Digitally Enabled Living

Our Stories

On 30th September 2022, the Centre for Digital Built Britain completes its mission to advance the digital transformation of the built environment. We have been developing materials to celebrate the foundational work that has been done over the last five years, highlighting our learnings, and...

Facilitating the digitisation of off-site manufacturing

Off-site manufacturing delivers major benefits to the automotive, food and beverage industries, but construction has been slower to explore its potential, especially in the UK. Led by Dr Mohamed Zaki, the Deputy Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, CDBB researchers sought to study the...

Smart Hospital of the Future: Digital technologies, service innovation, and hospital design

Plans for Oriel, a new hub for eyecare, have been in development since 2011. A design team was appointed in 2019, offering CDBB-funded researchers based at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School a timely opportunity to explore what designing a Hospital of the Future might mean. The...

Research Profile - Smart Hospital of the Future: Digital technologies, service innovation, and hospital design

4 October 2022

The century-old Moorfields Eye Hospital is relocating from its current home in London’s Old Street to a two-acre site at St Pancras Hospital, in the King’s Cross area. The move brings opportunity to use digital technologies (AI, analytics, digital twins) to innovate service provision to NHS patients and redesign hospitals...

Analysing the social context to transforming construction through digital innovation

The UK construction and housing industries lag behind most other fields in taking advantage of new technologies. Government has repeatedly expressed its commitment to digital transformation in the construction sector. This is a social, cultural, economic and political challenge and not just a...

Research Profile - Understanding the social context to transforming construction through digital innovation

22 September 2022

Digital innovation brings opportunities to improve productivity and predictability in construction. Yet the sector has been slow to change. The problem is not purely technical; digital transformation is also a social, cultural, economic and political challenge. An effective solution needs to address the contributing...

Digital Twin Journeys: Playing the digital twin ethics game

8 March 2022

Motion sensors, CO₂ sensors and the like are considered to be benign forms of monitoring, since they don’t capture images or personal data about us as we move through the buildings we visit. Or at least, that’s what we want to believe. Guest blogger Professor Matthew Chalmers (University of Glasgow) helped develop a mobile...

Digital Twins Journeys: a new infographic on ecosystems of services enabled by connected digital twins

17 January 2022

By 2050, an estimated 4.1 million people will be affected by sight loss in the UK, making up a portion of the 14.1 smarthospital_panels_v4-page-001.jpg million disabled people in the UK. How might digital twins create opportunities for better accessibility and navigability of the built environment for blind and partially...

Digital Twin Journeys: the journey to the Smart Hospital of the Future

27 October 2021

Digital twins can help organisations achieve various goals. In some cases, the end goal is for buildings and infrastructure to last longer, use less energy, and be safer. In others, it is enhancing the lives of people who interact with the built environment and its services. As highlighted by the Gemini Principles , these...

Publication: Industry Guidance: Successful adoption and use of BIM and OSM

21 October 2021

screenshot_2021-10-21_at_09.33.52.png Abstract This guidance document describes six key factors that will help construction firms to transform their project delivery through the adoption and use of BIM and OSM. Our research has shown that construction firms that have successfully adopted and are using BIM and OSM share six...