In 2017, as I was flying in a Tiger Moth to Normandy to commemorate the D-day Landings, I was unexpectedly choked. North of London, we had flown into a thick layer of smoke, which was issuing from the Grenfell Tower Disaster (photo). The experience was less horrific than the event, which was a catastrophe both for the victims, and also for the construction industry. Through my career I have witnessed the progressive tightening of planning legislation and building regulations, and a reduction in the number of SMEs in the sector. Where I had known the institutions; both educational and professional, to possess virtues of egalite and fraternite, I have seen them have retreat from social functions, and advance in their roles as guarantors and enforces of standards. I feel Grenfell has significantly catalysed and accelerated these changes. An ever expanding policy regime is giving rise to a seeming tyranny of consultants, each touting their particular specialism, each making it ever more difficult for any individual to have a complete picture of a project. AI may play a part here; my clients still require the act of architecture to be managed on their behalf, but with AI assistance, some of the burden of complex thought might be able to be done out-of-head. Through another restructuring; at my software vendor, ArchiCAD, is now subscription only to the tune of £500 every month. As a solo practitioner, I can only dream of being able to sustain £500 a month in expendable revenue. Across the fields of the industry I am being marginalised to extinction, but again, with the promise of AI, I wouldn’t need complex software or infallible knowledge of emerging regulations; just the will to produce a building; we shall see, as my father would say…