Engineering for the future

By - , Build 173

Ben Holland, President, Engineering New Zealand, says as engineering changes in tune with the times, we could be looking at greater upcycling or reuse of our buildings and infrastructure.

AS THE CURRENT President of Engineering New Zealand, I enjoy the chance to lift my gaze above the day to day, towards the horizon, to consider what tomorrow’s demands on engineers could be and to prepare us to meet them. But when looking to the future, it pays to remember the past.

Where we’ve come from

Thinking back to the 1970s, we were emerging from the Brutalist architecture of the 1960s and embarking on Think Big projects.

We laid out much of New Zealand’s infrastructure using functional materials like asbestos cement pipes or concrete, and the supply of raw materials like aggregate and timber felt limitless.

Could engineers then have predicted what we will face in 2020? They wouldn’t have realised the degree of obsolescence or how what a future society needed from infrastructure could be so different.

Need to change our design thinking

Applying modern lenses like sustainability, carbon footprints, an ageing population or modern learning environments, we see that buildings built in the 1970s have become obsolete before the end of their design life. Yet we use that same design-life thinking today.

What will future engineers think of the infrastructure we’re creating? Yankees legend Yogi Berra has many famous quotes. I particularly like, ‘Trying to make predictions is hard, especially about the future.’

You could take the view that we design for shorter but clearer lives. You could argue that every election cycle offers a chance for short-term change in philosophy and that, through social media, society is able to express needs more clearly.

The current emphasis on affordable housing is an example, but designing assets with short, useful lives does not sit well with me – infrastructure isn’t cheap, so society wants it to last.

Moving away from obsolescence

What else could we do? Could we incorporate flexibility of purpose or upcycling opportunities? The company I work for has upcycled concrete silos into apartments.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 obliges designers to ensure the structure they design is without risk when disposed of or demolished. Perhaps there should also be a duty to consider how the structure retains a useful purpose for its design life, irrespective of changes in use or society’s needs.

Alternatively, you could use materials or components that are infinitely recyclable and design buildings to be deconstructed and the components or materials reused. I have heard of concrete structures being demolished, crushed and then reused in road pavements, but is that the best we can do? It sounds like awfully hard work for a small amount of recycling.

Would this approach lead to more modular design philosophies, or could we design components that can be dismantled rather than demolished? Greater reusability could add value to self-repairing or selfhealing infrastructure that might otherwise risk obsolescence.

Expanding the tent

To expand our thinking, we need to look outside our own perspective. Structural and civil engineers have opportunities to learn from their engineering kin.

Engineering New Zealand is dedicated to broadening engineers’ thinking – and to expanding our tent so we provide a welcoming home for new and emerging disciplines, like materials engineers and the sustainability engineers of the future. Diversity of thought creates strength, and together we can better see what tomorrow might hold.

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