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How will we design and build offices, if there’s the possibility that they might have to be re-purposed for domestic, healthcare or manufacturing purposes?

It’s through one of the ateliers called PRAXXIS, which is focused on inclusivity in design.A lot of the briefs the students are given involve getting different parts of society to live and work together.

At the moment, they are working on an existing building in Hulme that hasn’t been used in quite a few years.They’ve got to retain part of the facade and completely build a new building inside it.It needs to have a cafe and offices — it’s a mixed use type building aimed at supporting the community.

I do group work with them and help them work out how to incorporate all the M&E services into their building, but also give them a focus on sustainable design.Mostly, it’s trying to get them to think about getting adequate daylight in, which is quite interesting with the facade they’ve got because they have to reuse it, so they don’t have many options to make the windows bigger.

They’ve got to think of a more interesting way of doing it.

I’ve given them some homework and this time they are going to be presenting their daylighting to me.The act of combining that with all of the different approaches to delivering buildings means we’re able to progress delivery, while looking towards the long-term as well.

The Construction Innovation Hub has a year left, during which time it will need to create impact and get the necessary information to prove value.However, realistically, it’s going to take a decade or more to really embed these approaches, and for parallel developments to share data and information that really demonstrates value.

This will in turn enable clients to make better choices and achieve better delivery of buildings.. Progressing the future of construction.The progress we’ve seen in just the last five years has been significant, and it’s important to acknowledge that we’ve come a long way in a short period of time because we’ve been able to capitalise on the experience of others.