Assessing the abilities of AI in the built environment

Assessing the abilities of AI in the built environment

Questioning the abilities of AI in the built environment at all stages of its development makes the bulk of their assessment, especially at its inception as demonstrated here. 

Assessing the abilities of AI in the built environment

Written by Jarrod Reedie

Artificial Intelligence, or AI as it is known across the globe, serves currently as a tool that assists in day-to-day operations in many an industry. The advancements of the likes of ChatGPT and DALL·E 2 has resulted in the constant questioning of ‘what comes next’?

The built environment is one such industry that will benefit from the evolution of AI. From basic image creation to company learning modules, its immediate future will see it work alongside architects, as opposed to rendering them redundant.

This line of thinking has been adopted at Rothelowman, who have begun to utilise AI programs to reduce the timeframes of painstaking tasks. Nigel Hobart (pictured below), one of the practice’s Managing Principals, began researching the software five years ago, convinced of its inevitability.

https://rothelowman.com.au/

“I think that, honestly, I think that every role in society, I can’t think of one where AI can’t eventually play a significant role,” he says.

“The question is really how long it’s going to take. It’s not going to replace architecture and interior designers in the next 24 months. But can architects and interior designers, with a combination of self-confidence and humility, see these things as opportunities to go to the next level with their own thinking, their own processes and their own mindset around design?”

Hobart believes that the ‘protectionism’ of any working fraternity is a natural reaction to new programs, which will stall the initial adoption of the technology, but describes AI as “a natural evolution of society and transition of economies.”

“You can reduce risk in the quality of your work. You can make people’s jobs less boring by getting repetitive things and making them virtually instantaneous by writing scripting around things. We’ve made lots of progress in the way we document buildings in the middle third where you’re getting into regulatory compliance, buildability and coordination.”

Rothelowman’s team members have been on fact-finding missions across the US to witness the technology being harnessed by architects in other studios. Picture-generating AI software has been occasionally utilised by the practice to assist in instantly creating a physical embodiment of a client’s brief. Hobart likens the improvement and understanding of AI in the built environment to the mentoring of a budding graduate.

rothelowman

“I think in time that it will absolutely change everything, and that’s not intended as a scary thought. I started five years ago on this journey and thought ‘it won’t happen in a hurry and it won’t happen to us and you can’t automate creativity.’ Well, that’s just not true. I was completely wrong,” he concedes.

“If you start with an architectural graduate out of university with talent, that person could accelerate into being useful and productive quite quickly in the early years of their career. If you invest in the talent, then the talent will become very effective and very valuable. And the same thing is happening with AI.

“I think what’s gonna happen in the very short to intermediate term is that designers are gonna start using AI as an assistant, as another part of their toolkit.”

Ultimately, the continued reinvigoration of the technologies is consistently making design executives rethink their use of AI in the workplace. Hobart says it will be a long time before it becomes industry standard, and cites the number of players in the market as why.

“Five years ago, when I started researching automation, I did start to panic a little bit, as it was coming fast and I didn’t think we were ready, but I came to realise that our industry is so disparate and so fragmented. There is no strong influence or individual player in the property industry, so these things take time,” he says.

“AI is an opportunity. If others aren’t gonna adopt these things and you find a way to use these things that save time and money. If you can buy time for your team by creating efficiencies within the creation and delivery process of our service, then that’s where the gains are.

If you’re finding ways of using AI to your advantage without compromising risk, quality or client experience and use it to your advantage to buy time, then you’ll provide a better solution than your competitors. It’s as simple as that.”

For more information on Rothelowman, click here.

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Sustainable development and climate change

Sustainable development and climate change

Sustainable development and climate change | By Naghmana A. Hashmi

Naghmana Alamgir Hashmi

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

SUSTAINABLE development has been defined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as: “Forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” The WBCSD continues: “Given the scale of world poverty today, the challenge of meeting present needs is urgent. But we must look ahead and do our utmost to ensure that what we do today for our ever-growing population does not compromise the environmental, social and human needs of our descendants”.

