“Sustainable built environment and maximum user benefits through efficient information management and industrial processes” is the guiding vision of the emerging Swedish Smart Built Environment Programme.

The Smart Built Environment was developed on the initiative of IQ Samhällsbyggnad and Sveriges Bygguniversitet, in close collaboration with Lantmäteriet, as well as the OpenBIM and Bygginnovationen organizations. IQ Samhällsbyggnad is a cross-sectoral organization with approximately 120 members from companies, organizations, authorities and academia.

The first step will be to establish a consortium of key stakeholders from various companies in the sector, the Swedish Universities of the Built Environment and the National Transport Administration. This consortium will be the beneficiaries and also, in partnership with academia, the main implementers.

”Attractive sustainable cities, a robust and reliable infrastructure and more housing are some of Sweden’s policy objectives. These are considered essential prerequisites for growth, employment and competitiveness, hence built environment is a central political issue.

Exactly what will be built – or renovated and rebuilt – is obviously the critical question; city squares, residential housing, schools, hospitals, offices, shops, roads, railways, bridges, industrial premises, playgrounds, cycle paths, parks – their form, design and placement in the surrounding environment are all crucial to how well they can function. There is enormous potential in the extensive field of built environment to consolidate Swedish strengths while meeting the challenges of society and the needs of the public.

However, there is also clearly a need for strategic initiatives that concern both what will be built and how this takes place, in other words both products and processes. In order to release sufficient resources to develop the products, it is essential to streamline and modernize the processes as well. This applies to processes in the state, municipal and private sectors, which are mutually interdependent.

This Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), Smart Built Environment, has been developed through broad and deep collaboration between stakeholders in the built environment sector, and focuses on some of the central issues concerning how processes and tools in the built environment sector need to be developed. It proposes a comprehensive approach to these changes and to the modernization of mindset, procedures and the application of digital, structured and intelligent information. Consensus on this issue is unprecedented in Sweden. Among other things, its aim is to increase productivity while providing better endproducts in the form of the facilities and environments mentioned above.

The Smart Built Environment agenda comprises initiatives in the planning, design, construction and management phases. These complement the wide range of ongoing government activities to streamline planning and construction processes at state and municipal level. The actions contained in this agenda at corporate and industry level is part of a paradigm shift in the sector and represent one of several prerequisites for achieving targets in housing, infrastructure and urban development. The government is investing SEK 45 billion in infrastructure, which places very high demands on the efficiency of the processes applied to accomplish the desired results. However, there are needs for several other areas of development in the wide Built Environment sector, and we welcome more initiatives for strategic agendas to complement the important area that is covered of this agenda.. ”

Upload the whole Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) here.