This year’s London Build offered a vibrant platform to connect with stakeholders across the construction and built environment sectors. We had many engaging conversations, particularly around land finding—emphasising the critical importance of getting it right the first time amidst shifting national priorities on homes and infrastructure. Alongside these discussions, we attended a range of insightful panel sessions covering the myriad challenges facing the sector as 2024 draws to a close.

While these challenges may seem daunting, our experience at the event left us optimistic. Solutions are within reach, and their success relies on three key pillars: industry upskilling, sector-wide collaboration, and a steadfast commitment to professional integrity.

Building Safety

On Wednesday morning we attended an insightful session during which panellists reflected on the implications of the Building Safety Act so far. Speakers included Mike Ward from Association for Specialist Fire Protection, Calvin Dalrymple from RYNO, Paul McSoley of Building Services Engineers, Gary Daniels from Jacobs, Amanda Long from Construction Product Information, Chris Greenhough from Skanska and Duncan Johnson from the Office for Product Safety and Standards. The panel were upfront in their assertion that, since the establishment of the Building Safety Act, a myriad of safety issues perpetuate. They emphasised ongoing issues with product standards, accurate specifications, and design work hindering safety and explained that unfortunately, we are still seeing vague specs which leave critical performance details unaddressed. In fact, we might expect that by this point in 2024 accurate product information for every product would be an expected industry baseline, a point poignantly articulated by Amanda Long.

The panel were keen to emphasise that the Building Safety Act isn’t just about high-risk structures, and that ‘low risk’ also continue to experience barriers to efficient safety adoption – much of which is down to lack of specialised skills. The panel encouraged the audience to reach out and find opportunities to upskill and underlined a clear appetite for knowledge-sharing and collaboration on fire safety across the sector- touching on Passive Fire Knowledge Group initiative, which has bought together designers, suppliers, and installers to raise the bar on safety.  

The Climate Crisis

With the climate crisis accelerating, the need for climate-resilient buildings was another big topic at the event. From overheating to flooding, the challenges are enormous, and the design community has a huge part to play in leading the way. During a morning session outlining the UK Green Building Council’s Climate Resilience Roadmap, the panel - comprised of Hannah Giddings from UK Green Building Council, Rebecca Lydon from Stantec, Kartikeya Rajput from PRP, Sally Hadley from Mace and Karl Limbert from Equans UK & Ireland - highlighted the importance of adaptation as much as mitigation—through better models for flood management, retrofitting with resilience in mind and adopting principles of the circular economy. They praised positive measures taken by the government around net zero and the push for decarbonation and clean energy, and emphasised that, in conjunction with implementing the Climate Resilience Roadmap, a big part of this picture will be widespread standardisation and improvements to assessment metrics, to help ensure we’re building for the future.

The Transformative Potential of Artificial Intelligence

A standout session on Artificial Intelligence, featuring Calin Gruia from Autodesk, Millan Martin De La Torre-Velver from Vinci Construction UK, Mariangela Iodice, Architect and BIM Coordinator at Make and Bill Holden from AtkinsRéalis, explored the transformative potential of technology such as Digital Twins (virtual representations of physical assets or environments that mirror the real-world counterparts in real time) and autonomous buildings, which have the potential to significantly transform our relationship with the built world. The takeaway was that, yes, the potential here is huge, but it will only be possible with rigorously adopted standardisation on the recording and capturing of data, giving the example of standardised naming conventions.  

Fragmentation between industry stakeholders, coupled with significant skills gaps and an aging, less technology-savvy workforce - threaten our chances of truly harnessing the potentials of Artificial Intelligence. Where Digital Twin technology is currently the reserve of mega new-build projects, the panel emphasised its importance in areas such as retrofit, and used the fascinating example of a Digital Twin project at Edinburgh University to underline the benefit of establishing the technology on existing assets.  

Learning from BIM

Similar hopes and concerns were echoed in a later AI session, featuring panellists Lilian Ho from AECOM, James Garner from Gleeds, Cristina Sánchez from Lendlease, Matteo Orsi from Morris+Company, Tamas Borodi from OpenSpace and Damian Rumble Laing O’Rourke, who encouraged the audience to ensure their workforce upskill and optimise processes now; in order to ‘learn from the mistakes’ the sector made when integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM). They addressed the pros and cons of Building or Buying AI models and urged the audience to avoid rushing into AI and to only build necessary models which are solving real problems.

Moving Forward Together

We left London Build feeling optimistic—awed by the incredible work happening across our sector to address key challenges, grateful to hear from so many deeply committed to driving positive change, and, above all, proud to facilitate the foundational services that underpin this vital progress.

Fragmentation was consistently highlighted as a major barrier to progress. At TerraQuest and Planning Portal, we are bold and honest in our mission to combat this. Through a unified platform, we offer all our industry’s stakeholders—from homeowners to architects, builders to local authorities—seamless access to a wide range of essential services, from land finding and site assessments to application submissions. These services are all in one place, expertly managed, and designed with the industry’s needs at heart.

As 2024 draws to a close, we believe the sector has the tools, the talent, and the tenacity to meet the complex challenges ahead. Now, it’s time to act.

To learn more about TerraQuest’s services, visit our website.

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