be successful as One reason why conflict can arise easier, but they also exacerbate what underpins successful collaboration long as three factors are in place, is that projects, by their nature, start tensions around intellectual property has become more valuable than ever. according to David Archer, partner at out as transactional relationships, and liability for failures, and threaten to While much attention is paid to the consultancy Socia, which specializes in where there is a clear and predictable overturn established power relations. systems and procedures involved in the helping organizations with collaboration. agreement about what is expected. As Meanwhile, projects are becoming vast, practice of design and construction, The first involves the governance building projects become increasingly global endeavours, often designed by much less thought is given to the vital arrangements, including the legal complex, such relationships cease to be networks of professionals around the interpersonal relationships within these contracts, which spell out accountability. effective because changing economic world who may never meet in person. diverse teams. The second is about having the correct and other factors force team members So what does all this mean for group For people bring much more than their operational process between parties. The to adapt to new circumstances. “All the Brett Ryder dynamics and individual job satisfaction? professional expertise to the table. Teams last, and most important, is to ensure the things you could have written into the Psychotherapist Naomi Shragai puts the comprise of individuals with their own right behaviour. contract will need to be changed, so

Illustrations construction industry on the couch … psychologies, ambitions, emotions and “This is like a three-legged stool,” you need a relationship which is much

“Compromise — the antithesis of synergy — will undermine the good ideas of a project and make its experience banal” Andrew Pressman

P52 51 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE THE HUMAN FACTOR

more symbiotic in order to deal with Tensions are an inevitable part of different organization, different culture, Such a climate is less likely to foster resort to carping and insularity. However, uncertainty,” says Archer. collaboration and, if well managed, often “In architecture we are maybe speaks a different language — am collaboration than anxiety — which finding a joint solution speeds things up, In symbiotic relationships, individuals lead to creative solutions. Knowing I actually putting myself at risk in sharing can have dire consequences of its and usually saves money.” are mutually dependent on one when to compromise and when to hold all trained to work alone. control with them?” own. “Anxiety in a team situation can another. This involves tolerating the steadfast to one’s views is essential, One senior architect describes how cause people to act impulsively, or at Leading role varied stresses that such relationships not only to innovate but also to prevent Everybody is thinking about an inability to share control with a the other extreme, freeze or clam up,” inevitably bring. Issues of trust, dealing “groupthink”. People should ask their credit, their ego. It’s construction team led to friction on says Pressman. “The impulsive end Leaders play a crucial role in creating with conflicts and working with themselves: “Am I giving in simply to a recent project. Again, the problems of the spectrum can lead to an overly a climate of collaboration. They diversity become crucial. Those who are avoid disagreements, or is this for the very personal” tended to revolve around authorship competitive situation whereas the clam- communicate to their teams that comfortable with dependency will feel good of the project?” and ownership of risk: “The people up response may bring the task to an it is safe to make mistakes and to more able to delegate and compromise. This is a very pertinent question in working on it now in construction, abrupt halt.” express opposing views, and that their People who are anxious about it because construction, where strong personalities they forget where it originated and it Individuals who have difficulty contributions will be acknowledged. they fear, often irrationally, that others will and opinions are the norm. Collaboration and even arrogance, helps to innovate becomes their project,” he says. “And tolerating complexity often defend Managers who fear conflict will inevitably let them down, will struggle in symbiotic can be particularly difficult for architects, and transcend mediocrity.” there’s a huge control thing because they against their anxiety by simplifying or undermine the collaborative process as relationships. At the opposite extreme, according to one principal from a weren’t around when the first ideas were diminishing a problem. By viewing a problems are allowed to fester and grow, those with more passive personalities, leading practice. “In architecture we Power struggles discussed and developed. situation as either all good or bad, or while they themselves lose the respect of who are overly dependent, may rely too are all trained to work alone,” he says. “The way they gain authorship is to blaming others, they avoid feeling bad the team. much on colleagues to get the job done. “Everybody is thinking about their Yet when collaboration is undermined, gain control of information, like making themselves. In extreme cases, they might Kerry Sulkowicz, a psychoanalyst credit, their ego. It’s very personal. When either by a silo mentality, a need for decisions during construction and not even deny a problem exists. Although this and managing principal of New York’s Collaboration, not compromise you’re collaborating you can’t bring that control or a lack of understanding of telling anyone else.” reduces their anxiety, the danger is that Boswell Group, a consultancy that expectation to large projects. other people’s positions, the project There are myriad other reasons why reality becomes distorted and problems specializes in advising chief executives There is a danger that such passivity, “If you have individuals working for will suffer. tension might explode into open conflict are not addressed. and boards, says that leaders should and an over-willingness to compromise, a team where it’s important to have Archer believes that a reluctance to on a construction project. Archer points ideally act as participants while also can be confused with collaboration — a personal recognition, there will be a lot share control is a significant factor out that different members of the team Small sacrifices being able to step back and observe point that Andrew Pressman reflects of conflicts if they have that need for that can undermine collaboration — may favour different outcomes: “In a what is happening in the group to make on in his book, Designing Relationships: validation all the time. But if the project particularly as project teams become typical construction project the various So how can individual personalities sure that it is productive. “If the leader The Art of Collaboration in Architecture. comes out well, and it makes the office dispersed around the globe. “In the parties will have different priorities. Some and traits be harnessed for the greater is perceived as someone who loses “Collaboration shouldn’t be compromise,” look good, then we should all be happy.” construction world, the biggest factor in are completely time-driven, for some it’s good rather than the greater harm? their temper or is punitive if someone he writes. “Compromise — the antithesis This is an important point — as sharing control is sharing risk,” he says. quality of customer care and some are One answer is to recognize that good takes risks and makes a mistake, that is of synergy — will generally undermine Pressman points out, it can pay off to “I know if I have control of risks I could very focused on cost.” There may also be teamwork supports individual freedoms obviously going to inhibit collaboration, the good ideas of a project and make its nurse an ego or two on a creative project. manage them. To have to share control conflicts over capability, he adds, with and contributions, while maintaining the because in collaboration you have to take experience banal.” “A degree of narcissism, or confidence with someone who may come from a one party doubting the ability of another. overall aims of the project. chances, open up, surface new ideas.” The other side of this coin requires Another important function of the individuals to focus on the aims of the leader, he adds, is to manage the strong project and be willing to sacrifice some feelings, disputes and power struggles personal ambition. Understanding in a team by allowing a certain amount P14 how others think and operate, sharing of emotion to enter into discussions, but control and keeping one’s narcissism in not so much as to overwhelm people — check are all necessary for both leaders so they need to be able to distinguish ‘A GREAT TEAM IS ONE BIG UNHAPPY FAMILY’ and team members. Much successful between different types of friction. The collaboration begins with self-awareness, leader must be mindful of the potential Andrew Pressman suggests five realistic approaches to building a team and then developing a curiosity about for groupthink and be open to the other people. possibility that the minority view, or even In his book Collaborative Leadership: a solitary opinion, might actually be the Building Relationships, Handling Conflict right answer. and Sharing Control, Archer describes It may be that, as Koolhaas says, you 1 2 3 4 5 how joint solutions are often more can build a masterpiece without a genius. original and ambitious than those But you do need to harness the talents of Respect, don’t trust Beware charisma Don’t reject too soon Leave creatives alone Tension is good “Solving problems jointly takes creativity and courage. made within the comfort of one’s own an array of individuals, with their various professional boundaries. “Solving and complex personalities, ambitions It is unrealistic to automatically Be cautious of selecting more No idea, even an apparently The group majority voice can A great team could be It means washing your dirty linen in public. It means asking problems jointly takes creativity and and emotional needs, and to understand trust people with whom you’ve charismatic and seductive bad one, should be dismissed suffocate the creative individual. characterized as one big unhappy courage,” he writes. “It means washing the true nature of their relationships with had little contact — try to develop personalities. Recruit individuals immediately, but considered, People should be given space family, meaning that tension in for help when you need it, and offering it where you can” your dirty linen in public. It means asking one another and the tensions inherent rapport and respect instead whose skills are most suited for nurtured, and only then rejected within a team as a prerequisite for teams can be constructive, “as David Archer, Socia for help when you need it, and offering therein. That, it could be argued, is the the project or accepted creating a synergistic product gasoline that fuels innovation”. it where you can. It’s easier by far to really hard part. 53 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE THE HUMAN FACTOR

