Futurebuild 2026

With an ever-growing list of polycrisis to tackle, how do we make the right decisions as to what we work on, how we push back with our clients, and how we treat one another along the way? While an institution or company director can never dictate what is and isn’t ethical, perhaps it can and should mandate that we engage with the topic. Debate and research led by the Institution of Structural Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers in 2025 identified a series of common dilemmas with which design professionals must engage if they are to best serve the public – from over-demolition and over-design to procurement failures and short-term finance. In this session, we will ask participants to share practical examples of how we can enable each other to speak up, challenge bad briefs, discuss the difficult topics, and make a stand when the projects we surround ourselves with start turning unethical.

Chair: Efrosyni Konstantiou, UCL, Director of Ethics, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London

Panel:

Chris Wise, Senior Director, Expedition and Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers
Mark Nason, Head of Professional Practice, Chartered Institution of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM)
Saul Humphrey, Senior Vice-President, Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
Carys Rowlands, Head of Professional Standards, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Co-author of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Ethical Practice Guide
Alastair Ben Dixon, Partner, Collective works and Co-author of the Royal Institute of British Architect’s Ethical Practice Guide

Curated by the Edge