Futurebuild 2022 _ Social Housing and Digital Twins

So FutureBuild is back in 2022 with a London presence and DCS Founder & Chairman, Bola Abisogun OBE, has been invited [by the award-winning team Costello & Palmer Communications] to contribute alongside some of the UK’s most innovative and disruptive minds.

Having completed his sabbatical from the ‘traditional’ construction industry spending most of the last two years working with the amazing team over at the Centre for Digital Built Britain aka CDBB, led by Alexandra Bolton and Mark Enzer OBE; it is time for Bola to land the concept of an eco-system ‘of connected Digital Twins’ into the mainstream.

The whole idea of a UK National Digital Twin programme was and still is predicated on the notion that data [when used for the public good] must be trusted, structured, interoperable and dynamic. Granted there are many challenges [and blockers] about ‘how we achieve and maintain’ such an ambition, but the choice of whether we deploy the use of digital twins [or not] is no longer optional. In truth, the harsh reality is that the role of an organisational Digital Twin will become as necessary as the people that actually run and administer the business itself; and a people-centric solution must prevail, allow him to explain.

As far as #ESG is concerned, just how will we even begin to decarbonise our existing built assets and monitor / measure our carbon emissions / footprint(s) from them? Ditto, in a new build environ, how do we mitigate investment criteria [and appease principal bondholders, asset or fund managers] with increasing contractual requirements, imposed during the project delivery phase? We can no longer rely upon the built asset as being the only available truth layer. The reality is, "the sum of the parts will always be greater than the whole" and everything prior to practical completion OR pre-occupation is equally as important as the end product itself.

As far back as 1994, Bola has developed a number of tangible ‘use cases’, that rely solely on two things desirous of any experienced #CharteredSurveyor; identifying the boundaries between collective and individual responsibility and the use of validated, structured data. However today, with the advent of technology, particularly AI and Blockchain solutions, he remains focussed on the strategic and operational use of validated, structured data in seeking to avoid future #GrenfellTower disasters. Bola's ambition has been legitimised and energised by the looming presence of the Building Safety Act, arising from the Dame Hackitt Report; Building a Safer Future.

Themed: The role of Digital Twins in Regulated Professional Services _ several things spring to mind; what is the role of a Digital Twin in the professional services domain? How will ‘regulated’ professional services [including Legal / Accounting / Surveying / Design and Engineering disciplines] continue to evolve and co-exist whilst adopting Digital Twins as part of everyday business activity?

Is there a need for Built Environment professionals to adhere to ‘a standard’, akin to the development of say BS EN ISO 19650 for example?

With a laser vision focus on the UK’s multi-billion pound social housing sector, just how will we avoid future Grenfell Tower disasters and what steps are required to be taken _ by regulated professional service providers _ during the planning, design and construction phases of built asset(s)?

Join me on the 2nd March 2022 at the ExCel, London to hear more about the future of regulated professional services and the augmented role that digital twins will manifest in the delivery of better project outcomes for clients, key stakeholders, built environment professionals amidst the wider public advantage.