Dr. Andy Hines, assistant professor and coordinator of the foresight graduate program led a team to explore “Future of Built Environment” over the fall semester. The research award was with the Construction Industry Institute (CII), based at The University of Texas at Austin. Team members include University of Houston alumnus, Maria Romero and four foresight program graduate students, Bes Baldwin, Hannah Kim, Collin Sledge, and Cindi Stuebner.
The team used scenario planning to explore possible futures for the built environment with the goal of identifying important emerging issues that the CII can research in service to its member organizations.
The scenarios shown in the figure are framed around the two critical uncertainties, the most important and uncertain factors regarding the future of the topic. These uncertainties frame the matrix, providing boundaries and focus for the set of four scenarios. The logic is to spend time thinking about the factors that are crucial to the future, especially those with least clarity or vision of how they might play out. This gives the organization the ability to design strategies, plans, and tactics that will enable it to strategically respond to whatever way the uncertainties unfold. This enables organization to feel confident that it is prepared for a full range of future possibilities
These options provide a robust list of potential research projects for CII to consider. They sort into grouped into three themes.
- How business gets done: these options/issues revolve around the business of doing construction, how it’s done, and who it’s done with.
- Technology: these options/issues centered on potentially disruptive emerging technology with a particular focus on how they might be applied within the construction industry.
- Environmental: these options/issues consider how environmentally-related issues could have a disruptive effect on the industry.
— Andy Hines
