5 exciting technologies for the Building and Construction industry
by Marco Tapia
March 30, 2016
5 exciting technologies for the Building and Construction industry
Digital and Information Technologies have changed the way business is done across the entire economy. The building and construction sector is not alone and new technologies that can give them a productivity advantage. These 5 new technologies show promise and would be worth the attention of any anyone working in the industry.
1. 3D Printing*
The advent of 3D printing of buildings will transform Sydney, a leading futurist (Mr Wadhwa) says, and will have massive ramifications for local government planning processes.
Mr Wadhwa said the use of 3D printers - which, in theory, should be able to produce structures much more cheaply and quickly than those built with conventional methods - would change the design styles available to architects.
“Right now when we design buildings they’re all square,” Mr Wadhwa said. “You have flat structures, because that’s the way carpenters and brick layers build buildings.”
But the technology, were it to become as widespread as Mr Wadhwa predicted, would also lead to wholesale changes to the manner in which buildings were planned and approved.
“Here if you could print a 3D model at the start, and test it out, you wouldn’t need so many planners. Or you could simply upload your design to a central agency and have software programs analyse the structural integrity of that,” he said.
2. Security
A complete new range of services and products to enhance the security of buildings are being developed daily.
For instance, cloud based fully hosted monitoring and alarm systems are a great way to enhance your building security without the hassles of having your own CCTV system that needs hardware, software and are expensive to run.
A number of services are available to figure out the best security for your building. One Sydney based company to look at is Sydney Building Technology Brokers (http://www.sydneysecurityconsultants.com.au/)
3. Energy saving
Over the last few years, a significant number of new technologies have been developed for energy saving and environmental control. Siemens seems to be a leader on this front (http://www.siemens.com.au/bt-building-automation)
4. Project management and collaboration - Managing construction projects in the cloud
The #1 cloud-based web collaboration solution for construction, Aconex has been helping project teams increase productivity and manage risk for 14 years. From hotels and office parks to billion-dollar developments, we support on-time, on-budget delivery through structured workflows, dynamic reporting, mobile applications and more.
5. Cloud based technologies
Cloud computing is a fantastic technology for the building and construction industry. For an industry based on projects, situated in locations that sometimes are hard to get to, dusty environment and at times with limited space for computer gear, having most of the IT infrastructure ready and away is a blessing.
In a 2012 report titled the Modelling the Economic Impact of Cloud Computing KPMG predicts that if the take up of Cloud Computing by the construction sector reaches 50%, the cost reduction of ICT spending as a percentage of total company cost will fall from a base of 1.2% to 1.1% and 9.8% to 8.1% for Opex and Capex respectively. That is a reduction of 8.3% for Opex and 17% for Capex. Further, if a uniform take up of 75% across the industry was achieve the reduction in Opex and Capex would be a massive 16.7% and 25.3%. (Source: https://picnet.com.au/blogs/david/post/2016/03/22/economic-and-productivity-benefits-of-cloud-computing-for-the-construction-industry/
6. (extra) An app for earthquake prediction
The building and construction sector needs to build according to the code. One consideration are earthquakes. Perhaps, now with the help of this new app, design can be improved even more.
When an earthquake hits, even a few seconds advance notice can be precious. Because digital communications can outrun seismic waves, scientists at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory have designed and released MyShake, a free Android app that crowdsources earthquake detection.
Ref. http://myshake.berkeley.edu/
Marco Tapia