Expert Panel Outputs for 2025: Built Environment Technology Expert Panel

Summary by Expert Panel Chair Camilla Siggaard Andersen, Occasio Insights

For the past four years, the Built Environment Technology Expert Panel has closely examined the role of digital technology across urban design, planning, and architecture. This year, the panel chose to zoom in on the keystone that powers it all: data.

Spanning geographic information systems (GIS), big data analytics, building information modelling (BIM), and AI-powered productivity tools, data is recognised as both the fuel that powers design efficiency and a critical asset underpinning better decision-making.

Yet, across the industry, data largely remains a raw, unrefined resource. Though produced in abundance, is often poorly structured, insufficiently pooled, and consequently underutilised.

The panel structured the year’s discussions around three pivotal angles:

Laying the foundations for built environment data: What foundational elements must the public sector establish to ensure the safe, useful, equitable, and sustainable long-term production, storage, and utilisation of built environment data?
Bridging the data gap in practice: Why is so much valuable built environment data—generated by architectural practices, service providers, developers, and local authorities—ultimately lost or underutilised?
The future of the profession: How does the emergence of Artificial Intelligence solutions impact the built environment professions and the value of the digital assets they produce?

Following the exploration of these three critical angles, the panel produced a strategic presentation detailing the urgent need to establish robust governance for built environment data. Additionally, one working group convened a broader industry roundtable, accompanied by workshop materials and a white paper, which will be refined and released next year.

The core conclusion of our discussions is clear: government must urgently consider built environment data as critical utility infrastructure.

Data only gains true value at scale. However, the current fragmentation of the industry and the lack of a centralised intelligence create no incentive for individual stakeholders to share their pieces. Consequently, the whole picture remains obscure.

The private sector model is unsuitable for this challenge. Built environment data offers transformative benefits at a societal level, meaning no single organisation can capture enough value to justify the necessary investment. Furthermore, making data infrastructure dependent on private control introduces significant risks and systemic fragility.

The true business case is the greater good of coordinated, resilient planning. Only by treating data as a public good can we build a city and a country capable of effectively tackling critical challenges, including climate emergencies, demographic shifts, population health, and the threats of terror and conflict.

To initiate this essential transition, we suggest establishing a public organisation—similar in function to the ONS or Ordnance Survey (OS)—which would work closely with MHCLG to legislate, collect, structure, and share built environment data.

Impact and industry relevance:

The digital transformation of the built environment industry relies on robust data foundations.
Fragmented and poorly defined data prevents private practices and organisations from effectively harnessing the full economic and operational value of the built environment information they produce.
The lack of standardised, publicly accessible data prevents the public sector from achieving the coordinated planning and management necessary to serve the interests of all communities.

Focus for 2026:
Present the strategic pitch deck to elected officials and initiate detailed liaison with comparable national organisations (e.g., OS, ONS) to model the establishment of a new data entity.
Define and develop the core metrics and specifications required for a national foundational built environment data set.
Continue research into new, data-driven business models for architectural practices, specifically exploring how the value of data and digital assets is being reshaped by the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI).