Moving beyond our silos
Article Type: Guest editorial From: Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, Volume 3, Issue 1.
A primary challenge facing many businesses, corporations and professions is the ability to adapt to change. This of course,applies to academics and universities as well – who often cling to their traditional institutional and disciplinary frameworks. The paradigm of sustainability has challenged the built environment globally. And it continues to challenge practitioners and academics of the built environment: we still build “less than optimal” buildings, infrastructure, neighbourhoods and cities. The reasons are multiple and stem from a range of issues such as tradition, barriers, context and poor integration of decisions. The traditional way of doing things, or “[…] we have always done it this way […] so I will continue to […]”, of course is an impediment to change. It takes more than explanation to motivate change. Barriers other than perception include a wide range of social mechanisms that include education in siloed disciplines, institutional arrangements that do not recognise sustainability as operational, professional and building standards, policies… and the list goes on. One common theme that emerges from the list is a lack of integration. At the academic level – when we examine the physical built environment there are a wide range of disciplines that contribute to the building of a city, such as engineering, town planning, architecture,quantity surveying or construction management. Each discipline has carved out a distinct role over the last century as to what it does and its niche contribution. There was order, or a semblance of order of how the city is carved up.
Perhaps this was suitable a century ago – but the challenges we face in the twenty-first century are different. The need to transcend our disciplinary and professional siloes is critical – and we do it at our own peril – to deal with complex problems. For example, airports used to be planned and managed by transport/aviation engineers – a patch of ground 10 km outside the city (often post-war) was developed, terminal and runways built, and surrounding storage and freight infrastructure added and the job was complete. However, the construct of the city airport now has changed – as the role of the airport has changed. The evolution of the airport city has evolved – where airports are now connections for global trade and are developing their own commercial and business precincts. They have become trade hubs in their own context. The development of infrastructure and land use around airports has become more integrated with other interests and stakeholders; and network governance is becoming more critical to link this wide array of stakeholders.
The five papers in this issue all contribute to change in the built environment. The first paper examines a paradigm shift– to move sustainability onto more positive ground, with an emphasis on moving beyond business-as-usual. The author examines gaps in sustainability in the built environment and argues that development can be designed to provide ecological gains and“ecoservices”. The second article moves to the professional level – and examines the role of facilities managers in sustainable practice in the built environment. The research provides direction for facilities managers to improve and provides best practice and sustainable facilities management. The third paper provides a method and a tool to improve urban renewal in Hong Kong. The authors introduce a GIS-based framework that incorporates quantitative and qualitative data to improve decisions for more sustainable land uses. The fourth article also focuses on a tool/method to improve lifecycle assessment in four case studies in Brazil. The focus is to establish performance goals and benchmarks to guide and improve policy and decision-making. Last,the final paper assesses carbon monoxide in two English cities – West Midlands and Merseyside – by surveying carbon monoxide alarm ownership. The emphasis of this research is on health in the built environment – and more stringent maintenance and replacement requirements on for gas or solid fuel appliances. The diversity of papers in this issue provides a good example of an integration of a wide range of disciplines across the built environment. All of the authors examine the common theme of improving sustainability at different levels, requiring a range of changes in order to improve the built environment.
Professor Douglas Baker
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