Climate change and sustainable development both play a role in shaping the human and environmental factors of the world. On the one hand, climate change influences key natural and human living conditions and thereby also the basis for social and economic development, while on the other hand, society’s priorities on sustainable development influence both the carbon emissions that are causing climate change and the vulnerability. Multiple linkages therefore, exist between climate change and sustainable development. Although these are starting to receive attention, the focus has typically been on examining sustainable development through a climate change lens, rather than vice versa. There has been little systematic examination of how these linkages may be fostered in practice. Governments, companies and members of the public can contribute to environmental sustainability.

The link between climate change and sustainable development stems from the fact that climate change is a constraint to development and sustainable development is a key to capacities for mitigation and adaptation. Maintaining environmental quality is essential for sustainable development. There is a dual relationship between sustainable development and climate change.       In 1987, the authors of “Our common future” argued that unless the world embraced and operationalized sustainable development, it would risk being overwhelmed by a series of interlocking crises related to population growth, urbanization, poverty and environmental degradation. Since then, many authors have argued that the world is on a worst case scenario trajectory. Since 1987, climate change has added a new stressor to the mix while shortening the time frame for transformation. In the context of accelerating change and converging stresses is the concept of sustainable development has become more compelling today.

There is an urgent need to reconcile development and climate change. The key to achieving this is to approach the problem from the development perspective, since that is where in most countries the priority lies. What is required therefore, is an integrated approach that recognizes the nexus between sustainable development and climate change particularly in the developing countries.

The focus should be on the main national development priorities, such as poverty reduction, disaster reduction, rural development, energy supply and transportation. Climate change and sustainable development should be addressed together as there are strong linkages between the two. These linkages provide for integrated policy development and the necessity to consider the risk of trade-offs. Integration may not only provide new opportunities, but also may be a prerequisite for successfully addressing both issues. Since the feasibility of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations is dependent on general socio-economic development paths, climate policy responses should be fully placed in the larger context of technological and socio-economic policy development rather than be viewed as an add-on to those broader policies.

Climate change should feature prominently within the environmental or economic policy agendas of developing countries as evidence shows that some of the most adverse effects of climate change is in developing countries, where populations are most vulnerable and least likely to easily adapt to climate change and that climate change will affect the potential for development in these countries. This was most dramatically, evident from the devastating floods that inundated one-third of Pakistan in 2022 bringing it to the point of economic collapse.

Some synergies already exist between climate change policies and the sustainable development agenda in developing countries, such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, transport and sustainable land-use policies. Despite limited attention from policy-makers to date, climate change policies could have significant ancillary benefits for the local environment. The reverse is also true as local and national policies to address congestion, air quality, access to energy services and energy diversity may also limit harmful emissions. Nevertheless there could be significant trade-offs associated with deeper levels of mitigation in some countries, for example, where developing countries are dependent on indigenous coal and may be required to switch to cleaner yet more expensive fuels to limit emissions.

The distributional impacts of such policies are an important determinant of their feasibility and need to be considered up-front. International community will need to recognize the diverse situations of developing countries with respect to their level of economic development, their vulnerability to climate change and their ability to adapt or mitigate. Recognition of how climate change is likely to influence other development priorities may be a first step toward building cost-effective strategies and integrated, institutional capacity in developing countries to respond to climate change.

Although climate change seems marginal compared to the pressing issues of poverty alleviation and economic development, it is becoming clear that the realization of development goals may be hampered by climate change. However, development can be shaped in such a way as to achieve its goals and at the same time reduce vulnerability to climate change, thereby facilitating sustainable development that realizes economic, social, local and global environmental goals. Climate change discussions should focus on development strategies with ancillary climate benefits and increase the capability of developing countries to implement these.

Climate policies can be more effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies designed to make national and regional development paths more sustainable. This occurs because the impact of climate variability and change, climate policy responses and associated socio-economic development will affect the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development goals. Conversely, the pursuit of those goals will in turn affect the opportunities for and success of, climate policies.

