Flexibility

A complete picture of a building’s future performance must include its capacity for reinvention. Social and economic shifts can occur rapidly and unexpectedly, but continually appraising long-term trends is fundamental to maintaining value and resilience. Those interventions might include (but are not limited to) improving health and wellbeing, decreasing carbon loads and mitigating the impacts of climate change on building fabric or services.
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Our research showed a growing awareness of the need for flexibility to meet these changes, both new and familiar. However, we found many respondents unprepared to act. 40% ranked building design and construction flexibility as being among the top three issues they feel least prepared to act on over the next three to five years.

This process begins at acquisition, or when planning a new development or refurbishments to an existing asset. Making the right decisions at these early stages requires collaboration with building specialists which understand the technical capabilities of a space and how any investment required to improve them will pay off. Those improvements may cover building structure, plan shape, floor height or design loadings, and will include climate change adaptation considerations and circular economy principles to mitigate those future risks, among any other commercial priorities for an owner or occupiers.

For existing buildings, radical fundamental adaptation may be unfeasible. However, even on listed buildings or those within restrictive sites or with awkward configurations, drastic improvements can be achieved with a project team of experts to apply the commercial need to building fabric and services.