article_0001('Construction Automation')

Part 1/5 of "The Computer Made Me Do It" exploration series on AI

Construction Automation

Robotic technology provides the building industry with several benefits but even more questions. The construction industry will supposedly use robotics to get work done faster, cheaper, and more precisely, automate processes and increase productivity. This article summarizes certain regions of the structure affected by robotic technologies, discussing its current impact on the business and what you might expect to see later on.

Automated Technology

Among the applications of robotics is to allow for increased automation in various procedures. With the pandemic and more significant development in robotics, building industry businesses are becoming more open to using previously untapped tech solutions. Specifically, you might expect traditional building tasks like welding, material handling, packaging, dispensing, cutting, and packaging to be completely automatic with robotic technologies. These changes allow for accuracy and precision through all building procedures, and it represents substantial time and monetary savings.

Altered Workforce

According to a World Economic Forum report, approximately 5 million jobs were lost at the end of 2020. They attribute a lot of the job reduction to artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D Printing, and robotics, all that will significantly affect the construction industry, accounting for an estimated ten percent of total job losses. The WEF forecasts that these technologies will be slowly incorporated, replacing particular tasks, not jobs entirely.

Nevertheless, with machines taking on certain aspects of a job, they allow businesses to employ fewer staff who become accountable for a wide range of activities. Even though it seems as though the building sector will be hit hard by this robotic revolution, the WEF also forecasts that over 400,000 jobs in architecture and engineering will be necessary.

Lean Construction Practices

Among the largest and most significant movements in the industry is poor construction. This modern ideology aims to improve efficiency and productivity, frequently centered on eliminating waste instead of solely the "bottom line." Traditional construction practices produce an excessive amount of waste, which isn't just harmful to get the environment but significantly affects profitability.

Robotic technology, however, might help reduce the quantity of waste created due to its capability to guarantee accuracy and precision. An investment in technology, like 3D printers, can be a difficult task for many businesses. By eliminating human error and inconsistency, these machines may benefit from speed, efficiency, and repeatability to guarantee better overall quality.

3D Printing

The addition of 3D printing would be continuing to grow in the building industry. It is now possible to print complex, layered parts and objects that may construct houses, buildings, bridges, and roads. Considering the number of building projects currently in place, speeding up the destruction process can significantly save money and time. Breaking down walls, crushing concrete, and collecting all debris is the initial step in many building procedures, and robotics is making these procedures much more efficient. Brick Laying - Even though there's a belief that robotics is utilized for contemporary processes only, this isn't the case.

I’m curious to hear what you think of this exploration. Leave me a comment below on how you think your practice will use this technology.

Overcoming Structural Roadblocks

On March 31st, I joined my fellow AIA National Board Candidates for a discussion with Component Leadership in the Gulf States, Illinois, New England, Pennsylvania, Texas, Western Mountain, and International regions. A video of my live Q/A is below

Some of the questions asked were

• How will technology help in resolving future and current issues at the AIA?

• Can you share some specific examples of how AIA may elevate its efforts in fostering innovation nationally and at the local level?

• What do you see as the future role of the Strategic Council, and do you feel the role of the Council will be evolving or staying the same?

• If elected how will you ensure and or push the AIA to enact large-scale change as it relates to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the profession and other allied professions?

Feel free to share with me your thoughts on the discussion in the comment section below or email me at ricardo@bytesandmortar.com

AIA's Engaging with Component Leadership Candidate Webinar

Video Transcript:

Ricardo: Hello Bill.

William: Yeah, thanks for being here.

Ricardo: Thank you!

William: uh Ricardo Rodríguez De Santiago is candidate for AIA At-Large Director. Again thank you for being here. We'll jump right in; How will technology help in resolving future and current issues at the AIA.

Ricardo: I think one of the things we have to remember about technology it's not something that we... it's not about buzzwords, it's not a switch that we flip and all of a sudden functionalities are available to us. It involves a shift in mindset and I think that's usually what we're missing. But, we're no strangers to this shift in mindset, when we're in architectural school, as frustrating as it could be, there's a portion there at the beginning that we don't really know what we're doing, and at some point, something "clicks". We're taught to think as designers, we're taught to think in "systems", and use those skills to problem-solve things that have to do with [the] very complex interaction of networks, between communities, complex program requirements. So very much like that, where the paradigm shift occurred, we need to apply that now to ourselves, shift that mindset towards technology, but in terms of how the World is working now. I think that there is a little bit of a misnomer that this is a discussion that is had with emerging professionals. They certainly have a better skill set for that because the younger they are, their minds are trained in how to operate in the digital-first world. For some of us, we remember when the thought of getting into a car with a stranger and paying them for the ride with money was something totally insane, but now with Uber and Lyft, that's a second kind of guess to us, right? We don't even think about it twice anymore. That's happening within our industry but, a lot of the possibility to engage with that really occurs with our folks at the mid and senior levels engaging in that discussion. In realizing that young people are not going to resolve this for you. This is related to your business and the more that we can open and be transparent in that discussion, in education, and evolving the innovation programs, as a means of getting our businesses ahead, the better we'll be in the long run. We'll be more relevant, we'll be more prosperous, and we'll have a better exchange with the customers we're trying to serve.

