What would the demolition industry look like if we could start afresh, with the very latest tools and technology at our disposal?
What if you had to design the demolition and construction industry from scratch, without knowing your place within it? You might be a labourer on the ground, a machine operator, an engineer, or even someone affected by noise, dust, or the loss of a historic building. You might be a woman stepping onto a male-dominated site for the first time, or someone with a disability trying to access a training pathway. You might be a migrant worker, a subcontractor, or a local resident living in the shadow of a high-rise demolition.
This is the challenge posed by philosopher John Rawls and his concept of the Veil of Ignorance; a moral thought experiment first proposed in his 1971 book A Theory of Justice. Rawls asked us to imagine designing a fair society without knowing who we would be within it. No knowledge of your race, gender, wealth, skills, or position. Just a blank slate and a fair mind. The idea is simple: if we don’t know our future role, we’re more likely to design systems that are fair to everyone.
So what would the demolition and construction industry look like if we applied Rawls’ veil of ignorance to it?
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