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The UrbanForecast

Powered by Ackroyd Lowrie · All about the future of cities, AI and practice

Issue 1 · July 2026

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Jay Morton speaking on the Urban Forecast podcast
Planning

What does the new RIBA President think about AI in architecture? We found out.

Jay Morton, director at Bell Phillips Architects, has been elected the next RIBA President. She wants the profession to keep humans in control of design decisions as AI takes more control of process, and she intends to use the presidency as a loud platform to make that case. "AI can scour through all the test results," she said, "but when do you need the doctors to make the decision?... it should be the same for architecture."

The Urban Forecast

Data + Analysis

Practice
-30%
architects' real pay vs 1999 (RIBA)

Thirty years of falling pay: architecture's quiet real-terms decline

A mid-career architect earned the equivalent of £67,000 in 1999. Today the same role pays £48,500. According to RIBA, the profession has lost 30% of its real purchasing power in thirty years.

Practice
+13%
Foster + Partners fee income growth (AJ100)

AI will cause job losses for architects. Or maybe the opposite, if Fosters are the model.

Everyone says AI means job losses for architects. The top of this year's AJ100 points the other way. Foster + Partners are betting harder on AI than anyone, and they are hiring.

Latest Podcast

Steve Watts speaking on the Urban Forecast podcast
Podcast

Podcast: the real cost of building London's skyline

Steve Watts has helped deliver some of London's most complex tall buildings, including The Shard. In this episode, he explains why so many towers are stalled, and what it will take to get them moving.

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News

Chart comparing Adobe market cap with Anthropic private valuation, 2022 to 2026
Tech

We spent £20,000 a year on Adobe. This year we are not renewing.

Oliver Lowrie
A technician installing an air source heat pump
Retrofit

UK passes 250,000 certified heat pump installations

The Urban Forecast
A maintenance engineer in a hard hat inspects industrial equipment on a vessel
Tech

Autodesk buys MaintainX for $3.6bn, its biggest deal ever

The Urban Forecast
Guests around the dinner table at a BE:AI Supper Club at the Ackroyd Lowrie studio
Events

Next BE:AI Supper Club: Physical AI + Robotics, 21 July

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Opinion + Roundtable

Housing

Opinion: co-living broke through in planning. Now it has to stack up.

Planning acceptance of co-living is no longer the battle. Getting schemes built, funded and run well is. The industry needs to answer three harder tests before consented projects become real homes.

Oliver Lowrie
Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club Briefings partners with Marrons

The Breakfast Club Briefings are a space where politicians, planners, developers and consultants come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the industry, and form a consensus on what we want from the cities of the future.
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