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As is now tradition, this festive professional feature asks some key contributors and collaborators from the past year what they would like to see from the profession during this season of goodwill to all.

As ever, our invited professionals from across the built environment have supplied thought-provoking and passionate answers that challenge the status quo and encourage innovation and change.

Time to draw up a chair, get the mince pies out, and put the kettle on.

1. Ana Matic, Director of Digital Development, hopes for a bit more time and space for everyone to be creative.

With so much focus on competence, regulatory compliance, and professional risk, is it too much for this architect to wish for some simple, old-fashioned creativity? But where does creativity come from in the age of AI and parametric modelling? Or rather, how do we make time/space/opportunities for the creative part of ourselves and our teams to forge through the layers of automated deliverables, capability statements, and unfiled correspondence?

• Time to be creative: Architects’ creativity stems from an ability to respond to emotional and cultural context and to interpret human need in an empathetic, inclusive way whilst juggling environmental challenges and budgetary limits.
  This requires an agile mind and a quick response to changing goalposts. We tend to create workflows compiled of steps of productivity and reflective thinking. The time to be creative can be inserted into the tiny gaps between these steps with far-reaching effect. It could be as simple as 'allowing in' a different point of view or reading a poem on the tube, train, or bus.
• Space for creativity: Modern architectural practice has relocated the space for creativity into virtual, digital environments that allow us to collaborate internationally and share information in a blink. This is a powerful shift in methodology, but it can bring its own risks and even monotony.
  Scott Brownrigg has devoted a lot of time this year to firming-up better understanding of how to work in the new era of rapid information sharing while protecting the architect’s copyright and intellectual property. As our digital competence grows, so should awareness by our clients and project teams of the types of data safe to share.
• Creative Opportunity for all: Take a break from your screen. Make a small model out of card or clay; rest your eyes and let your hands do the thinking. Train your AI to understand how you express yourself, but don’t forget to read John Berger and draw with a very soft pencil.
  The opportunity for creativity is in every tool we choose to work with, but the solution is never a single step or application. Talk to your AI for a quick consult and then still use your own amazing brain. Feast on your creativity and celebrate new challenges in 2025.

2. Paul Karakusevic, Director, wants a return to traditional construction contracts across the public sector.

Design and build (D&B) contracts have left the country with a litany of thousands of poorly-built and dysfunctional buildings. Architects have been marginalised in the later stages by D&B and have to endure fees being eroded by practices trying to win later stage work where they work directly for the contractor.

For decades construction drawings and specifications have been ignored, low-quality product substitution and value erosion have been prevalent. It’s time those procuring construction projects realised that D&B as it’s been managed to date is not working in their interests and does not reduce their risks.

Many buildings have legacy fire, facade, and workmanship issues from this era, which will take hundreds of millions of pounds and many years to fix. Traditional contracts and Management Contracting for larger schemes (with architect retention clauses) would ensure architects are once again retained on a full service and have control over build quality. This can help to create a better built environment, public realm, and help ensure much better value for money.

3. Philip D. Allsopp, °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Council Representative for the Americas Region and Co-Chair of °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Expert Advisory Group on AI, Generative Design, and Data, wants to see more incentives for liveability, not corporate profit.

My Christmas wish is the same as last year’s and the one before that. It might seem somewhat boring, but it has to do with changing current regulatory and financial incentives to enable sustained liveability, and indeed prosperity, to be the norm rather than the exception for the fortunate few.

Ask any wildlife biologist what makes for a successful species and they will likely tell you ‘habitat’. Yet we continue to treat the places people inhabit as real estate commodities from which profits are to be extracted and whose design quality, durability, diversity of function and location are too often relegated to ‘nice to haves’ after the numbers have pencilled out.

Short-term financial returns continue to drive the banking sector while long term, multi-generational benefits and financial returns seem to be beyond its interests. Magnifying this tendency are complex regulatory structures. These exert powerful forces for design solutions to comply with requirements that too often relegate human needs to the convenience of automobiles and parking, leaving many urban centres devoid of life and toxic places for humans to be.

Financial incentives and regulatory requirements together create what I think of as gravity wells. These tend to drag good, well thought out and climate-resilient approaches to liveability and prosperity toward ‘more of the same’. We already know that this is not working and is producing breath-taking financial risks for the insurance sector.

Architects and other professions, including those in the public health realm, have, for decades been advocating for better solutions to human habitat that deliver a wide range of human, health, economic and environmental benefits, especially given the intensifying climate emergency we are all facing. Powerful digital technologies now at their collective disposal enable collaborative discovery efforts to test-drive the likely outcomes of designs for new financial and regulatory gravity wells.

Imagine having to comply with financial and regulatory requirements that incentivise all the human, environmental, economic, and cultural outcomes that so many professionals operating in so many fields have long been advocating for. What a Christmas gift to the world that would be.

4. Dhruv Gulabchande, Architect and founder of mentoring initiative , would like everyone to start listening to communities.

