One helpful way to approach things is to consider projects as having both a problem space and a solution space.

This is not just putting money aside to plant trees, it’s about working with environmental groups – not to seek reluctant acceptance but instead enthusiastic support and ideas.We know that green spaces are a positive influence on our well-being.

Studies have shown that contact with nature has a significant impact on mental health.This is another example where multiple value drivers can be augmented in tandem; increasing diversity, improving well-being, supporting productivity and creating educational environments.. How can we reduce waste materials, and, moreover, incorporate them into the built environment, reusing plastics and other potential throwaways?.How do we look at all these things together to find the best business, aesthetic and environmental solutions?.

The answer is simple and difficult.Thinking more broadly with the widest purpose, giving the right culture and encouragement is easy for a time.

Creating the space, the willingness to change, requires a great deal of energy.

There is an opportunity to work and think differently; no longer do you have to assume that working for and with the environment will push a project over budget or make it untenable..This is not a huge departure, however: rigour in approach is good practice, and the information required is already largely included in BIM models..

The most significant change for architects will be to free up large chunks of their time to devote to the creative part of their work, which is where they can add the most value (and which is why they became architects in the first place)..Better information for planning officers:.

As for architects, digitisation is about giving them access to more and better information on which to base their decisions, and creating more time in which to make them.Making these decisions is why people become planners in the first place..