A pre-demolition audit of an existing building highlights reusable and recyclable materials.

What is a building?Is it the postal address?

The single address with three blocks in it?.Next came the question of how best to approach obtaining the information.Ricketts says local authorities were using a combination of approaches, from trawling through records (building control, planning and housing), to looking at GIS mapping, and even cycling the borough.

In the end, his team used 3D modelling to help them identify the buildings above 18 metres, but many of them turned out to be private buildings, making it necessary to link with Land Registry and Companies House in order to find and contact the owners to obtain the data.He adds that it’s difficult to make sense of so much information in a single Excel spreadsheet, and says it ended up multiplying exponentially..

Although Ricketts is keen to begin to harness the benefits and opportunities that will come from digitising the planning system, he agrees with Sharp’s observations about security and the possibility of accidentally sharing too much.

He believes it will be much better to build in the necessary data security right from the beginning of the process, and says that will be a key next step to address.In hospitals, patients go from a consultation to testing and diagnosis, before they receive treatment.

With process engineering, what we’re really talking about is putting systems in place in order to achieve particular goals and facilitate outcomes..These processes need to flow, react and come together, in order to make the desired outcome happen.

It’s really important, therefore, that we understand these processes in detail.They are what help us design the most efficient built assets, best suited to delivering the outcomes we set out to achieve..