ICE Strategy Session: Report Insights - What Makes Good Design?

Overview

“Design is about how something works and how it looks. It matters for infrastructure projects at every scale, whether the infrastructure is visible and used physically by people, or whether it is hidden and used to provide services to people.

“Great infrastructure uses design to solve problems and seeks to maximise the different types of benefits it provides over its whole life. When visible, it should look good too. Projects shape the landscape for decades, even centuries. Generations of people will see them, use them and be affected by them every day.” Introduction to the National Infrastructure Commission’s design principles for national infrastructure.

In September 2020, ICE carried out a survey of its members to learn more about civil engineers’ awareness and understanding of good design in its widest sense. The survey was carried out in the context of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC)’s design principles, which stress the need for everyone involved in the procurement, development, design, construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of infrastructure to understand that they have a role to play in good design. It attracted 900 responses from UK-based civil engineers.

In this seminar, to coincide with the launch of the survey report, What Makes Good Design?, representatives from ICE and the NIC’s Design Group will discuss its key findings. They will explore what they reveal about the profession’s awareness and understanding of good design in a range of contexts, as identified in the four design principles of climate, people, places and value. They will also outline how the recommendations of the report can be taken forward and the priorities for the future.