I simply wish for a profession that gives space for those voices that are far too often left out of the room. An industry that not only focuses on climate and culture, but really reflects the communities we work within. A shift from ego-driven design to collaborative action would be a bonus - oh, and perhaps a little more listening and a little less talking.

5. Sarah Susman, Associate Director, PRP, wants to see all construction regulations become aligned.

What would I like to see for Christmas? Well, as a CDM and Building Safety Act specialist, I’d really like to see Building Regulations, CDM Regulations, the Regulations under the Building Safety Act, and the Fire Safety Regulations all aligned. And for that added sparkle, how about bringing all construction-related regulations into one place for ease of finding them?

6. Jo Williams, Client Relations and Communications Manager, , would like to see inclusivity considered at every work stage.

As inclusive design consultants who work closely with design teams and clients to enhance the accessibility and inclusivity of places and spaces, this Christmas Motionspot would like to see the Inclusive Design Overlay to the °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Plan of Work embedded into all stages of new builds and retrofits.

This will create safe, welcoming, accessible and inclusive spaces for everyone and reduce the barriers that cause undue stress and separation for people in the built environment.

Download °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ's Inclusive Design Overlay

7. Funmbi Adeagbo, Senior Technical Advisor, Catalyst, wants a pay rise – for everyone – funded by more realistic fees.

I’d like to see architects rediscovering their competency and valuing their workforce. In a year where news of regulatory reform has been in the headlines, as well as big staff layoffs, it’s been hard to stay positive and mentor others who are just starting their journey.

The outlook for young people hoping to forge a sustainable career in standard practice is bleak, especially when you factor in the potential debit ratios.

I’d like to see more honesty and collaboration amongst practitioners to combat the epidemic of undercutting that drives fees and ultimately salaries below inflation. Yesterday’s market is not today’s market, yet salaries have flatlined for almost 20 years.

We can blame clients or consultants, but there is an aspect of self-harm here, because enough people are clearly agreeing poor and unrealistic rates for it to become the norm.

Be confident in what you can do and charge appropriately. Most businesses are not registered charities, so why do we run on free labour? We are losing too many bright sparks of all shapes, colours and abilities because as a profession we are failing to provide a valid value proposition in today’s economy. The value we bring to projects goes far beyond the cost of the bricks and mortar.

8. Mina Hasman, Sustainability Director & Climate Advocacy Lead, , wants the profession truly to align itself with the needs of ecosystems and the natural world.

As we enter the New Year, I am hopeful for a deeper and more deliberate shift toward creating a built environment that enhances quality of life and adds lasting value, while also safeguarding natural ecosystems.

The emerging concept of sufficiency – highlighted in the ’s recently launched report at COP29 and the °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Climate Guide – invites us to rethink our priorities, challenging us to ask: “Do we really need this building or material?â€�

By reducing unnecessary construction and resource use, we can lessen the strain on ecosystems, preserving habitats and biodiversity that are often sacrificed in the name of progress. Similarly, addressing embodied ecology and embedded water reminds us that our decisions affect natural systems, from the extraction of raw materials to the alteration of water cycles, underscoring the interconnectedness of our built environment and the planet as part of one system.

The creation of a universal language around climate change offers a framework to align our profession with the needs of the natural world. The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard provides a critical tool to reduce carbon emissions. Initiatives like SOM’s Whole Life Carbon Accounting service work to eliminate greenwashing and ensure accountability.

To sustain this progress, capacity building and upskilling within our sector are essential. Equipping architects, designers, and construction professionals with the knowledge and tools to address sustainability holistically will enable us to evolve and meet the challenges of climate change. By grounding our strategies with respect to ecosystems and investing in education, innovation and verification, we can make 2025 a year of transformation for the built environment, harmonising our work with the natural systems that sustain life.

Read more about and download the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.

9. Ben Oram, Head of Technical, , would like a bit of recognition for architects, and a British Standard as a stocking filler.

There is perception outside our profession of architects as aesthetes who sway around airy studios gently caressing exotic pieces of marble, or chaotically running into restaurants with a roll of drawings in romantic comedies. British Standards are rarely featured.

The reality is an expensive education, followed by late nights spent interrogating obscure technical documents and asking suppliers why they have silently withdrawn support for common construction details they have been promoting for 30 years.

Architecture is at its core a welding of the artistic and the extremely technical. More than ever now, with the new legal responsibilities and liabilities introduced last year, we must promote and improve our technical capability and understanding. I’m glad to see us and industry now pushing this side of the profession.

So, for Christmas I ask for better recognition for us all, oh and a copy of BS EN 1364-1 (fire resistance testing of non-loadbearing walls) under every designer’s pillow.

Read all our professional features on building regulations and the Building Safety Act

All views expressed in this professional feature are the views of our contributors.

Text by Neal Morris and the °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.

°ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Core Curriculum topic: Business, clients and services
°ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Core curriculum topic: Sustainable architecture
°ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Core Curriculum topic: Inclusive environments

As part of the flexible °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ CPD programme, professional features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ CPD core curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as a °ÄÃÅÍõÖÐÍõ Chartered Member.