Engineers, Architects, Builders and Other Contractors Need a Plan

Most contracting businesses who are in business today start their work from a plan drawn up by an Architect or Engineer. Without a plan in place with everything signed and all building permits in place, nothing gets started.

So who among our constructing businesses actually have a plan in place that includes a plan for new building codes, new hydraulic water systems, new power sources to the building, and for using new building materials that probably haven't as yet even been invented? Probably not many of you.

The first thing needed on this new business plan is open minds. Flexible thinking towards how we incorporate and adopt and adapt to change, and to be prepared for it.

Construction Contractors are reputed to be among the more conservative thinkers in our societies, so if change is to happen incrementally then we all need to think about better ways of doing things and being prepared to adopt new ways.

The old ways of doing things haven't worked long term. They have worked pretty well up until now but now many of them are actually contributing to this environmental problem. This environmental problem is fast becoming a disturbing social problem.

The social problem means many people are either homeless or living in rented accommodation because the cost of residential housing has skyrocketed out of reach of a growing proportion of our communities. People are living off credit cards because they can't get enough work to pay for food, electricity and the exorbitant rents because the investors in these houses have themselves been hit with higher payments and they have geared the loan repayment in such a way that the tenant is expected to be paying off their mortgage.

The other social phenomenon is that kids are living at home longer than in the previous two decades because they can't afford to live anywhere else. In many instances, the kids staying in the home longer or putting off getting married and starting a family is not helping to increase Australia's birth rate. If Australia's population doesn't increase proportionately to the aging baby boomers, there will not be enough workers or tax payers to fund a growing demand on our health institutions.

All the problems are impacting on each other. It's not just Australia's problem; its a world wide problem with each country having some individual specific problem as well.

So what can you as an Engineer or Architect do about

these problems?

In essence, a lot. You are our structural scientists who ensure we all live in a safe house, work in a safe building, and have a safe playground in which to play. We are looking to you people to devise a housing solution. We need our Buildings to do the following:

• To be built for our environments
• To be Energy producing and energy efficient
• To be water efficient, able to catch and use rainwater and have the means to store water.
• To be affordable for the larger percentage of our communities

One 'size' will not fit all, and it's time we stopped building temperate climate buildings in the tropics . Each environment has it's own obviously distinctive needs. It is not always necessary to build a bushfire proof home in a cyclonic region.

But the way climate change is affecting our planet maybe certain aspects of each design does need to be incorporated into each building. I don't know and neither do millions of others but our Engineers and Architects are trained in this science and so that is why we are all depending on you and your business. It could kill us if you let us down.

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