Makers of the world beyond: What is the biggest challenge in the construction industry at the moment? What makes you hopeful?

Venla Seuri

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Meet three experts who tell what’s the biggest challenge in their field and share their visions to overcome them.

Tiffany Cheng: “Why are buildings so static when there are so many examples of movement in nature?”

What is the biggest challenge in your business?

“The UN estimates that, in 2060, the world’s population will reach 10 billion. We need to construct new buildings to support the rapidly growing and urbanising population.

At the same time the construction sector is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. This is because the materials we use (concrete, steel, aluminium) have a high carbon footprint. Our buildings are basically sealed boxes where we have to use very energy intensive systems like heating and air conditioning to regulate indoor comfort.”

What makes you hopeful?

“I find hope by looking at nature. For example, pinecones are made out of the most abundant biopolymer on earth. They can open and close their scales without using any metabolic energy. In our research group, we study how to transfer plant structures into self-shaping building components using additive manufacturing.

We used cellulose material and developed a completely bio-based system that reacts to humidity using the same principle as the pinecone, changing its shape without consuming any energy, at the metre scale. We can use these types of large-scale self-shaping structures in adaptive facades that regulate comfort year-round, by automatically shading hot summer days and opening on cold winter days to let in the free heat from the sun.

We’ve already tested these self-regulating, bio-based structures in an actual building. I am sure that bio-inspired 4D-printing will make its mark in the construction industry.”

Tiffany Cheng is a research group leader at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and an incoming Assistant Professor at Cornell University, USA. Her group investigates self-shaping behaviours inspired by plants and transfers them to adaptive structures for buildings. The process is called 4D printing because her additively manufactured components autonomously react to changes in the surrounding environment.
Background: Computational designer and builder from Taiwan with a background in architecture and robotic fabrication. Tiffany did her masters in Harvard, where she also worked within research before joining University of Stuttgart.
Design philosophy: “Why are buildings so static when there are so many examples of movement in nature? Plants, in particular, have so many clever solutions that we can copy.”

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Harry Charrington: “There is a mental shift on what kinds of challenges architects find exciting”

What is the biggest challenge in the construction industry at the moment?

“We need professionals to rapidly evolve the way they think about their own discipline and its relation to others. Architects have design as their strategic way of thinking. Other disciplines, like planning, are very much a social science, produce policy. Thinking through policy is a very different mode than thinking through design, and one of the big challenges is to try and find ways to make design and policy meet and complement and inform each other.

This conflict is of importance when you think about another big challenge: building new versus reconstructing the old. We need legislative changes in policy to encourage adaptive reuse instead of new construction. Economic policies and subsidies, for instance the UK VAT tax, make building new cheaper than reconstructing an existing building.”

“There is a mental shift on what kinds of challenges architects find exciting. They find as much creativity in adapting existing buildings to zero carbon buildings as designing new buildings with zero carbon targets.

What makes you hopeful?

“For a long time, old buildings were seen as ready to be knocked down. But now, I think there is a mental shift on what kinds of challenges architects find exciting. They find as much creativity in adapting existing buildings to zero carbon buildings as designing new buildings with zero carbon targets."

Harry Charrington is a professor of Architecture in the University of Westminster, London UK. In the same university, he has also worked as the head of School of Architecture and Cities, and prior to that, as the head of the Department of Architecture. Harry teaches university students with several focus areas connected to the urban planning and construction industry. “It still feels like very early days, to really get people to think more holistically about the environment.”
Background: Studied architecture at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1989. Was awarded his PhD at the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2008. During his career, Harry has worked and lectured in several universities in the UK and in Finland. In addition to his academic career, he has practised architecture in both countries.
In Finland, Harry has worked for the Alvar Aalto architecture bureau. He has also carried out in-depth research on the renowned architect. In 2011 Harry published an award-winning book called Alvar Aalto, the mark of the hand.
Design philosophy: ”My interest in architectural history and architectural theory comes out of practice. When people think or speak about architectural practice or architectural phenomenona, they tend to romanticise it. For me, the most important question is how a particular form of architectural practice was born. That is why I always ask: how did you do it? What happened behind this architectural myth?”

Jaakko Paloheimo: “Hybrid construction is one of the keys to solve the challenge”

What is the biggest challenge in the construction industry?

“The biggest challenge in the construction industry is the overconsumption of raw materials. Construction makes 30–40 percent of all carbon-related emissions globally, half of which from overconsumption. It has to be critically reduced."

Wood can offer alternatives to fossil-based raw materials but approximately only 0.9 percent of the European building stock is from wood. The challenge with wood is that we do not have stable, economically beneficial processes for industrial construction. We still have to do a lot of risk analysis and optimisation to gain a bigger market share. Another challenge is the regulation which varies from country to country. It makes it difficult to plan and design wooden buildings on a global scale.”

What makes you hopeful?

“We can tackle the overconsumption by using the wood fully to a wide range of purposes. At UPM we do this with the help of R&D because research is the best way to come up with new solutions. In the EU, regulation will force the industry to cut emissions. Likely the amount of wood used will increase. However, force is not the best way to change things fundamentally.

I believe hybrid construction is the key to the sustainability challenge. We need to optimise the use of materials based on their features. I see this already happening and I hope it will be the new normal for the construction industry. For example, concrete fits well for foundations and elevator shafts due to moisture and rigidity.”

Jaakko Paloheimo is a Sustainability Manager at UPM Plywood, which manufactures high-quality WISA® plywood and veneer products for construction among other industries.
Background: Jaakko has been working in versatile roles with wood products and wood construction for nearly 20 years in Finland, Spain, Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia. He did his masters in Helsinki University of Technology, majoring in Wood Technology. Has also studied International Design Business Management as minor studies.
Design philosophy: “You have to believe in what you’re doing. Without passion there is no motivation. My family has been involved in forest sector for over a century, and already in high school my intuition told me that wood is my thing. I believe wood can help make the world a bit better by replacing fossil-based materials.”

Photography: Yasmin Maiwald, Ossi Piispanen, Sanna Lehto