THE SECRET LIFE OF We have started to merge our approaches TP: Why is there this gap between how SP: There are many changes because it to research — I wish that there were more BIM is supposed to be used and how gives people new means of collaboration. “Pre-BIM projects were leaner. DESIGN MEETINGS projects like this. There is an expectation people are actually using it? But the basic things are still the same. It’s that social scientists come and say how much easier to share plans and models Now collaboration is more Sami Paavola is an educational and people behave and how they are organized SP: One way of looking at it is that it’s quite and put them together in BIM than it was social scientist who studies the impact but it’s not that simple. We need to think a natural process. It takes time to develop with paper drawings. People don’t need to intense and it takes a lot of of technology on collaboration and about it from different angles and try to new technologies and tools in such a way be in the same place to share information organizing so that people are learning at the University of Helsinki’s merge these perspectives together. that they are really useful. For example, — they can have meetings via Skype, for Institute of Behavioural Sciences. maintenance is a complex area and there example. On the other hand, it seems that not sitting unnecessarily in Since 2011, he has been part of an TP: What can the social sciences teach is already quite advanced software. It’s not they do need to have face-to-face meetings international multidisciplinary group us about BIM? What insights does it easy to replace established technologies when they are looking at how the plans fit meetings” researching building information offer that other approaches don’t? and ways of working, especially when the together and where the problems with the modelling. The Possible spoke to old ones seem to be working relatively well. design are. him about his work and how BIM is SP: Both engineering and social sciences Most people I have seen welcome this changing the way teams behave. try to understand development and change TP: How has BIM changed the way new technology because they see so but we come at it from a different angle. In design teams interact? clearly that it helps and that it’s the future. TP: How does a social scientist come the social sciences, we want to understand There are some specific problems — the to be studying BIM? what people are really doing and how things SP: It has changed how their work technology does not always work well and are happening. Engineers are constructing is organized so more people need to they can’t do everything that they would like SP: I was studying the use of technology solutions, whereas in the social sciences we collaborate in earlier phases of the project. — but I don’t think designers are resisting it. in higher education, and in 2011 I was are trying to problematize things more … Pre-BIM projects were leaner in a way — a asked to join a multidisciplinary research The usual approach to BIM is to look few people did something and then they TP: What are the most important project on building information modelling. at novel solutions and how to implement handed the information over to the next success factors in implementing new They wanted someone who was interested them and educate people to use them. person or organization. Now collaboration is technologies or ways of working? in trying to understand the affects of Whereas our approach is more oriented more intense in various phases and it takes technology on our working lives. There are to the specific challenges and problems a lot of organizing so that people are not SP: One should understand the complexity different approaches to social science, and I that people have. We need to understand sitting unnecessarily in meetings. of the process. You need to involve people take this kind of practice-based approach. the viewpoints of different partners from different levels, representing different within construction projects, and build TP: How were the teams you observed roles. You need to have guidelines, and TP: What does your research involve? new solutions for their specific problems. coping with this? education and also some kind of policy Typically when we interview people or we within the industry because many SP: My main focus has been on go and look at what they’re doing, we find SP: Typically, within this kind of research organizations are involved. collaboration between designers — that reality is different to the promises that project, we are looking at partners and firms It takes time too, always. We cannot architects and engineers in specialist fields. are made in the literature. Our point is that who are already interested in changing how change everything at once, so we need Our approach is to go and look at how we should look at these situations more they work. But it is difficult because they people who are interested in experimenting. people actually use these technologies. We realistically and then build new solutions are trying to find new ways of doing things I think the biggest barriers occur when have done interviews, but we have also been and new technologies. all the time and construction projects are change is brought only from above, and following design meetings. A good example is the use of BIM in typically very time-constrained. when people do not have enough resources. Within our research group, there are the maintenance phase of projects — the My experience is that people are quite people from social-science backgrounds literature on BIM gives the impression that TP: How does BIM change people’s willing to develop the way they work if they and people from engineering backgrounds, models are used in the maintenance phase, behaviour and the relationships see the rationale and how it helps, and if and that has been really valuable. but it seems to us that it’s hardly used at all. between them? they are given the resources to do it. 54 55 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS TOOLS

