Fly me to the moon, and build a city…

When I was growing up I watched a lot of science fiction movies, looking at all the impossible technologies and places I never imagined a normal kid could go. I didn’t anticipate technology would progress as quickly as it has and make so many of my dreams become real. Over the last 10 years the films I loved for their crazy concepts are now becoming possible as mobile technology, connectivity and sensor technology are making things like driverless cars and augmented reality interfacing with a computer through gestures alone, a reality.

Similarly, we are at an interesting point in construction. When there was a move from drafting by hand to 2D CAD in the 80’s and 2D CAD to 3D CAD in the 00’s, processes on the construction site still largely remained the same, yes you saw the occasional bulky tablet, the occasional laptop to fill in spreadsheets and forms, but largely technology had been left in the office. All this is changing as we move into a place where BIM is commonplace, the majority of people have access to more computing power in their pocket than Neil Armstrong and his colleagues had to land on the moon with, and connectivity has gone from an expensive unexpected request to an expectation.

Many of the immediate uses of technology in construction are simply digitising manual processes giving immediate efficiencies in a sector not known to be the best at it. However as we do more with technology we’ll see better uses of data collected at various stages in design and construction to help people who may be building or later maintaining that building. Working in a way where you can easily move between the office and the field without the worry of having a wrong copy of a drawing, or forgetting a vital piece of information is now easily possible, passing issues to other contractors without having to spend hours typing up emails and corresponding photo’s with handwritten notes is allowing quicker resolution and higher quality construction. Advances in hardware on site allow instant connections between total stations and 3D models allowing accurate and faster layout, and identification of areas that need rework or design alterations.

After years of working in silos, we can now use the same model from early concept design to detailed design to fabrication, and many uses in-between, as we move from using computers as a tool to document buildings, with specialist tools being for the select few, to truly optimising every aspect from solar and energy studies, to construction planning and traffic simulations, to improving handover and then maintenance with all the documentation to hand. We are entering an “Era of Connection”, and firms that aren’t ready for this will struggle to continue winning business.

Then we have the next generation of technologies knocking on the door. 3D printing has already been used in anger on buildings like the fa?ade of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, and housing projects in China. In the Netherlands, MX3D are looking to 3D print a bridge, using robotic arms that can swivel along all axes, create unique and fluid shapes.

It’s a very exciting time to be in construction, and if you are seeing changes now in how day to day work is, just wait for the next ten years as 3D printing, drones, assembled buildings and robotic working go from science fiction to everyday normality. Not only will buildings be built differently, but ideas which previously seemed impossible to build may just become possible.

Just think of a time in the future where all these technologies start coming together. Is it that far off that our first moonbase city could be built by flying mooncopters in the days before we arrive, or we organically grow a building from nanobot seeds, or we use mind control to change the layout and usage of a building?

This blog was originally written for Digital Construction Week in October 2015 
https://www.digitalconstructionweek.com/news/Fly+me+to+the+moon%2C+and+build+a+city%E2%80%A6