Decisions made during early design stages should prioritise embodied carbon alongside design, function, and aesthetics..
It is worth noting that complex analogue processes tend to create work for people who specialise in navigating them and this, in turn, raises the barrier of entry to the uninitiated.This impacts both the small scale developer who finds it too costly to engage with the planning process; and the domestic developer who may require a number of expensive professional consultants to extend their kitchen.. Challenges/blockers/barriers to a digital planning process.
Clearly, there are technological challenges to a project such as this, but they are far from insurmountable.As with all change, the principle barriers will be the cultural shift required..However, because we are not seeking to apply a single solution to the entire process, we will not be seeking to change the entire process at the same time.
Once the core parameters and rules are in place and the environment is enabled, the overall project can advance incrementally, demonstrating benefits and value as it goes.. As with many instances of progress, there may be vested interests that might object to aspects of this project from a position of self-interest.We cannot deal with them here.
This project will shine a light on what is possible.. Further applications: the benefits to government and local plans.
The solutions may be different, but the principles we are exploring here have very positive ramifications for other areas.. Local/central government: the principle of making information interoperable and shareable, or policies more machine-readable and rules-based, while smoothing flow of information ‘before use’, is applicable in many areas: domestic planning, perhaps, where we could unblock permitted development and focus more on sustainable development; or major infrastructure projects where incompatible information systems breed wasted time and resources.. Local plans: are all based on evidence, which is all based on data.In order to make MiC adoption more appealing to private sector projects, the Buildings Department of Hong Kong has established a Pre-Acceptance Mechanism for MiC.
The Development Bureau has also released a.Technical Circular.
(2/2020) which sets out a range of government projects for which MiC adoption will be mandatory.Early adopter projects in Hong Kong have had some success with MiC although so far this has been limited to particular building types, primarily social and elderly housing.