Completely new materials may not come along very often, but scientists are remixing old ones — and it’s changing the shape of our cities

WORDS BY TONY WHITEHEAD

he materials scientist is the in building safety, usability and durability, used a 14,000psi mix to facilitate a less T designer’s friend. These questing as well as speed, efficiency and economy bulky core. As a result, the building chemists, using ever more sophisticated have, like the height of skyscrapers, been has more lettable space, there is a techniques, produce a steady flow of new made possible not by astonishing leaps lighter gravitational load and, therefore, and improved substances with which to in materials science, but by incremental less concrete was required for the create the built environment. advances, subtle adjustments and foundations. And because a significant But despite their best efforts, game- improved understanding. amount of carbon is used and released changing breakthroughs in materials are in cement manufacture, reducing the rare. Brick, stone and timber have been The psi factor amount of concrete meant a smaller used in construction for at least 7,000 carbon footprint overall. years. Kiln-fired bricks have been around Only 15 years ago, 8,000psi concrete High-strength concrete mixes like this for 4,000 years; concrete since Roman was considered high strength. Now most have also played an enabling role in the times. Even the most recent quantum tall projects in the US use concrete of recent trend for super-skinny residential leap — the advent of structural steel — between 10,000 to 14,000psi for at least skyscrapers. Several in the US, Dubai and occurred more than a century ago. part of their structure, thanks to the the Far East are over 1,000ft (305m) high, So the accelerating urbanization of the development of reliable water-reducing their slender designs offering spectacular world, and the spectacular architecture admixtures. The effect on the skyline has views, along with impressive footprint-to- mushrooming across all inhabited been dramatic. floorspace ratios. continents, has been achieved using only The tallest building in the US, One A lot of benefits, then, from just a these basic elements. And improvements World Trade Center, completed in 2013, tweak to the mix, and a huge impact 57 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

THREE NEW YORK “This nano-engineered stuff is 200MPa. It has the strength of SKYSCRAPERS THAT 3 mild steel, flows like honey and hardens at room temperature. WOULDN’T EXIST WITHOUT Add fibres and you can even do away with reinforcement” HIGH-STRENGTH CONCRETE Franz-Josef Ulm, MIT 1 environmentally and architecturally. But cement. Fortunately, we are developing One World Trade Center (2013) talk to experts in this field and it quickly ways of using cement more efficiently — Security was as important a concern as stature becomes apparent that there are plenty of making it work harder.” for this 541m-tall New York City landmark. The more developments in the pipeline. In most concrete, explains Ulm, the key to both is a massive, incredibly robust core, It is now possible, for example, to carbon-expensive calcium content is not made of ultra-high-strength concrete clocking in specify concrete that heals its own fully utilized. By nano-engineering the at 14,000psi. “It’s much stronger than any rock cracks by means of limestone-attracting cement, with the addition of silica fume you could find,” says Ahmad Rahimian, director bacteria; concrete that uses magnesium (and other industrial waste products), the of building structures at WSP. That allowed the oxide to absorb carbon dioxide from the calcium can be more comprehensively walls to be thinner, maximizing lettable area and atmosphere; and even concrete that activated, making the cement much minimizing the weight of materials required. More glows in the dark. Time will tell which of stronger. “The same approach was than 50% of the carbon-intensive cement content these reaches the mainstream, but one taken to create the Gorilla Glass in an was replaced with industrial by-products, and over variation is already attracting serious iPhone,” he says. “By putting calcium 95% of the structural steel was recycled. attention: geopolymer concrete. and silica at exactly the positions where “The desire for lower carbon we need them, much more of the 2 alternatives to traditional materials is a calcium contributes to the strength and real driver in the market,” says Robert durability of the cement and, therefore, 432 Park (2015) 1 Kilgour, principal engineer in materials the concrete. And if the concrete is twice One of a crop of “super-skinny” pencil-thin towers technology for WSP in Perth, Western as strong you have the potential to use lining Central Park, 432 Park rises 1,396ft from Australia. “Geopolymer concrete is not half as much, and decrease the carbon a footprint that is just one 15th of its height. As exactly new, but it’s only in the past footprint by up to 50%.” a residential building — currently the world’s three years that it has been made in Nano-engineered concrete is certainly tallest — its movement had to be controlled far 2 commercial quantities. I think we’ll be strong enough to change the way large more precisely than that of an office, where the seeing a lot more of it in the near future.” structures are designed, Ulm says. occupants can be evacuated during high winds. The key benefit of geopolymer concrete “Ordinary concrete is measured at WSP’s solution partly relies on two rigid tubes is that it does not contain any Portland 30 megapascals of strength, and the made from 14,000psi concrete. This resulted in cement at all, and therefore has a much high-strength concrete used in major civil a very pure structure with no interior columns, lower carbon footprint than traditional engineering projects such as the Channel offering uninterrupted views in every direction. concrete. ItsIts availabilityavailability in in Australia Australia Tunnel is 80MPa. This nano-engineered has seen itit specifiedspecified for for a arange range of of stuff is 200MPa (roughly 29,000psi). It 3 applications, though though its its adoption adoption is isas as yet has the strength of mild steel, flows like yetrelatively relatively limited. limited. honey and hardens at room temperature. 56 Leonard (2016) But geopolymer alone will not Add fibres and you can even do away In Herzog & de Meuron’s 57-storey “Jenga tower” be sufficient to address the global with reinforcement.” in Lower Manhattan, no two floors are the same. construction sector’s heavy carbon It sounds amazing, but at the moment

