Designing for a resilient future: inside the Building Centre’s new exhibition

29 January 2026

In the face of the UK’s increasing water resources and flooding challenges, a new exhibition explores how the built environment can respond

The UK is facing a growing water crisis, marked by both scarcity and flooding, and the built environment has a critical role to play in how the country responds. Water: Resilience & Innovation for the Built Environment, a new 11-week exhibition at the Building Centre, explores how water can be better managed, conserved and integrated into buildings and urban design.

Showcasing forward-thinking approaches to water management through hands-on elements, interactive displays and engaging physical models, the exhibition brings together cutting-edge technologies, real-world case studies and practical ideas aimed at both professionals and the wider public.

A packed talks and events programme runs alongside the exhibition until 10 April, supported by partners including Ofwat’s Water Innovation Fund, Waterwise, CIWEM and the Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) programme. Together, they aim to spark debate, share knowledge and help shape a more resilient future.

On the eve of the show’s opening, I talked to John Bonning, commercial director at the Building Centre, about the genesis of the exhibition and his hopes for its impact.

Where did the idea for the exhibition come from?

Around 18 months ago now we were talking about ideas and themes for our exhibition programme and the elements came up: wind, air, water, fire. That was the initial seed. Then I attended an event about sponge cities and it really got me thinking about what was happening in places like the Netherlands.

I also spoke to an architect about a development up in Cambridge that had stalled because the water authority couldn’t guarantee the water supply. It all came together from there. We reached out to a few people to see if they’d be interested as partners, they showed great interest, and we developed it from there.

How did the network of partners come together?

Our principal partners, the Water Innovation Fund, have provided funding to many projects and put us in touch with various people, including CIWEM. It’s all come about through lots of conversations with people in the industry, attending events run by organisations like Waterwise and the Institute for Water.

What themes emerged as the exhibition took shape?

We realised we need to talk about flooding, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), AI and smart technologies and the various aspects of water management. But it developed further: to make a change, we as individuals and as a society need to think about how we use water.

Lee Pitcher MP delivering a speech on the launch night of the Building Centre's new exhibition.

The other thing is that it almost seems crazy now, with potential water scarcity, why we’re not mandating SuDS and rainwater harvesting. It’s such an easy win on new developments. If the government’s got an agenda to build 1.5 million homes, why isn’t that being mandated? If you collect water where it lands and you’re not transporting it miles to clean it and send it back, it’s a no-brainer. That’s something we want to get across in the programme of talks and to visitors.

How have you approached the balance between technical depth and accessibility?

We’re not trying to write the book on the subject. What we’re trying to do is give people a snapshot of the subject of water (the management of water; we’re not talking about infrastructure here).

It’s about how we all need to think about water as individuals, and secondly the management of water, whether that be SuDS [sustainable drainage systems] or other measures that are taking place. The case studies and information we put up are not too technical so as turn the general public off, but also not dumbed down so much that the architect or professional person thinks it’s a bit basic for their needs.

What makes the Building Centre a useful place to host this conversation?

The Building Centre Group sits below a charity called the Built Environment Trust. We’re a not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to provide information and education to both public and professional people. We want anybody that’s got any interest in the built environment to come in and learn about the subject.

We’ve got over 20 organisations working within the built environment in the building: the head office of the UK Green Building Council; Build UK, which represents the supply chain; the Construction Industry Council, which advises government in terms of building standards; and then the Construction Products Association, who represent manufacturers and suppliers of materials, from timber to glass to plasterboard and so on.

But we’ve also got property management companies, quantity surveyors, a number of architectural practices, interior design companies – they all help bring activities to the centre.

As far as we’re concerned, it’s all about getting people through the door – to come to the event, come to the talks, to the exhibitions and so on. Below us, we have three seminar rooms where we’re delivering our programme of talks, so there’s a lot that goes on in the building.

We have the ability to bring everybody together and provide the platform to talk about water. We’re not political. We haven’t got a set agenda. We’re about information and education, so we rely on the experts to help us set the agenda, and then it develops quite naturally.

Who do you expect the exhibition to reach?

We’d probably expect visitors to be around 60% professionals and 40% public, simply because most of the talks are aimed at a professional audience. But we don’t really know until it opens. A lot of this is word of mouth.

Collectively, with our partners and sponsors, the reach is massive. If we get the messaging right, there’s a really strong educational story we can push out.

How can visitors engage more deeply?

We’ve got loads of events from people that are delivering their own events on the back of the fact we’ve got the exhibition. People like Thames Water, for instance, are doing their Developer Day on 12 February.

My colleague Olly and I will do a number of private tours. We’ve already had big architectural practices ask if they can bring teams down.

Anybody can walk in off the street. On all the case studies and information panels there are QR codes that allow people to get more information.

We also do virtual tours, so if people can’t come into the centre, they can still see it. Getting that reach and accessibility is really important to us.

How have you approached sustainability in the exhibition design itself?

The attenuation tanks that we use as the building blocks for the SuDS display have been supplied by Wavin. They haven’t been screwed into or adapted in any way – they’ll go back and be used on a project. All our display boards are modular, so we’ll reuse them for future shows. All the models you see have either been lent to us or created bespoke for the show – they will go to other homes afterwards.

Sustainability is really important to us as an exhibition centre. If we’re talking about sustainability all the time, it’s important we show good practice as well.

What does success look like once the exhibition closes?

We measure impact via engagement – physically in the building, at the exhibition and talks, but also online. Often an exhibition like this is a springboard for thinking about what comes next. Is there an opportunity for another show looking at different aspects of water management, or perhaps infrastructure?

We don’t want to replicate something else in the marketplace. We’re not a trade show. We want a proper narrative, and we want people to take information away and use it.

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Water: Resilience & Innovation for the Built Environment runs at the Building Centre through 10 April 2026. For more CIWEM news updates, sign up to The Environment newsletter, our free monthly news round up.

Jo Caird is editor of The Environment