Digitalisation in Regenerative Cities: opportunities and challenges in the Built Environment

Harding, Debs and Boyd, Philippa (2025) Digitalisation in Regenerative Cities: opportunities and challenges in the Built Environment. In: 41st ARCOM Conference, 1-3rd September 2025, Dundee. (In Press)

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Abstract

The built environment increasingly focuses on delivering sustainable refurbishment and new-build projects to support regenerative city-building. Digitalisation is often positioned as a critical enabler through tools such as BIM, project planning software, and generative AI (GenAI). However, important questions remain about how these tools are used in practice and how professionals navigate emerging ethical and strategic challenges. This study explores how Built Environment Professionals engage with digital tools on live projects, including how professionals adopt,adapt, or resist GenAI in context. Guided by a Strategy-as-Practice (SaP) lens, the research draws on interviews, surveys, and two embedded case studies, one of which was led by a practitioner-researcher. Findings reveal that digitalisation is not experienced as a seamless transformation, but a situated, relational process shaped by professional judgement, discretion, and role-specific adaptations. While participants reported informal experimentation with GenAI, they also expressed uncertainty over authorship, accountability, and ethical use - particularly as AI functionality becomes embedded within everyday tools. These insights highlight the need to support digital tool adoption and the strategic enactment of digitalisation by professionals aiming for regenerative outcomes.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Sustainable Development Goals:	Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Keywords:	digitalisation, GenAI, ethical frameworks, professional practices, technical competencies
Divisions:	School of the Built Environment > Research
Depositing User:	Dr Pippa Boyd
Date Deposited:	12 Sep 2025 09:11
Last Modified:	12 Sep 2025 09:11
URI:	https://ube.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/189

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