80 things we should know in a digital built environment

I recently encountered a delightful piece written by the late, great architect Michael Sorkin called Two Hundred Fifty Things an Architect Should Know. I promise it's not a listicle and Number 7 won't shock you. It's a really thought-provoking read, and reminded me immediately of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens, a favourite poem of mine.

My day job involves research and writing about digitalisation in the built environment, particularly with the aim of making it a platform for human flourishing. Because I'm not a technical specialist, an architect or engineer myself, my focus is much more on how we can harness data and information to promote good for people and the planet, and what we need to know as a society to realise that future. More than ever, we have the opportunity to choose where we're going, but changing directions requires a clear vision of what could be. So, with my apologies to Sorkin, I thought I would have a go at my own version of his piece:

80 things we should know in a digital built environment

1. How to manage information.
2. How to use information.
3. How to share information.
4. How to make decisions.
5. New ways of making steel.
6. How to use less of it.
7. How humans and algorithms can both do the work they're best at.
8. What architects know and how to ask them.
9. What voters know and how to ask them.
10. What children know and how to ask them.
11. Supply chain optimisation.
12. Human rights law.
13. Ontology
14. Epistemology.
15. Encryption.
16. The energy potential of the wind.
17. Building Information Modelling (BIM).
18. What data the client wants.
19. What data the client thinks it wants.
20. What data the client needs.
21. What data the client can afford.
22. Bayesian probability theory.
23. The Gemini Principles.
24. How to ensure a steady supply of clean water for the next 500 years.
25. How to build a tunnel without emitting carbon.
26. How to design a street for cyclists.
27. The number of people in a public square, but not their names.
28. The concerns of an elderly woman in Peckham.
29. The value of a hospital.
30. The value of a nurse.
31. The value of attention.
32. The value of wild places.
33. The value of oil when it is left in the ground.
34. How to build resilient infrastructure.
35. How to federate data.
36. How to protect data.
37. How to put a roof over the head of anyone that needs one.
38. How to feed, clothe and pay people without emitting carbon.
39. The carbon storage capacity of a skyscraper made of wood.
40. How a skyscraper made of wood makes people feel.
41. Why more people of colour died of Covid-19 than white people.
42. How to design a built environment that eradicates that gap.
43. The Golden Thread of Information.
44. The limits of our understanding.
45. How to visualise complexity in systems.
46. How to visualise uncertainty in data.
47. How to read a digital twin.
48. Ways of navigating digital content with a sensory disability.
49. How to ensure that everyone who works in a city can afford to live there.
50. Who is responsible.
51. The lifecycle of a building.
52. The impact of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River Dolphin.
53. The power of green infrastructure.
54. Algorithmic bias.
55. Universal design.
56. Participatory design.
57. Computer Aided Design (CAD).
58. Design for repair and re-manufacture.
59. Integration Architecture.
60. Moral philosophy.
61. Modern Methods of Construction.
62. Biodiversity.
63. Neurodiversity.
64. How to eliminate waste.
65. How to trust an algorithm.
66. When not to trust an algorithm.
67. The value of immeasurable things and the immeasurable value of things.
68. How to get from London to Madrid without emitting carbon.
69. How to make new buildings out of old ones.
70. The ROI of delight.
71. The limits of growth.
72. What infrastructure we need.
73. Where we need it.
74. When we need it.
75. Who needs it.
76. What the planet can afford.
77. The consequences of our actions.
78. Compassion.
79. The future we want for us, for our children, for our grandchildren.
80. How to get there.