The building is a staggered series of irregular P59 usage. “On average every person on the few plants can produce it and use has boxes, with cantilevers ranging from 10ft to 25ft, planet consumes roughly 2m3 of concrete been limited to one-off designs and a and every floorplate had to be able to support itself. every year, so it is vital we do something small number of bridges, some of which WSP used a very strong concrete structure — to limit the environmental cost,” says Ulm has helped design. It has not yet 12,000psi at the lower levels and 7,000psi further Franz-Josef Ulm, faculty director of been used for skyscrapers. “The product up — concealed to allow a completely glazed the Concrete Sustainability Hub at the design is ready, but to make it widely exterior with views from almost every angle. With Massachusetts Institute of Technology available in commercial qualities would no dividing shear walls in the apartments, residents (MIT). “Geopolymer has a part to play, but require investment in plant,” says Ulm, 1. Nicola Lyn Evans 2. Shutterstock 2. 3. Evans Nicola Lyn 1. can lay out their living spaces as they wish or there is simply not enough of it around “A carbon tax on concrete, for example,

Photos combine apartments horizontally or vertically. to replace that huge dependence on would immediately make it viable for 59 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

P61

producers to do that.” structures at WSP in London. “If an The almost endless adjustments that architect wants slim columns, they can BEYOND CEMENT can be made to concrete will provide be useful. Extra-strong rebar is useful Geopolymer concrete uses no Portland cement at all many more options for designers over too as it can be slimmer and fits better in the next few years. Ulm says that an congested areas.” The manufacture of Portland cement is a carbon-intensive improved understanding of concrete’s But such materials are hardly new, and process, so scientists and suppliers worldwide have looked rheology — the way it flows and sets — stronger steel is not necessarily what for ways of reducing its role in the production of concrete. will open the door to specialist concretes engineers need, says O’Connor: “It’s not It is now commonplace to find concretes in which around for more effective 3D printing, or even the always going to help: sometimes area is 30% of the cement is substituted with industrial by-products ability to extrude columns from moving part of the structural property you need. such as ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) and forms. And although stronger steel is lighter and pulverized fuel ash (PFA), also known as fly ash. easier to handle on site, it does not help What’s different about geopolymer concrete is that it uses Reinventing the steel? with building stiffness.” no Portland cement at all, and therefore the “cement” or In essence, structural steel’s range binding element of the concrete is almost carbon-neutral. There have been advances in steel of properties has already been Rather than hydrating Portland cement, geopolymer too, in its weight, strength, workability largely assimilated and deployed in concrete is made by mixing the sand and aggregate with and resistance to corrosion. “Low-alloy building design, and the impact of any fly ash or slag, and then activating it with an alkali such as steels, such as those made with a small incremental improvements is not likely to sodium hydroxide. amount of niobium, can be very strong,” have much effect on what steel buildings It has been around since the late 1970s, but only recently says Mark O’Connor, director of building look like or how they are built. became commercially available, says Robert Kilgour, principal engineer in materials technology in WSP in Perth. Plywood on steroids “It is a similar price to standard concrete and its structural properties and the mechanics of strength gain are well More revolutionary is a renewed interest understood. Importantly, there is now also a long-term in timber as a structural material, and history of using it for a range of applications including bridge particularly in engineered products beams, pavements and building structures. It is very durable such as cross-laminated timber. CLT and particularly resistant to chloride and sulfate salts, which was developed around 15 years ago, makes it ideal for marine or coastal applications.” and although there have been small One of the largest projects ever to feature geopolymer improvements in the machinery and concrete is Brisbane West Wellcamp airport in Queensland, glues used in the laminating process, built in 2014. A 435mm layer of geopolymer, supplied by the basic product remains the same. Wagners under the brand name Earth Friendly Concrete “The difference now,” says Viktor (EFC), was used to construct much of the apron and Rönnblom, structural engineer and pavements. Foundations, wall panels in the terminal building, timber specialist in WSP’s Skellefteå and a bridge also used geopolymer. In all, 70,000 tonnes office in northern Sweden, “is that we were supplied to the project. know much more about how it can be Some 330m3 of EFC was also used in the production of used and how it performs.” This also 33 large floor beams that form three suspended floor levels applies to other engineered timber in the Global Change Institute building at the University of Queensland, completed in 2013. Geopolymer concrete is set to become more widely used, but its market penetration will probably remain limited. Left The Global Change Kilgour explains: “In Australia, there are two players in the Institute at the University of market and they can only produce so much. Longer term, Queensland is a zero-energy, there is also likely to be a problem with the supply of GGBS zero-carbon workplace, and PFA.“ designed by Hassell. It’s the Ironically the decarbonization of power production, and the world’s first public building export of steel manufacturing to China, will limit the local to use structural geopolymer availability of PFA and GGBS, waste materials from steel concrete, in which Portland and power production respectively, and essential for this cement is completely type of low-carbon concrete. However, in those areas of the replaced by industrial by- world where steel production and fossil-fuel power are still products, greatly lowering going strong, geopolymer concrete could be an increasingly