Ricardo: Bill, I think you're on mute.

Wiliam: Thank you. Can you share some specific examples of how AIA may elevate its efforts in fostering innovation nationally and at the local level?

Ricardo: Sure, so I'm a product, in a great sense, of the Practice Innovation Lab. When the YAF (Young Architects Forum), and Evelyn, and some current board members and colleagues, had put together the Practice Innovation Lab a few years ago. It brought together all these different minds, of people very much like myself, that didn't... that maybe had a very keen interest in innovation and technology and new ways of operating our businesses. For me, it opened up a whole world of possibilities that there are other people that think like me, there are people that are interested in things that I'm interested in, and it landed in my current role leading and spearheading a digital innovation program globally. So it's repeating programs like this, institutionalizing them, formalizing them. The YAF did a good job in creating toolkits so that local components could use these and do more of [them]. But, I think a lot of this also has to do with us figuring out what's the framework for embedding our members into these discussions beyond our borders. In all these different types of organizations and different types of professionals that deal with innovation and technology, and businesses at that. So it's a two-pronged approach and I think we could do a lot more on it right by being more open.

Ricardo: Thank you. That's a great question.

William: Good, thank you! uh, what do you see as the future role of the Strategic Council, and do you feel the role of the Council will be evolving or staying the same?

Ricardo: Yes, I think I got a similar question in a previous webinar! I think the Strategic Council's role will definitely change. I think there's a misnomer of calling the Strategic Council a "think-tank". There are expectations that are raised when using that word and I think it's mostly a kind of horizon-scanning body, right. That informs the Board on what's happening ahead. We've seen that there are very, I would say, steep challenges in how do we communicate the content that's generated at the Council back to components, which are ultimately the folks that could put into action a lot of these contents and learnings. So it is I would say our fiduciary responsibility to figure out ways that we can get that content those communications out to local components. But, also make sure that the work that's being done responds to some type of rigorous methodology that informs the board as well and provides them with a means of being able to lay out a road map for it. Not just at times save it into a PDF. That's not the way we share knowledge in this day and age.

William: Great, uh if elected how will you ensure and or push the AIA to enact large-scale change as it relates to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the profession and other allied professions.

Ricardo: Yeah, I've responded to this and discussed it a bit in the past. I think it has to do with us acknowledging that there is an internal look that we need to perform. I would say the talking about these things and having these lofty goals, is certainly very commendable, as is issuing public statements on it. But we need to do a hard look at what are the internal barriers that at times exclude and inhibit this kind of openness to accept new people from diverse backgrounds and diverse frames of thought. A lot of that has to do with technology, but it has to do with figuring out what is it that we need to dismantle. There are some natural, I would say, structural barriers to this, and that is on us to take down.

Ricardo: Thank you, Bill. I think you're on mute.

William: Yeah. Ricardo thanks for being here man!

Ricardo: Appreciate it. Thank you!

Priorities for our Profession

This past week I sat down with AIA Component Leadership from California, Middle Atlantic, New Jersey, North Central States, Ohio Valley, and South Atlantic, for some live Q&A regarding my candidacy. Check out the video below!

Some of the questions asked were

• What would be your priority as you tackle those issues that you suggested, and what do we need to do in tackling those as a profession?

• How can we distill those into tools that can be used at the chapter level for education and services to our members?

• If elected, how will you ensure and/or push the AIA to enact large-scale change as it relates to justice equity diversity inclusion within the profession, and other allied professions?

• What is the role of architects in promoting equity and undoing structural racism in our society?

Click here for a full transcript

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I would love to hear what your thoughts are on my responses.

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Or share your feedback in the comments section below.

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Engaging with AIA Component Leadership Candidate Webinar

Video Transcript:

William: Got Ricardo up. Ricardo, you got a quick mic check for me?

Ricardo: Yes, I'm here!

William: Awesome, thank you very much. Um, Ricardo Rodríguez De Santiago is a candidate for At-Large Director. Thanks for joining us today and um listening in. We've got a few questions for you. Number one: What would be your priority in tackling all the issues you listed in your speech, and excuse me, um (this is poorly written). I'm sorry. Basically, what are your... what would be your priority as you tackle those issues that you suggested, and what do we need to do in tackling those as a profession.