Recognizing the dual relationship between Sustainable Development and climate change points to a need for the exploration of policies that jointly address Sustainable Development and climate change. There is a need for the policymakers and development partners to adopt an effective approach to growth and development, one that eschews the damaging ways of the past, considers interlinkages among people, the planet and the global economy in policy making and seizes the opportunities new technological possibilities offer to promote strong, resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth.

Governments promote green technological innovation and diffusion, with support from the development partner community and provide a clear sense of direction and policy certainty to encourage firms to redirect innovation toward green technologies. While policy approaches to support climate policies and the energy transition may differ across countries, it is important to avoid policies, which result in lower trade in green goods and services, lower technological transfers and an inefficient allocation of resources. Development partners could also explore multicounty mechanisms to support technological breakthroughs in clean technologies for their diffusion to emerging markets and developing economies.

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Cities chosen for EU NetZeroCities Pilot programme

Cities chosen for EU NetZeroCities Pilot programme

Why we need to design buildings for wildlife as well as people

Why we need to design buildings for wildlife as well as people

Animal architecture: why we need to design buildings for wildlife as well as people

By Paul Dobraszczyk, UCL

How did early humans first learn to build? It’s quite possible that it was by observing animals that had already mastered the art. Indeed, when you look at the animal world many birds, insects and mammals are excellent architects and builders.

Beavers are quite literally landscape engineers – they’re being reintroduced in the UK to help fight against the increased incidence and severity of flooding caused by climate change.

Social insects like bees, wasps, ants and termites construct what many have described as the animal equivalents of human cities.

Spiders and silkworms have long been regarded as expert builders in the weaving of their silk webs. While other creatures like foxes, moles and badgers build by excavating the ground.

Then there are the animals that carry their homes on their backs – the shells of snails and turtles, for example, are both extensions of and protection for their vulnerable soft bodies.

Beyond human

We might admire and even imitate animal architecture, but when it comes to human-designed buildings, we are usually extremely selective about what kinds of creatures we allow in.

In general, animals are only ever designed for when they are of use to humans – whether as livestock, domestic pets, spectacles to consume in zoos and aquariums, or objects of scientific manipulation in laboratories.

If animals can’t be put to use, they’re usually ignored. And if those animals take it upon themselves to inhabit buildings, they’re invariably regarded as pests and dealt with accordingly.

In my new book, Animal Architecture: Beasts, Buildings and Us, I look at why we should build for animals as well as people. Indeed, wildlife is all around us and is already living in or around most of our homes, anyway.

Examples in the book include spiders spinning their webs in the dark corners of rooms. Swallows finding ideal purchase on brick walls for their saliva and mud-based nest cups. Rats making their homes in the subterranean spaces of the city. And cats and dogs appropriating our furniture and fittings as their own places of rest.

There’s hardly any part of the human-built environment that can’t be inhabited or changed by insects, animals and birds. It’s easy enough to understand how this works in relation to animals that are classed as pets. It’s generally taken for granted that pet owners know how to care for their animals. But it’s much harder to care for animals that are mostly regarded as unwelcome intruders into buildings.

Animal estates

A powerful example of the potential breadth of such interspecies awareness is artist Fritz Haeg’s Animal Estates project, which ran from 2008 until 2013. In nine different cities, Haeg organised events to encourage participation in creating structures that would be attractive to a variety of native species, including bats, birds and insects.

As well as building structures for animals to inhabit, the project also hosted events designed to stimulate interest and knowledge about native animals (and, in many cases, to encourage urban dwellers to make structures themselves). This holistic approach to ecological design aimed to foster more care for animals in cities – animals that would probably otherwise go unnoticed.

Other wildlife-inspired architectural projects include the non-profit organisation The Expanded Environment, which provides helpful online resources on how to care for a much wider range of animals in relation to architecture – most notably in their collaborative design proposals and annual competitions for novel types of animal design.

The material on their website expands ideas about what might be considered appropriate animals for designers to work with as “clients”. Insects appear alongside dogs and cats, birds with lizards and bats with oysters.

Housing the non-human

Tower that houses bats
A contemporary reconstruction of Charles A. Campbell’s Municipal Bat House (1914), near Comfort, Texas, 2009.
Wikimedia Commons, Larry D. Moore/cc-by-sa 4.0 International, CC BY-SA

Ultimately thinking beyond just people is important because all lifeforms create their own environments – and what humans generally call “the environment” is in reality the sum of these creations. Why then does the idea that humans live outside of the environment persist so strongly?

Perhaps, as any therapist will likely tell you, losing a fantasy is always much harder than losing a reality. Yet, as is all too obvious, the persistence of the fantasy of human exceptionalism is now endangering all life on the planet.

It is humans, and humans alone, who dominate every corner of the environment, while at the same time asserting they are actually removed from that environment. If my book has one core aim, it is to encourage readers to think beyond humans in the way we imagine, design and live in our buildings and cities.The Conversation

Paul Dobraszczyk, Lecturer in Architecture, UCL

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Weak Governance in MENA Region Worsens Deepening Land Crisis

Weak Governance in MENA Region Worsens Deepening Land Crisis

Weak Governance in MENA Region Worsens Deepening Land Crisis

Weak governance exacerbates the deepening land crisis in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to a new World Bank report that urges broad reforms to improve land use and access amid increasing stress from climate change and population growth.

But why Weak Governance in MENA Region Worsens Deepening Land Crisis, starting with the water millennia scarcity

Titled “Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa?”, the report shows how continuing land deterioration in a region that is 84 percent desert worsens water scarcity issues that threaten food security and economic development.

“Now is the time to examine the impact of land issues that loom large in many public policy decisions but aren’t always explicitly acknowledged,” said Ferid Belhaj, the World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa. “Quite simply, land matters. MENA’s growing population and the impact of climate change add urgency to addressing the land crisis.”

The report uses satellite imagery data to show that cropland in MENA countries decreased by 2.4 percent over the 15-year period from 2003-2018, which was the world’s sharpest drop in a region that already had the lowest cropland per capita and little margin for agricultural expansion. During the same period, the MENA population increased by 35 percent and is estimated to expand by another 40 percent to 650 million people in 2050.

Comparing land cover data with statistics on wealth inequality and other indicators, the report shows a correlation between land degradation and poor governance. In addition, state ownership of land is highest in the MENA region, but governments fail to manage land assets in ways that generate public revenues, the report says, while access to land is a severe constraint for 23 percent of firms in the manufacturing and service sectors.

Also impeding land access are social norms and laws regarding property that are more unfavorable for women in the MENA region compared to other regions, according to the report. In particular, women in MENA countries come under strong social pressure to renounce their inheritance rights over property, often without fair compensation.

“You cannot achieve sustainable economic and social development if people and businesses lack proper access to land,” said Harris Selod, a World Bank senior economist and co-author of the report.

Reforms proposed by the report include establishing transparent market-driven processes to value and transfer land, as well as developing complete inventories of public land and improving the registration of land rights. These are necessary steps to support more efficient land use and land management decisions and to ensure that land serves social, economic and fiscal functions in a region where property taxes represent less than one percent of GDP.

Land policies can also help reduce gender inequalities. A tax on male beneficiaries when women renounce their inheritance rights to property could help reduce the gender gap, with the money collected funding initiatives promoting women’s empowerment, the report says.

“Increasing land scarcity leads to strategic trade-offs about the best use of land to meet competing economic, social, and sustainability objectives,” said Anna Corsi, a World Bank senior land administration specialist and co-author of the report. “However, the holistic approach needed to address core development issues of land policy is critically lacking in the MENA region.”

The report notes that land scarcity and governance issues vary throughout the region, with countries requiring approaches that are tailored to their unique challenges. For example, wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council countries face severe land scarcity but have better land administration, while the Maghreb countries as well as Iran, Iraq, and Syria are more seriously challenged by land governance issues with less severe land scarcity. A third group — Djibouti, Egypt, Yemen, and the West Bank and Gaza — faces serious challenges in both governance and scarcity of land.

In stressing that “land matters”, the report argues that urgently addressing the MENA land crisis now exacerbated by climate change and population growth is essential for the region’s sustainable economic and social development.

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