Building Design and Construction have been a part of our human society for a long time. It's ingrained itself into our definition of fundamental human rights in that that we believe everyone deserves to have a place to call home. We live and work and buildings and structures every day that many of us don't even give a second thought to. These built spaces give us places to learn, heal, rest, and be.
Like many generational industries, the building and construction industry often gets trapped in doing things as they always have. The most significant change over the last 50 years is how fast we can put buildings up. The speed of construction has been directly affected by advancements in manufacturing methods, material developments, tool design, and computers. But I believe there is a new generation of change on the horizon.
I've been working in this industry for over ten years as a consulting engineer. Granted, that's not a super long time, but I have worked with individuals who have been here for much longer. One thing that is hard to miss about my experience is that our industry (especially the design process) is a vast ship that turns very slowly.
For example, we made the first step from hand-drafted construction drawings to the first computer-aided design (CAD) software program in the early 1960s. And it took more than 20 years for that software to become robust enough and readily available for regular day-to-day use.
During my tenure as an engineer, we've begun to see some of the fastest growth in industry-related technology ever. 3D building models have gone from obscure and novel ideas to regular and desired deliverables. Collaboration and communication tools continue to explode and impact how architects, contractors, and owners all. And the technological future of our industry is bright!
Many changes and new technologies are being driven by the generation that grew up in our most recent technological revolution as a society.
And while every generation brings a fresh look and new ideas to the areas where they work, these new generations inherently will bring new skills allowing them to adapt and use new technologies at a quicker and quicker pace. So, where does this leave us as an industry?
Tools & Data
As tools are developed to assist in the design and construction of built spaces, the lead time behind the advancements in the implementation of technologies will get shorter and shorter. The building and construction industry may even take the lead in developing some of these new technologies—for example, augmented reality (AR). The potential for AR use in the building construction industry is enormous. From helping contractors increase their installation accuracy and effectiveness to allowing building owners to create a virtual walk-through of a digitally modified environment during the construction process.
However, none of this is going to be possible without the data.
Elon Musk and Tesla have forever changed the face of the automotive industry. And they've done it multiple ways, but one way I'd like to focus on here is their data gathering. Making a car that can drive by itself is one thing but making it safe and adaptable is entirely different. And one of the big pieces of this puzzle is data. The more information you can feed the driving systems, the better they behave.
The building and construction industry is traditionally a very linear industry regarding data.
The owners have an idea, the Architects and Engineers use their experience and knowledge to design a building or space, and contractors build it—end of the chain. But we are starting to see some opportunities to change this mentality.
Processes like Building Information Modeling (BIM) have started to expose engineers to the world of construction in new ways. One of the best lessons I learned as a young engineer is that things look very different in real life vs. what you drew on a page. And understanding that difference is one skill that can drastically improve the quality and constructability of a design. The BIM process forces engineers and contractors to come together and collaborate in a 3D virtual space before construction even begins.
And there is a wealth of information to be gleaned from this process if you are paying attention.
Beyond being the start of a great feedback loop for engineers, BIM also provides a platform to handle new data that we couldn't in the past. College universities can use these BIM tools to look at a specific piece of equipment and the part number of a belt that needs to be replaced. Extrapolate this reality to all the elements modeled during a construction process, and it is a very data-rich environment.
The next question we need to be asking is, what do we do with all this data?
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