bowlingdanish
Structural
- Jan 22, 2015
- 87
Hello all,
It's clear that most innovations in building construction over the last few decades have been developed to reduce labour and time costs on site. Prefabricated products that can be transported to site certainly require less on site labour, and now there is an ever growing list of proprietary products that can dropped into place. As Structural Engineers, I feel we've gone along and accepted this shift without considering what it means now, and in the future. So what's happening? The way I see it;
- Technology is driving material and production costs down
- Labour costs are steady and/or increasing
The net result is that the cost of construction will decrease - more can be built for less as technological advancements make various manual labour tasks redundant. This will only accelerate in the future as robotic machines and AI can complete physical tasks on site.
So what does this mean? In my opinion, a massive redistribution of wealth. What is paid to labourers now is completely disproportionate to what robotics will cost in the coming years to perform the same tasks. So where does this wealth go? It's true that clients/owners may realise benefits, but the answer I believe is the same story as it's always been - the developer and building contractor will reap rewards leaving the consultant engineers to clutch at the straws of technology as it advances at an ever increasing rate. We spend more and more time looking at proprietary manuals and less and less time engineering, yet we are still liable for the buildings performance.
So what's the path forward?
It's clear that most innovations in building construction over the last few decades have been developed to reduce labour and time costs on site. Prefabricated products that can be transported to site certainly require less on site labour, and now there is an ever growing list of proprietary products that can dropped into place. As Structural Engineers, I feel we've gone along and accepted this shift without considering what it means now, and in the future. So what's happening? The way I see it;
- Technology is driving material and production costs down
- Labour costs are steady and/or increasing
The net result is that the cost of construction will decrease - more can be built for less as technological advancements make various manual labour tasks redundant. This will only accelerate in the future as robotic machines and AI can complete physical tasks on site.
So what does this mean? In my opinion, a massive redistribution of wealth. What is paid to labourers now is completely disproportionate to what robotics will cost in the coming years to perform the same tasks. So where does this wealth go? It's true that clients/owners may realise benefits, but the answer I believe is the same story as it's always been - the developer and building contractor will reap rewards leaving the consultant engineers to clutch at the straws of technology as it advances at an ever increasing rate. We spend more and more time looking at proprietary manuals and less and less time engineering, yet we are still liable for the buildings performance.
So what's the path forward?
