The Council on Open Building is committed to the proposition that planning for change — during design and long-term — is a fundamental prerequisite for a resilient and sustainable built environment. The Council fosters the development of knowledge, methods and practices supporting implementation of the Open Building approach across all project types including residential, healthcare, educational facilities, and commercial. The Open Building approach to design and decision-making is rooted in the historical traditions of a sustainable built environment, constantly undergoing incremental renewal. It is uniquely suited to the 21st century built environment: • It supports ever-larger and fast-paced projects involving multiple participants including users. • It demands efficiency, variety and the capacity to adapt to evolving societal and technical realities. • It balances long-term value with immediate return on investment. Balancing permanence and change applies to existing and new construction as well as the urban fabric. Open Building practices address both fine-grained and large-scope change, while respecting and reinforcing the value of stable and coherent places. Its methods are particularly effective in managing uncertainty and diverse values within a distributed decision-making process. The Council was initiated in the Spring of 2017 with active involvement by the following practice leaders: City Design Studio Architecture and Urban Design; HR&A Advisors, Inc.; Harley Ellis Devereaux Architects and Engineers; MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society; District Homes, LLC; SOMOS Design; Massachusetts General Hospital Real Estate and Facilities; BuroHappold Engineering; Gensler; ARUP; CO Architects; Miyamoto International Structural Engineers; Infill Systems US LLC; Mendocino College Facilities Department; SmithGroupJJR; Moore, Ruble, Yudell, Architects and Planners; NBBJ; Ann Beha Architects; BRIC Architects; MIT Department of Facilities; Holmes Structures.