Peter Bennetts the associated emissions serious option.

Photo and embodied energy 61 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

DYNAMIC FORMWORK Concrete Play-Doh overcomes “square thinking”

Better understanding of the way like Play-Doh. Unlike traditional be produced with bends, kinks or that concrete flows and sets — its slipforming, used to construct the variable diameters. The concrete’s rheology — will not only affect cores of tall buildings, dynamic strength has been measured at how we build, but what we build, casting works on a smaller scale 80-100MPa in compression, and according to Franz-Josef Ulm at and produces more varied shapes. it can also be used in conjunction MIT. “There is rapid progress in Postdoctoral researcher with steel reinforcement. this field at the moment,” he says. Ena Lloret-Fritschi explains So far SDC has been confined “As we learn how to block the that the process uses a type of to the lab, but its first real-world receptors of the cement until the self-compacting concrete that application is set for later this exact time we want it to set, so has been heavily retarded, to year, when the team will produce we can use this expertise to build which a chemical admixture, or concrete mullions for the NEST in different ways. For example, accelerator, is added just before building — a project in Zurich we do not see many curves in it enters the formwork. “Smart designed to test and demonstrate buildings these days because of dynamic casting [SDC] relies on new technology. “By using a form the labour costs involved. But close control of the concrete’s with an adjustable diameter, we mastering rheology allows greater state of hydration,” she says. can make each mullion thicker in automation, and this could mean “This is accurately monitored, the centre where strength is most the return of shell structures, and the information used to needed,“ says Lloret-Fritschi. “In curves and cathedral-like arches automatically adjust the slipping this way, the process supports a as designers are freed from square speed — the rate at which the more efficient use of materials.” thinking. I believe it will have concrete exits the moving form. Because SDC is a continuous profound implications for how we In that moment, it is similar to wet process, it is potentially faster than shape our built environment.” clay, just capable of sustaining its 3D-printing concrete, she adds. At ETH Zurich in Switzerland, own weight and the weight of the “We have created columns at a researchers are looking at the material on top. It then hardens rate of approximately 1m/hour. dynamic casting of complex almost immediately.” The finish is also very smooth, concrete elements — a digital The process has produced some rather than corrugated as with 3D fabrication process where wet startling results. Using a robot- printing. I think initial applications concrete is fed through a movable controlled, revolving rectangular will involve factory-made precast form, attached to a six-axis robotic form, the team produced a elements, but as the process arm. This allows self-supporting twisting column with a corkscrew- evolves, there is no reason why it concrete elements to be extruded like appearance. Columns can also cannot be applied on site.” 63 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

