The changing world of architecture
Watch the episode on YouTube right here!
Architecture has an impact on our world.
It’s not so much, what does the architecture look like? As, what can the architecture do?
We created a podcast episode: “The changing world of architecture” with Henning Larsen Architects Director of Innovation and Sustainability, Jakob Strømann- Andersen. Join us when we discuss the changes in today’s architecture.
In Jakob’s team, the design process is driven by the possibilities of architectural impact.
That’s what they discuss with the client. That’s what they innovate towards. An innovation, concerning a broad term of sustainability through the perfect design. Both when it comes to the social, the environmental and the economic impact.
The employees at Henning Larsen Architects don’t have a fixed design language.
The projects are often conceptual based practice.
They don’t like to set a carbon target. And in the design process, the first step is always to look at the data collection.
This may seem boring. Why not grab a napkin and start sketching instead?
But if you want to make the biggest impact with an architectural design, you need to look at the data and the neighborhood of the design before you embrace the creative process.
This is perhaps a new perspective. So, keep reading if you want to learn more about this topic.
In the following article, we’ll discuss:
- How has innovation and sustainability affected architecture over the last number of years?
- What are the biggest impacts Jakob has seen within his own organization?
- How does Jakob see the future of architecture in the next 15 years?
As with most industries, the Architectural Industry must evolve if it wants to keep up with the requirements. Requirements like innovation and sustainability.
How has innovation and sustainability affected architecture over the last number of years?
We’re not truly capable of building 100 percent sustainable yet.
As sad as it seems, this is not a possibility for the industry right now. That’s why they won’t use the term on Henning Larsen Architects homepage. They don’t believe any of the projects are truly sustainable – at the moment.
But they are heading towards sustainability.
The focus being on creating and documenting the impact they make.
In the Architectural Industry, Jakob often meets a young generation of Architects that doesn’t dream about designing skyscrapers in Manhattan. A career, many Architects used to head towards.
Now the young generation dream about making an impact in the local community.
The focus on architecture has changed.
Today innovation and sustainability are inseparable:
– Architects are often required to innovate in terms of reusing existing buildings.
– They need to think of how to turn the building into something that’s ready for the future.
– And to question, what that building would look like from an architectural perspective.
The Architectural Industry is changing. Not only is the new generation focused on the social impact, but sustainability and reusing existing buildings have required the Architects to innovate on a higher level.
Let’s take a closer look at the specific impacts Jakob has seen.
What are the biggest impacts Jakob has seen within his own organization?
The need for innovation is clear.
Jakob and his team aspire towards new solutions within the industry. They’re working on tools to document and to use data in the creative design process. AI may be a big part of this innovative project, but it’s still something that needs to be developed.
Jakob’s team also discusses the fact of “Designing with the invisible”.
The invisible refers to the previously mentioned focus on social, economic and environmental perspectives.
These aspects are hard to consider without the help of digitalization. And that’s why Jakobs team always work in 3D from day one of a project. The efficiency makes it possible to optimize.
And the market requires us to optimize right now.
One of the biggest game-changers within the Architectural Industry, and within Henning Larsen Architects, is also the use of new talents. Talents from the Gaming Industry.
In the Gaming Industry, they’re good at creating experiences.
They have a huge focus on this. And usually, Architects doesn’t take the time considering user opinion for a new building project. By using tools from the Gaming Industry, they’re able to implement user opinion on a whole new scale.
Here’s an example of how Jakob and his team implemented digitalization within a project:
On a previous project on Refshaleøen, Jakob and his co-workers teamed up with Aalborg University and Social Sciences Lab in order to look through Instagram for pictures and comments concerning Refshaleøen. By collecting all the pictures and texts, the team was now able to discover the focus of the users – seeing what they promoted as positive, and what they didn’t give much attention. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the industrial culture on Refshaleøen, but the small sparks of nature, that got the most positive attention from the visitors.
Collecting this kind of meta-data and doing some qualitative interviews is a strong method for developing a new project with focus on the users.
We should not be afraid of digitalization and AI. It brings the opportunity of much more diversity into our Industry.
Then… with this perspective, what does the future look like?
How does Jakob see the future for architecture in the next 15 years?
Digitalization will push the industry into a new era of design.
It’s a great opportunity for the firms. It’ll open new revenue streams. It’ll open up new ways of bringing creativity into the built environment.
Nature also has to be a bigger part of the future.
Nature is so complex, and we haven’t been working enough with implementing nature in our projects in the Construction Industry. As it is right now, we standardize nature. But nature is not standardized. Working with digitalization and robots can make us understand nature better.
Thereby we would be able to do much more research. Collect much more data and bring much more diversity into our environment.
The future of the Architectural Industry:
- Needs to design buildings fit for purpose.
- Need to consider nature and embrace the human need for social contact.
- Needs to implement digitalization and use it to create innovation and diversity.
The future looks bright… if the industry is able to evolve in this direction.