Energy efficiency and accessibility are the challenges of the future

The requirements architects need to fulfil when realizing building projects are diverse and depend on the individual demands of the clients. Nonetheless two aspects solidify as crucial in a survey of 180 architects conducted by BauInfoConsult this year. These will be defining architecture in the future. The majority of the respondents see the energy efficient design of a building as the most important challenge. In addition accessibility seems to have an ever increasing influence on the architectural planning of buildings.

The results of the survey show that energy efficiency and therefore sustainability are no longer topics under discussion, but have already made their way into the minds and practice of builders and architects. More than half of the consulted architects indicated that the implementation of innovative energy saving concepts and the use of ecological building materials will become ever more important. That results from rising oil, gas and energy prices, which is why most builders try to keep energy related costs as low as possible when constructing a building.

Furthermore 46 per cent of the architects see accessibility as an important task for the future as the requirements of society for the design of a building change fundamentally with the steadily rising age of the population.