products, he says, mainly glulam (glued for a concrete or steel building. This laminated timber) and laminated veneer involved complete encapsulation of most FLUID THINKING lumber, he adds. of the CLT and glulam components with Phase-change materials supply thermal CLT has been described as “plywood three or four layers of fire-rated Type X mass to lightweight structures on steroids” and it is formed in a similar gypsum board. way, from alternately oriented sheets of In fact, says Rönnblom, fears over fire Lightweight steel or timber structures might timber. Glulam, used more for beams and safety are more to do with perception be easy to handle and quick to build, but they columns, is again similar but the grain than fact. “Put glulam on a fire and it come with a problem: they cannot compete in the strips is aligned. LVL uses thinner, is quite difficult to get it to burn out with heavier concrete when it comes to veneer cuts with occasional cross layers. completely,” he says. “It is also very thermal mass. “Engineering timber in this way predictable, charring at 1mm per minute, Thermal mass can be desirable because, removes natural variations and makes with the strength of the timber behind when combined with night ventilation, it its properties much more consistent largely unaffected. It makes it predictable, absorbs excess heat during the day and and predictable,” explains Rönnblom. easy to calculate and in many ways it releases it overnight, thereby moderating “And because we have had substantial performs better than concrete or steel.” Left The 49m-high Treet the diurnal temperature range and reducing buildings to monitor for over a decade Height is not everything. Rönnblom apartment block in Bergen, demand for both heating and air-conditioning. now, we know how engineered timber points out that engineered timber can Norway, was completed in Phase-change materials potentially offer structures perform in wind, in fire, and play different roles in different buildings: 2015 and is one of the tallest the best of both worlds: relatively lightweight we know about their stiffness and their “For example, you can use composite CLT structures in the world structures with high thermal mass. The trick is dynamic properties.” This is enabling CLT-concrete structures. In that case, made possible by the fact that PCMs change the design of taller timber structures, the CLT is both formwork and part of the Below Lendlease’s 32m-high from solid to liquid as temperatures rise, and although the tallest complete pure timber load-bearing structure.” Forté building in Melbourne then back to solid again overnight — the phase structure is still only 14 storeys. One of timber’s most important was constructed from a “flat change absorbing and then releasing large Further increases in height will qualities, Rönnblom says, is that it is pack” of CLT panels acting amounts of energy. inevitably be incremental, says light, so foundations can be smaller and as shear walls For example, PCMs were installed during Rönnblom. “The way to go is to build, therefore cheaper and quicker to lay. “You the refurbishment of the historic Somerset evaluate, and then maybe add five storeys can also put timber buildings in places House in London, where a lightweight roof to the next design, and so on. I don’t think where concrete would be unsuitable — in TALL TIMBER structure tended to allow the top floor to you should jump from 15 to 40 storeys. soft ground, for example. Timber lends How high can CLT go? overheat in summer. Walls and ceilings have The effects of any miscalculation could itself to prefabrication, and it is easy to been lined with approximately 1,000m2 of grow exponentially.” handle on site, so you can build quickly There is considerable excitement Taller still is 53m Tallwood House, Eco Building Boards’ 14mm clay PCM board, In any case, it is likely that building and efficiently.” about building tall with a student residence in Vancouver. which is “enriched” with 3kg/m2 of Micronal regulations will stymie any sudden There is one market in particular for engineered timber, but it has been Just completed, the 15,000m2 PCM. Produced by BASF, Micronal comprises leap in the height of timber structures. which engineered timber would seem slow to translate into real-world project has a hybrid structure, with tiny acrylic glass spheres filled with paraffin Worldwide, these tend to forbid buildings well placed, as WSP‘s Robert Kilgour structures. Towers of 30 or more 17 storeys of CLT floors supported wax which melts at around 23°C. It has been higher than six or so storeys because points out: “The trend in big cities is storeys in Paris and Stockholm on glulam columns on top of a successfully incorporated into clay board, of fears over how timber structures towards densification — squeezing more failed to materialize, and arguably concrete base, and two 18-storey plasterboard and even aerated concrete. will perform in fire. Tallwood House and more accommodation onto land the tallest in the world today is concrete cores. The building An alternative system popular in Australia, in Vancouver, which has a 17-storey that is already built.” The lightweight Treet, or The Tree, a 49m 14-storey envelope is a prefabricated panel BioPCM uses vegetable fats encapsulated in hybrid CLT structure, had to win special nature of CLT makes it ideal for building apartment block in Bergen, system clad with wood-fibre high- a copolymer film — a little like oil-filled bubble dispensation from British Columbia’s extensions because it reduces the Norway, completed in 2015. pressure laminate. Its designers wrap — which can be placed in ceilings and Building and Safety Standards Branch modifications you have to make to the This superseded Melbourne’s claim that the structure is some walls. Its manufacturer claims that BioPCM — and that was only granted after the existing structure.” 32m Forté building, constructed 7,500 tonnes lighter than a can absorb 40 times more heat per gram designers agreed to enhanced fire and WSP is currently advising an Australian by Lendlease from a “flat pack” concrete equivalent. than concrete. seismic standards that exceeded those client on adding a ten-storey extension of CLT panels acting as shear It was also surprisingly quick In tropical regions, PCMs can be used in walls. In contrast, Treet has a to construct, completed in nine a different way: to “store” solar power — glulam load-bearing structure weeks with only ten workers, particularly in homes that are unoccupied supporting 62 prefabricated according to Ralph Austin, during the day. This is achieved by using “The lightness of engineered timber, along with the potential modular flats with walls made president of contractor Seagate “free” solar power to actively chill the empty from CLT. Building stiffness Structures. “Mass timber isn’t property and solidify the PCMs in the daytime. for rapid construction, makes it an attractive option as cities is achieved solely through the suited for every project and it isn’t They can then maintain the occupied property glulam structure, though further going to solve our cities’ housing at a comfortable temperature overnight by continue to densify” stability is provided by concrete crisis alone, but it should be passively absorbing heat as they melt, ready slabs which form the floors at considered as another valid and to start the process again in the morning.

Robert Kilgour, WSP levels six and 11. valuable solution,” he says. Lendlease, Vallderby David Photos

P64 65 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

P12

to a six-storey block, he adds. “We are looking at how the timber will perform DOES WOOD CUT IT? SEISMIC SHIFT structurally and what would have to The pros and cons of timber structures Is CLT the answer for earthquake zones? be done to connect it effectively to the existing structure. In this sort of situation, + Lighter structures save on foundations New-generation timber-framed buildings have the lightness of engineered timber, along + Quick and easy to handle on site properties that make them ideal for surviving with the potential for rapid construction, + Suitable for extending existing earthquakes, according to Dr Christian Málaga- makes it an attractive option as cities buildings within minimal modification Chuquitaype, a lecturer in structural engineering continue to densify.” + Smaller carbon footprint than steel or at Imperial College London. “Because of their Last but not least, Rönnblom concrete relative lightness, they attract smaller forces says, people enjoy inhabiting timber + Sequesters carbon during seismic activity,” he says, adding that the buildings: “They feel nice, and have + Performs well in earthquakes effect is particularly beneficial in taller buildings. pleasant acoustics.” This makes them + Structural performance is increasingly “In developing countries, timber is considered a desirable proposition for housing, and predictable as a structural option far more than it was. also for commercial projects where + Locally available in many world regions Engineered products such as CLT reduce the a growing body of research is linking + A popular “eco-aesthetic” variability of timber, so it can be specified for the productivity of employees to their + Easily prefabricated and well-suited to structures with more confidence. I think we will comfort and contentment with the modular construction see taller and taller timber buildings in these working environment. areas — especially where their performance in His last point is an important one, for – It may be necessary to add mass to help with earthquakes can contribute to safe building.” no matter how technically advanced a thermal performance Timber already has a good reputation in new material is, it will struggle to catch – … and acoustic performance earthquake-prone regions. These structures on if clients do not like it, or if it does not – Requires a reliable and sustainable source often survive and, being strong and light, tend not sit well with contemporary architectural — rare outside Europe and North America to collapse heavily and crush their inhabitants in tastes. Engineered timber is attracting – Not as carbon-friendly as might first appear the manner of poorly-built concrete homes. Much attention as much due to its perceived – Yet to be proven above 18 storeys of the traditional housing in San Francisco is built ecological credentials as its structural – The structure must be kept dry to prevent rot from local redwood for precisely this reason. capabilities — even though the carbon – Clients are sceptical of performance in fire However, there are specific issues that should used in the manufacturing process – Shortage of design and construction expertise be taken into account: “Timber is very strong, but shouldn’t be overlooked. But no matter. it is very brittle when it fails so we have to provide Progress in materials science is never ductility or deformation capacity by other means. wasted, and an designer can never have That is why modern timber structures are usually too many options. joined by steel rods and brackets. This works well, but to repair a building after an earthquake, you ideally do not want to have to replace hundreds of brackets and thousands of nails.” The solution, he says, is to allow the walls to rock or slide: “They can then return to their original position by means of some level of pre- stress, for example. It is the same general system of damage avoidance that is deployed in concrete or steel structures — but the energy you need to dissipate is much less because the forces acting on the lighter structure are smaller.” Though convinced of the potential of engineered timber in earthquake zones, Málaga-Chuquitaype adds a caveat: “When we use timber products in the developed world we can be sure that they are from a sustainable Tallwood House, a student residence in source and that they are engineered to a reliable Vancouver, has a hybrid structure with standard. But, while it is helpful that timber is 17 storeys of CLT floors supported on a local resource in many regions, we obviously glulam columns on top of a concrete base. don’t want to encourage the use of timber from

Seagate Chung and Pollux Structures Construction was completed in nine weeks illegal sources, or timber products that cannot

Photo by just ten workers perform as expected.” 67 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

THE CHALLENGE: CAN WE MAKE A TOTALLY RECYCLABLE BUILDING?

“In a circular economy, how could we design a completely recyclable building? How do we recycle a building or materials in a way that we could really BLANK CANVAS benefit from? Looking back on traditional constructions, old timber houses were often moved, so it should be One problem, three engineers, no constraints possible with more natural materials such as brick, wood and glass. If the car industry can do it, we should be able to do the same.” Monica Von Schmalensee / chief executive / White Arkitekter 69 (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE TOOLS

1 2 3 Reuse is better than recycling Design for deconstructability Use a component, pass it on Tom Wood / sustainability and climate change associate / WSP / UK Helen Brennek / sustainability project manager / WSP / Canada Åsa Ekberg Österdahl / group manager of building physics / WSP / Sweden

