Paul Morrell, OBE explores a range of challenges facing the built environment professions and the need for adaptability at a time of marked institutional, technological and social evolution.

Paul will argue that the built environment professions need to break the habits of a lifetime and collaborate on reforms in sector structure, education, policy and accountability to improve efficiency as well as the offer to clients and society.
Many of our institutions, including most of the built environment professions, were constituted in Victorian times, and those founded since then have followed the same principles.

Todays world is, however, very different with changes in business practice, the impact of information technology, the blurring of lines between the professions and ;trade, and an educated and discriminating public increasingly questioning the trust that can be placed in all institutions - and, too often, with good cause.

Paul Morrell, chair of the Edge Commission on Collaboration for Change in the built environment professions asks whether institutions can find something in their past that can be updated to differentiate them in a way that is relevant and valuable in the future.

We are demanding more and more from our buildings. The built environment will be relied upon to support better health for residents and occupiers, as well as being a key element of transitioning to a low carbon economy. However, there is a performance gap and an aspiration gap between what buildings promise to deliver, and the health, well-being and environmental footprint evident after they open their doors. There is a systematic failure of the professions to account for this gap.

At no time in Portland's history have so many citizens been affected by new architecture. New buildings --bold, beautiful, middling, or downright ugly-- are rising in every neighborhood of the city. The city has a process --Design Review-- to decide what buildings make the grade. But its most stringent oversight only applies to downtown and few other, innermost districts.

How does design review work? How well is it working? Should it be expanded to other parts of the city? Three prominent design advocates who have overseen the city's review during three distinct eras share their opinions about how to get the best buildings for the city. Panelists: Michael McCullouch, architect, urban designer and developer; Guenevere Millius, President of Parachute Strategies and chair of the Design Commission; John Russell, President of Russell Development Company. Randy Gragg, director of the University of Oregon's John Yeon Center, will moderate the program.Published on May 30, 2014

Janine Benyus, Jason McLennan, and David McConville describe how our lives are related to nature and ecological design. These speeches (of which clips are shown) took place at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference. Published on Dec 9, 2013

Barbara Deutsch, Loeb Fellow 2006, Executive Director of the Landscape Architecture Foundation.

Harvard Thinks Green 2 "Clashing Cultures in Pursuit of Sustainability in the Built Environment" | Harvard Thinks Green 2 by Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society. Edmondson joined the Harvard faculty in 1996 following completion of her PhD in Organizational Behavior. She teaches leadership and organizational learning in the MBA and Executive Education programs. Her book, Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy was published in May, 2012, by Jossey-Bass.

Smart ICT for Sustainable Living in Stockholm Royal Seaport

Swedish ICT is leading an initiative aiming to detail a generic information and communication infrastructure for Stockholm Royal Seaport, a much talked about new city district of Stockholm. The VINNOVA-funded project, Smart ICT for living and working in Stockholm Royal Seaport, engages about a dozen small and large companies from the telecom sector, construction companies, and the City of Stockholm. Published on Dec 30, 2013

The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment

The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment is an educational charity, created by The Prince of Wales to put people at the heart of the architectural design process. The Prince's Foundation teaches and practises timeless and ecological ways of planning, designing and building.

This film explains more about the charity and its projects, and features interviews with The Prince's Foundation's Chief Executive Hank Dittmar, and Ambassador George Clarke. Uploaded on May 26, 2011

On January 28th at 12pm (EST), Gary Lawrence, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of AECOM, discusses how AECOM delivers solutions that create enhance and sustain the world's built, natural and social environments.