If anything, the pandemic is revealing the frustration of engineers out to implement air quality measures in buildings, only to discover that the buildings in question were not designed to support the intervention.

Surendar Balakrishnan

For years, buildings have faced IAQ-neglect from the pre-design stage up to handover and the subsequent operation and maintenance period. Broadly speaking, architects, designers, contractors and installers have worked in silos several mental metres in height, with each group quite choosing to be oblivious of the other. And today, the chickens have come home to roost!

While advances in technology probably can alleviate the situation in some instances, engineers more often than not are up against legacy structures and are faced with the prospect of having to make do with far less than what they intended as effective solutions.

The pandemic ought to be an eye-opener for new construction – as and when we see a revival of building activity – to cover all bases, as far as the physical and mental eye can see. It needs the engineering community to rise to a level where it seeks to answer even those questions that nobody has imagined or considered asking. We are talking of a paradigm shift in thought and action. But at the base level, we need to dismantle the silos and instead embrace a culture of collaboration, cooperation and coordination.

Sustainable development depends on policies, standards and technological advances, but it as much relies on the human will to develop new approaches, new models of engagement. IAQ is no longer only about productivity and lowering absenteeism in schools and offices. The pandemic has made it clear that much depends on the built-environment to limit the spread of infection. Human lives are at stake here, as much as is the health and wellbeing of public- and private-sector organisations and the broader economy.

It is interesting that this issue is covering such topics as BIM and FIDIC. While one is a tool, the other is an enabler for greater clarity and, if adopted in whole, for a conflict-free approach to building structures that serve us well.