Excellent design at the 'beating heart' of all new UK infrastructure

Stirling Prize winning architect and National Infrastructure Commissioner has just announced a new Design Group which will champion design excellence in all new national infrastructure.

Professor Sadie Morgan, who delivered the opening speech to our November Future Cities Forum, gave an overview of where design was influencing our infrastructure projects in the UK and how this would influence housing and community development.

In her new announcement, Sadie said that the new design group was a 'pivotal moment' for the future of UK infrastructure and that members from transport, engineering, landscape and architecture, would lobby to ensure that design is considered at the outset of every major project, and at every stage of delivery to make the most of our infrastructure without increasing costs.

The first National Infrastructure Assessment published by the Commission last year, set out the benefits of effective design, highlighting how embedding it into the culture of planning and delivery leads to an outcome that both works well and looks good, enhancing the quality of life for the communities who experience it every day.

'Too often, and at great social cost, design is an afterthought - a tick box exercise tacked onto a project at the 11th hour...these schemes have a lifespan over generations - and it will be design that defines the legacy they leave behind...our individual experience of the built environment speaks to our national identity, it says a great deal about who we are and what we are good at.'

We are delighted that the Head of Policy at the National Infrastructure Commission, Katie Black, will be speaking at our June infrastructure and energy forum which will be held at London City Hall again. Panels on infrastructure to enable city centre development as well as London Mayor, Sadiq Khan's new cultural infrastructure plan will also be discussed.