Ricardo: Well I think the issues that I know are mainly four, right, starting with innovation and I think the important part of starting with innovation really has to do with an acknowledgment of ourselves as a profession, that there is no sustainable future unless we tackle this as a business decision. Right. We all know, I talk to a lot of architects, I have a lot of architecture friends, no one's talking about how much revenue increase that they're getting these past couple years, how great and rosy things are going. It's always like you hear the same complaints, over and over. Yet for the past 60 years, if not more I would argue, that our business practices have remained essentially the same. So, we're very much adept at tackling context, from a built perspective, but not so much when we talk about context from the digital perspective. So when I talk about innovation and digital empowered innovation it really has to do with how do we empower our practices with the tools needed to really change fundamentally how we do that. So I think understanding that there is a strategic imperative to run and have business innovation for our firms, for how we bring in new members how, we tier-in new type of an audience, new clients... This notion that we need to educate our clients in what we do I think it's fundamentally wrong. The main issue that we need to keep in mind is the market is telling us something and has been telling us for quite some time. We need to educate ourselves in what our client and customer needs are and then adjust our business practices to fulfill those.

William: Super, thank you for that. How can we distill those into tools that can be used at the chapter level for education and services to our members?

Ricardo: Right. So again, I think that we as a profession need to if we're really looking forward and thinking about the future of the generations that are now and coming after us, understanding that automation is going to displace up to even a third of the construction industry's workforce. We need to do something now, to be able to maneuver that change? How do we do that? We provide education so that people are able to obtain the education and digital confidence that they need, that they're able to understand what data and financial analytics are, and that we're able to establish programs that outreach to people in ways that connect with them. We've had to all figure out new ways of engaging with customers, and each other, during the pandemic. I hope that at the end of the pandemic, we can if this actually does happen, that we're able to... instead of reverting back to where we were before, but were able to take those (learnings) and in a very lean kind-of-way, and use those as a stepping stone to develop new ways of connecting with people. I think a lot of that if we're thinking about, I would say, the younger the K-12 standpoint, we need to immediately meet them out where they are, and NOT where we would want them to be as clones of ourselves. Right. As a profession, what are these fundamental skills that we all go to architecture school for and that we're super passionate about? Those are the skills that will set us apart in a tech-enabled world because those are the skills that are not prevailing within the tech industry in general

William: If elected, how will you ensure and/or push the AIA to enact large-scale change as it relates to justice equity diversity inclusion within the profession, and other allied professions.

Ricardo: Oh, I think this starts from an acknowledgment that, and it's a very hard discussion because it's an inward-facing discussion, in that there are policies, rules, and even traditions that have systematically pushed out people from our profession. It prohibits people that are not in the traditional path from being able to work within their passions and their strengths for us. And that involves us looking at each of these and every one of these pieces of communication, policy, administrative guidelines, and normatives that we have, that are potentially pushing those folks out and then bringing them in. Bringing them in not in a way that we are tied to, maybe performance metrics, but on how important it is to have folks of a diverse background in. While data is super important, I think that a genuine opportunity to give them, as they grow, is even more important than that, right? There has to be an atmosphere and space to allow for that level of advocacy, it happens with developing a path, to I would say, leadership opportunities that not only throws people - Hey, here's... you have an option or access here - but, that you actually empower them, you provide skills, you provide the resources that are needed, and the contacts that are needed, to kind of come in for that. So, I think it's it's mostly in inward-facing that we need to do a hard look at ourselves and then start reaching out and get them in the mix.

Thank you, Bill.

William: This is yeah, this is uh we got a little over a minute left, this is a similar question, but it's directed towards society. So what is the role of architects in promoting equity and undoing structural racism in our society?

Ricardo: I mean, it's a fundamental, right, question, and though it is related I think this now looking a little bit more outward, so I appreciate the opportunity to discuss it from both ends. I think a big part of that has to do with us being able to elevate the people in our membership that are doing the work, that are doing work at the very grassroots levels, right, of becoming involved with folks, involved with causes - be that in climate change or social justice - because we know for a fact that those are very much entwined. So how is it that we bring those voices to light and we share them? You know, we're 95,000 members deep worldwide. We should be doing a whole lot more of using our Institute as a platform for getting not only those voices out, but us ourselves standing behind them in those causes, in a very effective way, right. And a way of doing that is engaging in public leadership and even in political action so we could be doing a whole lot more with that. Thank you!

William: Thank you, Ricardo. Appreciate you being here.

Ricardo: I appreciate it.

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