In principle, upon graduation that new workforce is just as available to the construction industry as to any other sector, but we need to attract them into construction at the right time, or they’ll go elsewhere.

A standardised kit of parts, coupled with the use of machines to eliminate repetitive tasks, will give architects and designers more time to spend exploring outcomes and adding value.This will, in turn, allow them to create refined, client-specific designs which are every bit as aesthetically pleasing and unique as buildings designed by traditional methods.

We also believe there will be a shift in where we think creativity is best placed within the architectural process.Our Creative Technologies team - the vast majority of whom are architects - know that developing the algorithm and computational design is as much a part of the creative design process as sketching something.. M for Manufacture in DfMA: The move to a manufacturing mindset.We have already seen our PRiSM to Platforms digital workflow deliver tremendous improvements to the procurement and payment process.

As soon as we have a design we like, we can instantly generate a data model.This information gives us all the bill of materials quantities we’ll need for the project, and from this data set we can also create the BIM models (ie.

the BIM model is one ‘view’ of the data set, not the other way round).

What’s more, as we move further into a construction Platforms space, we will increasingly see the data set of a design able to talk directly to the manufacturing marketplace.They’ll easily adapt to this future delivery model.. As the SMEs grow and invest in their capabilities, we’ll see more drive from that supply chain side because of the confidence they’ll have in the pipeline, and the opportunity to be secure in that investment.

However, one challenge we do face is that SMEs can be hard to reach because they’re often so busy doing their jobs that they don’t necessarily have time to look at these bigger changes.One reason government funding and R&D programmes are so important is because these things enable a de-risked environment whereby SMEs can work and learn the evolving operating and delivery systems..

TIP 2: Will there be a future mandate?.One of the most intriguing parts of Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, is the potential for a government mandate within the next couple of years.