INTERVIEW | DEREK CLEMENTS-CROOME It is important to blend the freshness of youth with the experience of older people work across generations the quality of life for people living or working within them. What has the group achieved? Our diversity, in terms of countries, gender and disciplines, is outstanding. We now have 14,000 members worldwide, and the connection we have made with the International Council for Research and Innovation in Buildings and Construction (CIB), as an associate body, has been valuable. On behalf of CIBSE, I toured Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, debating and talking about the nature of intelligent buildings. I visited many CIBSE regions around the UK, again lecturing on intelligent buildings, including Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and London when I was a vice-president in 2007-09. We issued a roadmap in 2018 in collaboration with CIB, and we have held seminars and webinars over many years. We also publish twice-yearly Newsletters, which are highly informative. The committee communicates in a variety of ways, through media such as podcasts, blogs and videos. We have a lot of devoted people of all ages on our committee. We are now trying to develop what I will call a circular knowledge economy. Too often, older people get dropped off by default. It is important to blend the freshness of youth with the experience of older people. Let us work across generations. ThermShield EIS classified fire dampers What is the strategy of the group? The 2017 Grenfell tragedy showed us that all is not well in the construction industry. There are still lots of areas that need resetting, and one of those is the tendency to think in silo groups. Distilling knowledge down to specific factors and dealing with those thoroughly is fine to a certain point, but you have to be connected. Silo thinking brings about fragmentation, which is too prevalent in our industry. We need a more transdisciplinary approach. Our knowledge can be enriched by working across sectors, otherwise there is a danger of becoming too inward looking, which can happen in institutions. Interventions from other fields medicine, for example can extend our thinking and help us to champion change confidently. The division between industry and universities has reduced, but there remains some way to go. Knowledge is often marred by media or politics, making information unclear, incomplete and just wrong on occasions. Quick fixes and low-cost options are too often used as a basis for selection. In the end, cheap becomes more expensive, as systems wear out quickly and break down frequently. We must communicate better with our clients too. User-centric design is becoming more accepted. Can you please introduce the new book Designing buildings for People you are working on? There are eight chapters covering various aspects of designtopics such as holistic sustainability approaches, nature-based solutions, important enabling technologies, health and wellbeing and decisionmaking. In the last chapter, I present a gallery of 19 case studies with firms such as Arup, PLP Architecture, SOM, Atelier Ten, and many others. Each photo is accompanied by a few paragraphs by the designers. The book is quite personal and based on my experiences since I started working as an apprentice, aged 16, in the building services industry. Along the way, I have had inspiring mentors, as well as students, to whom I owe much. In 2018, I edited Creating the productive workplace 28 chapters from 15 or so authors from industry and academia worldwide. I also wrote four chapters. Two books were published in 2013. One was an Introduction to intelligent buildings, which was written largely by members of the CIBSE IBG. This was accompanied by the 2nd edition of the 2004 book. There is a third edition being planned for publication in 2023-24. CJ EIS classification for integrity, low smoke leakage and insulation in demanding projects. Fail-safe close For maintaining compartmentation Up to EI 120 (ve ho i <-> o) S classification, see the DoP for specific details ThermShields EIS classification plays a crucial part in fire compartmentation. Swegon offer the widest choice of dampers and damper controls to meet the envolving needs in the UK market. Visit swegon.com/uk to find out more 36 October 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Oct 22 pp35-36 Derek Clement Croombes.indd 36 26/09/2022 14:30