Increasingly we have approaches that are generally so long-lived that the people Recyclability really comes down to We use more building materials materials that we take out from buildings can offer highly recyclable construction. who build them are not the ones who “If you put all deconstructability. A huge proportion than we need to, just because what’s as they’re demolished. So if you’re in a What holds us back is the trade-offs. will reap the benefits from recycling and of building components are already popular changes — people change the big city and you’re taking down an office First, we need to be clear on the reusing the materials. your effort into recycled: crushed concrete, steel and colour of their walls and their carpets block, you need to find a user for every distinction between recycling and One way of keeping materials at a glass, drywall, even electrical and more often than is necessary from a single element. Perhaps a customer downcycling. In a circular economy, high level is to design things to last making a building mechanical components. We have found technical perspective. There are a lot of who is not too far away, so there isn’t a recycling means using the materials as long as possible. But sometimes where everything is scientific ways to recycle these things, it’s developments in recycling to deal with high carbon footprint from transporting again at a similar value level. In the UK, longevity conflicts with recyclability. just a matter of making it cost-effective this. For example, in Europe, we are trying the components. we recycle a high level of the waste from Traditional masonry approaches are reusable, you might to deconstruct them. You can use a to develop the plastic recycling industry Construction companies already do construction and demolition, but most of highly durable, but very poor in terms wrecking ball and take a building down to deal with decades’ worth of old PVC this when it comes to stone and earth — that is actually downcycled. For example, of recyclability or even reuse, as it’s have to over-engineer all at once, or you can have everyone flooring. But we’ve not yet achieved a when they’re digging out the ground and concrete is crushed and becomes, essentially a composite material. The it or use such strange go through and carefully remove all the fully industrialized methodology for it yet. they have to get rid of it, they try to find at best, an aggregate replacement, bricks or blocks are stuck together with pieces by hand. That’s not done at scale, “Deconstructable buildings If you count energy recycling, I would another project that needs filling. When offsetting the need for virgin aggregate. mortar and you have to chip it all off elements that you because it’s not cost-effective. will be part and parcel with say we are very close to recycling all you’re about to demolish a house, there At worst, it’s just used to fill holes for before you can reuse them. That takes a end up with a poorly So we need to be designing for construction waste in Sweden. We don’t are companies that will come and look landscaping. That’s certainly better than lot of work, a lot of energy and they are deconstructability. For a 100% recyclable robotics — there could be an send any organic materials to landfill. at what parts they could sell to another landfill, but a lot of the value is lost. often damaged in the process. There performing building” building, we need smart ways to The most ambitious companies have set owner. They take doors and maybe Then there’s the difference between are mortarless approaches — aggregate configure it. I would be shooting for automated process for putting a goal to send just 2-3% of construction windows, toilets and sinks and so on. recycling and reuse. You could construction blocks that slot together — an entirely modular building. With a waste to landfill. They are achieving at There are companies that take the bricks deconstruct the building, take out a but it’s a challenge to ensure the air and modular envelope, rather than separating components in place and least 5%, but that final 5% is very hard from old houses and remove the mortar steel beam, melt it down and create watertightness of the joints. window glass from aluminium framing, because there are some parts of the and sell them on. I think this market will something new out of the same steel. That’s another potential trade-off: you just remove wall sections entirely deconstructing them later on” waste that we don’t want to be recycled grow, but there will be challenges — for That type of recycling maintains its value between recyclability and operational and reuse them. I think that modular and in any way because they might include example, concerns about quality, harmful but takes quite significant amounts of performance. If you want to achieve deconstructable buildings will be part You could just take a piece out and put it substances that are toxic or hazardous. substances and what kind of building the energy. Reuse is higher up the hierarchy an absolutely exemplary, low-energy and parcel with automation and robotics somewhere else. We don’t want those materials in the material has been used in before. and more desirable in circular economy building, you generally ensure that it’s — there could be an automated process But who’s going to buy the pieces? I’ve recycling loop — we want them out of it. thinking. You could reuse the beam for highly insulated, very airtight and has for putting components in place and seen a lot about modular buildings going From a chemical engineering point of the same purpose in another building, lots of thermal mass. It’s difficult to do deconstructing them later on. up, but I haven’t heard a lot about them view, materials such as brick and glass “If you’re in a big city and but a strict reuse without altering the that with construction methods that also Here in Vancouver, the toughest aspect being reused. Do we have a culture in are quite easy to reuse or recycle. The material or the building element is harder. make life easier for recycling. A shack of an easily deconstructable building which someone decides they want a used most difficult are polymeric materials, you’re taking down an office The beam may have deteriorated, and the made of wood panels and metal sheets is is achieving a proper air and moisture piece, rather than buying a new one? such as PVC. There has been such size, form and specification of the original highly recyclable because the materials barrier. Sealants and coatings make it How a building is maintained will also rapid development and there are many block, you need to find a user elements may not be right. are not bonded together. But the flipside hard to recycle building components, but impact on whether it can be recycled additives — softeners, for example. Over Standardising building elements would is that it’s not going to last very long and we can’t reuse them if they’ve rotted. I’m in the future. If you’re using noxious time, we’ve learned more about their for every single element” be one way to maximize reusability. They there are probably lots of gaps where confident that we’ll be able to figure it compounds to clean your concrete, you toxicity. To reach 100% recyclability, we also need to be extremely durable so they wind and rain can blow in. out. I have heard of recyclable sealants, may not be able to reuse it. Designers need to avoid using these toxic elements last, not only for their first lifetime, but Precast concrete or highly insulated but the market demand is not there yet. need to think about that, and whoever’s in new construction projects. also cope with being deconstructed and modular components could potentially We could also design for inherent going to be maintaining the building But the dream is not just to recycle moved to a different site for their second provide thermal mass and be able to be moisture resistance. In Vancouver, most needs to understand it too. materials but to maintain them at the use. If you put all your effort into making deconstructed as well. Materials like of our newer buildings have significant Of course, the pinnacle of recyclability same value level. To achieve that, we a building where everything is reusable, polished concrete or stones can be very overhangs, so the cladding is somewhat is reuse — and the most efficient way to need to look not only at the choice of you might have to over-engineer it or use expensive and use a lot of energy to protected. So what if you had a wood reuse is to never remove the building. materials, but at ways of connecting such strange elements that you end up manufacture. But they often present a frame construction that you could fully To do that, we have to consider changes different parts of a building without using with a poorly performing building. I can good opportunity for reuse because if the deconstruct, and a sloped metal roof in weather, technology and use, and glue or nails, so we can take them apart foresee some big challenges around the design is done right, you can just take with a big overhang to protect your durability. An aluminium shack would without destroying them. financing and economics too — buildings them off and use them again. cladding? Then the cladding could be be fully recyclable, but I don’t think that’s I think we will also need some kind of modular to increase adaptability later on. what our client would be looking for… digital solution to find new users for the

P59 703 (THE(THE ARTART ANDAND SCIENCESCIENCE OF)OF) THETHE POSSIBLEPOSSIBLE CONNECTEDINDEX THINKING

IN 10 WORDS OR LESS …

“Neverending shadows, insufficient green spaces “Lacking human scale and dearth (concrete, concrete everywhere!), of places designed for people” garbage-littered streets” Neil Cadenhead Helen Brennek 68 11

“Site over-development, no thought of how building “Air pollution” meets ground plane” Kadambari Baxi Mark O’Connor 59 14

“Large crowds, lack “Too many cars of green spaces, everywhere; too little THE POSSIBLE disconnected street space for people” walking links” Anne Power Robert Kilgour 57 20 What makes a city feel too dense? “If there is no ‘air’ in “Cities feel too dense between — parks, when they prevent us open spaces …” from obtaining goals” Sami Paavola 52 23 Colin Ellard

“Isolation and loneliness “Lack of respect for a too many people but not — shared public space” enough connections” Erica McWilliam Naomi Shragai 48 31

“Poor urban masterplanning “When moving about ceases and a lack of integrated to be a pleasurable, rewarding infrastructure” experience” Yasser Tufail 38 35 Stefan Jakobek (THE ART AND SCIENCE OF) THE POSSIBLE

A WSP PUBLICATION