How will new technologies change the game for construction? Is there a relationship between the design of a hospital and its medical outcomes? To what degree will the rise of remote work keep changing the nature of offices? What solutions will the cities in the Global South find to accommodate the rapidly rising populations?
In alignment with the UN’s Decade of Action, dormakaba’s campaign #AccessForTheFuture will attempt to answer these questions and more.
Over the last decades, natural disasters have been growing in strength and frequency as a result of climate change. The number of weather-related disasters has tripled over the previous 30 years. Furthermore, among the 20,000 earthquakes that shake the world every year, about 16 are in the magnitude of seven or higher.
Around a billion people worldwide live in slums, informal settlements typically populated by the urban poor. These residents represent a third of the global urban population and drive over 90 percent of its growth. By 2030, there'll be two billion slum dwellers, residing primarily in Asian and African countries.
From the Arabian peninsula to the Southern United States, more than a billion people live in desert regions and experience extreme temperatures. These desert communities see very little rainfall, and regular dust storms.
Creating homes and structures from scratch is a rewarding career path for many. However, working in construction has unique risks and stressors. Exposure to harmful chemicals, constant loud noise, handling heavy loads, and potential hazards such as falling from a high place or electric shocks are among the daily risks for millions who work on construction sites.
As a resource-intensive industry, construction has a notoriously high environmental impact: According to some estimates, it accounts for up to 40 percent of the global carbon emissions. The sector is also a significant source of pollutants. The World Bank states that the construction waste will increase by 70 percent by 2050 unless there's urgent action.
"Where are all the female architects?" Allison Arieff, a design and architecture writer, questioned in a 2018 opinion piece for the New York Times. "Nearly half of architecture students are women. Why are so few sticking with the industry after graduation?"
Following its rapid rise from a humble fishing village to an ultra-modern metropolis, Dubai is a city of superlatives: It's home to the world's tallest building, biggest shopping mall, largest picture frame, or the most capacious indoor skiing center.
Since the ancient civilizations started to build cities, urban landscapes evolved parallel to the gender roles, associating public spaces with men, and the private sphere with women. However, in the late 20th century, as the global urban population continued to boom, spatial researchers began to emphasize the importance of a gender-sensitive approach to urban planning.
With internet access reaching the farthest corners of the world, a new kind of industrial revolution is reforming the work as we know it. As of 2019, more than 26 million workers in the United States alone - comprising 16 percent of the overall workforce - telecommuted to their jobs.
For businesses to truly succeed, they must invest in sustainable development and for the Sustainable Development Goals to succeed, business will be the lynchpin of success
Humanity is facing a myriad of exceptional problems. Climate scientists, demographers, and development economists have long alerted the world about them: With the rising temperatures already affecting vulnerable communities, climate change is the single biggest challenge threat to sustainable development.