The framework is trying to drive large infrastructure programs of work because they’re so complex, and this feeds into health and schools, as well as other government-led projects.
One of the most intriguing parts of Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, is the potential for a government mandate within the next couple of years.The last big mandate was BIM, and it had a transformative impact.
There’s enormous potential here, but the industry needs to take some time to work out what the terms of such a mandate might be, in order to ensure it manifests as something helpful for everyone..The mention of a possible future mandate in TIP 2021 reflects positively on the work that has been done so far, and the commitment from the government on the issue.Although some might challenge this, there is a vast amount of evidence supporting the idea that the adoption of manufacturing approaches and processes, as well as certain elements of standardization in how we build our buildings, will deliver significant change and great benefits.
A mandate would force people to keep pursuing this new, MMC approach going forward, helping us to keep this push towards modern methods of construction and a better way of working from fading away.. A mandate would also encourage collaboration, because we’ll have to do this together in order to reap the benefits.Additionally, it would also provide a timeframe to prove what we’re doing, collect the data to demonstrate the opportunity, and work together to shape the next steps of the journey.
Ultimately, a mandate would create leverage, commitment and confidence as the industry moves towards change, with the government then able to look to build this into future frameworks, or to pursue new mechanisms for procuring our buildings.. Shaping the future of construction.
The next five years will be an exciting time for construction, as we continue to lean into this significant shift.Although not specifically intended to apply to the design of buildings and places, the Social Value Act (Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012) requires those who commission services to consider how wider social, economic, and environmental benefits can be secured, indicating an increased recognition of the importance of social value in the UK.
RIBA has recently published the Social Value Toolkit for Architecture, developed in partnership between the University of Reading and the London-based Research Practice Leads, as an attempt to establish a common methodology for measuring the monetisation of social value through calculating the social return on investment.This is intended as a starting point for use by practitioners in the industry to understand and embed social value in architectural practice.
A central recommendation is an attempt to increase the prevalence of post-occupancy evaluations conducted by architects, to enable mapping of intangible impacts such as social value.The current, alarming, lack of collection by architects of real-life data on the impact of their schemes suggests that this societal feedback loop is not necessarily being designed into future schemes..