They’re very spacious.

The aim of this project is to create an environment in which a seamless, end-to-end digitised development process can operate and flourish.Our purpose is to demonstrate in a very real and everyday context how data can be made fair and open to the widest range of uses and users, while delivering a wealth of benefits, as a result of a digitised planning process, that are both immediate and long-lasting..

The idea behind this concept is not to develop a single digital planning product.This project can generate more benefit by remaining open and accessible to a range of collaborators.Nor is our aim to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel - we are using the data that is already created through the use of BIM, and existing formats for sharing it..

The planning process in the UK touches all of our lives.It is integral to the way in which the built environment develops around us; affecting where we live, where we work, where we eat, shop and play, how we walk, cycle and drive, how we produce, manufacture, generate, store, dispose and recycle.

And yet the system we use has not changed since the 1940s.

It is arcane, complex, fragmented and hard to access and navigate – especially for the public who are, ultimately, its most important stakeholder.It isn’t magic..

The issue regarding its wider scale adoption is simply that it requires the industry to break with the ideas and processes we’ve been following before.There’s a certain amount of security in taking a brief and just doing what has been asked of you.

Companies have worked out a way to survive in this way.However, we need bravery.