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This article is part of a blog series, on Construction 4.0 exploring its relevance for the construction industry.
Technology is revolutionizing the digital transformation in the construction industry. Emerging technologies remodel how we work, how we collaborate, and then our daily lives.
In the rapidly changing digital world, you must meet the challenges of tomorrow, by proactively pushing changes through your organizations.
For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) may help you get rid of ineffectiveness and poor productivity. The construction technology trends in 2024 are reshaping the industry.
There are few drivers impacting changes in the industry, but they are crucial for the development of a digital world in the Architect, Engineers, Construction, and Operation (AECO) sector, as they complement each other and influence the use of emerging technologies. The drivers are discussed below.
Clients’ expectations are more demanding and innovative, in a swiftly moving market. Clients ask for customization of products or materials to use in houses, offices, and infrastructure that are interchangeable, distinct, energy efficient, secured, and environmentally friendly.
Connected sensors, hardware, and software prices are decreasing, so they can be used in your projects easily and efficiently. For example, here are some innovative technologies used by professionals:
More startups are created every day, delivering profitable solutions to the construction industry.
According to Bricks and Bytes a significant increase in VC funding in the construction tech industry reached $34 billion in total cumulative in Q2 2024, up from $30 billion in Q4 2023.
Despite an industry that is prone to resistance to change, the younger generation of professionals are familiar with technologies and are watching closely what the market has to offer, to streamline and automate processes.
Digitalization decreases the environmental impact construction projects may have on the planet. The construction industry produces 39% of global energy-related CO2 emissions.
To accommodate a sustainable building growth from 2020 to 2060, of 2.6 trillion square feet of new floor area worldwide, governments, that already mandated zero emissions from new construction, will require energy-efficient buildings that use no fossil fuels to operate and renewable energy to power them.
According to the McKinsey report “imagining construction’s digital future”, the industry is ready to embrace the following technological trends:
Ground conditions are delaying projects’ completion. To mitigate this risk and increase accuracy and speed, surveyors may combine several advanced techniques like high-definition photography, 3D laser scanning, and geolocation systems.
BIM is a digital representation of the physical and functional attributes of a project. It plans, scopes, schedules, and verifies that clients' requirements are met through its life cycle.
Combining BIM, immersive technologies, and wearable devices helps transform the construction industry's decision-making process.
Automating and systemizing workflows in a construction project improves collaboration and data collection across all stages of a project. Automation facilitates the management of people through scheduling. Material procurement and estimate systems will become easier. Finally, quality control processes will improve.
The IoT, AI, sensors, and near-field communication (NFC) devices collect and manage data.
Using a platform on the cloud allows project managers to monitor the productivity and reliability of construction machinery, equipment, materials, and structure assembly.
The building materials worldwide industry market according to Precednece will reach $1.35 trillion in 2024 and is projected to surpass around $2 trillion by 2034. With new building materials, you can speed up your project’s delivery, improve quality and safety, and reduce costs.
Examples of materials are:
To streamline construction processes, modern technology is crucial:
Immersive technologies include Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
AR superimposes a computer-generated image on the real world, to help visualize objects, and find out how they will behave in their real environment by displaying information about equipment, looking at components, and sending warnings when risks are emerging.
VR is a digital representation of the real world that simulates the environment.
It is complex and difficult to feel the space, even in 3D models. with AR and VR, you are immersed in the digital world as if you were in the real one, and you can easily detect design and coordination errors you would not have been able to do in 3D or 2D drawings.
AR and VR can be used to discuss projects with clients as they visualize the result, creating new opportunities for the industry.
The initial investment may be high but avoiding costly reworks will deliver a quick return.
Everybody is talking about BIM. That is because it is the best way to improve the accuracy and quality of the building process.
With BIM you can plan the project development in an open and highly collaborative environment.
The BIM benefits are as follows:
To ensure that the robot market remains competitive and meets the future requirements of the construction industry, it is important to establish automated and robotized construction systems today. This includes an industrialized process in the following subsections of market mining, construction material production, prefabrication of construction, components, on-site construction, facility management, and rehabilitation and recycling.
Companies like MIT and Construction Robotics are launching automated robots designed to solve two key issues: lack of productivity and profitability on construction sites and labor shortage.
Modular construction is a way of building more quickly, using modules, which are constructed in a factory and assembled on-site.
The definition given by the Modular Building Institute is as follows:
Permanent modular construction is a design and construction process performed in a manufacturing facility that produces building components, or modules, constructed to be transported to a permanent building site.
You can find these modular construction approaches in many sectors and construction types such as residential buildings, multi-family dwellings, schools and universities, prisons, railways, and high-rises.
Modular construction has extremely specific requirements and as such cannot be used for all architectural styles and building classifications, mainly where there is little repetition, but with the use of recent technologies this is starting to change.
Modular construction reduces cost, time-to-build, and waste. It also improves the quality of the construction and increases margins.
The biggest sustainability issue in the construction industry is the amount of waste generated. Modular construction and prefabrication allow you to recycle leftover materials and reduce waste, so it is an eco-friendly technique.
Self-healing or self-repairing concrete is used on buildings, roads, and homes to freely fix its cracks. By sealing the cracks, it recovers the mechanical properties of its structural elements.
In 2024, and beyond, self-healing concrete technology could repair structural degradations and building cracks, to reduce the 4.1 billion metric tons of cement produced in 2023.
Concrete, made with cement, is an extensively produced and consumed material in the construction industry, so this technology will certainly be used widely worldwide.
Nowadays, you can find mobile devices leveraging cloud technology everywhere and access the internet anytime from anywhere allowing you to store copious amounts of information and share data immediately.
To meet your contractual obligations, you can leverage cloud solutions to keep data secure in remote locations and expedite data analysis.
Cloud-based collaboration facilitates effective communication among project team members, a prerequisite to delivering successful projects. It improves synchronization by increasing efficiency, reducing errors and reworks, and minimizing project complexity.
Many construction companies are now actively exploring or utilizing cloud technology. While cloud adoption was initially slower in construction, recent years have seen a rapid rise in interest. Increasingly, construction companies integrate and manage their existing processes through a single cloud-based platform.
The cloud can help project teams to work on the same sets of data across all stakeholders to make decisions based on real-time and accurate data, eliminate manual tasks by automating processes which saves time by scheduling tasks collaboratively and reduces costs by eliminating clashes and costly reworks. Overall a cloud platform improves profitability and productivity by monitoring and verifying projects’ progress.
Drone technology is rapidly evolving, their usage in the construction industry has increased 239 percent year-over-year, according to BigRentz, an online equipment rental network.
Construction sites use drones to monitor project progress, complete safety inspections, and survey dangerous sites. Drones are known to improve onsite security and reduce labor costs by mitigating the risk of theft.
Analyzing data collected by drones with AI, visualization, and monitoring tools help to evaluate and change, in real-time, the latest ideas to improve building design, project scheduling, and building operating systems.
The global construction drone market in 2024 is expected to be $6.99 billion. It is expected to reach $12.27 billion by 2028.
In the construction industry, the use of drones can be inside a building to survey a specific room, or outside to scan hazardous sites. The possibilities are endless as drones can be used in various applications.
Drones are very trendy right now in the construction industry, thanks to their ability to collect data. They offer great benefits in surveyance, site monitoring, safety and security, and in project management.
Drone technology can be used throughout the whole life cycle of a project, for example, scoping the project by collecting rich media like photos, videos, and imagery that can be inserted into the BIM Execution Plan (BEP), or tracking the construction progress in real-time to optimize the efficiency and usage of construction by collecting real-time data.
Surveying a site can be done in minutes, compared to traditional methods that could take weeks or even months. So, it saves time and money and improves accuracy and precision.
You can expect some great digital solutions in the construction industry, revolutionizing the way we work. The industry is going through interesting times right now with automation and digitization.
Construction consists of bespoke projects and one-off designs, and every building is unique so implementing digital solutions requires identifying repetitive and hazardous tasks and automating processes that are common in the industry.
Digitalization will improve the quality and sustainability of your projects.
Driving Vision can help you to decide if you need to invest in technology. Our technology diagnostic looks at the best way to incorporate modern technology into your workflows and how to move your organization to cloud computing so you can open new possibilities for your daily planning tasks and make sure your data never leaves the optimally secured data center.
The technology appraisal report will help you to explore what investment is required to improve your projects’ productivity and collaboration as well as the ROI you can expect.
A Driving Vision expert will conduct interviews online, issue a report, and discuss our findings with you. Together we will decide the best way to implement the solutions at your pace and according to your budget.
Implementing BIM can be daunting, but Driving Vision is here to help you at the pace you are comfortable with. Get started by getting in touch now
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We offer you and your projects’ partners a win-win solution based on a solid, long-lasting, fruitful relationship
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