Ep 18: The Future of Construction
Hello. Hello. Hello, Reza. How are you today?
Reza:I'm good, Seyi. How are you doing?
Seyi:I am doing great. I'm doing great. Excited about this episode today of Future Forward.
Reza:Yes. I'm excited about this one as well. Today, we're gonna talk about the future of construction, deep dive into its historical roots, current challenges, and all the innovations that could help this sector. Like all of us see, there's in cities that we live in, construction is a critical part in building our cities and communities of tomorrow. But this industry has faced challenges with productivity, innovation.
Reza:It's just lagged behind other industries. And and we you know, this is where we'll explore why this is the case and what the challenges are and how potentially there's some solutions to it. I'm really super excited about this topic because this is one that I'm really passionate about. So you're gonna hear me talk a lot, on this episode. My dad was in construction.
Reza:He owned a business. So growing up, I was around that, you know, that that industry. And my day job currently is a product manager for a company that builds software for construction. So I'm very passionate about this sector, but a disclaimer before we jump in, what I shared today are just my opinions and do not represent my employer. But, yeah, before we jump in, Shai, tell us about FutureForward.
Seyi:Yes. For our old listeners, welcome back. Thanks for joining us again. And for our new listeners, thanks for giving this a try. Future Forward is a podcast that came out of conversations Reza and I have been having for years.
Seyi:We say this all the time. This was our opportunity to bring, listeners, friends, new and old into our conversation. And what we try to do is look at the history of cities, FutureForward Cities, how they got to where they are today. We ground ourselves in what's currently going on in those cities. And through the lens of the past, the present, we provide strategic foresight.
Seyi:And in some cases, maybe some predictions about where we think, cities will go. And the underlying goal is how do we build cities that help thrive in communities and grow sustainably? And we are on the episode that we we've talked about it for a few weeks now that we would do this one. And so I'm pretty excited about about it because it stems from this idea that I'm sure most of our listeners have heard that if a city is not growing or building, it's not thriving. And maybe that is true, but what underlies the building of infrastructure in cities is construction, and we're gonna do a deep dive on it today.
Seyi:So, Reza, can you ground us by bringing us from the past to the present?
Reza:Yeah. So so let's, you know, construction is an industry as old as civilization itself. You know, from the pyramids to the Roman aqueducts, you know, humans have had these monumental feats and all of it with very limited technology. So ancient builders managed to create these long lasting structures, often without any modern machinery, and it was just labor and human ingenuity. So that's the, you know, the first thing is humans have always built, and they have done it in ingenious ways from ancient times to now.
Reza:The big changes came about with the Industrial Revolution, steel, concrete. It transformed construction in the 19th 20th centuries. So there were significant technological advancements during this period, including mechanization, mass production of building materials, and then the rise of skyscrapers. And then in the post World War 2 boom, suburbanization and the growth of modern cities after World War 2, and this particularly in the US, where there was a really, you know, a need for housing and that led to rapid cost effective construction methods. And this is where we saw the role of government policies beginning to shape the built environment.
Reza:So that's kinda like a very succinct, you know, bringing us to today. And so let me pause over here.
Seyi:As I was listening to you and based on the conversation we're having before we started recording, something jumped to mind. And it feels like correct me if I'm wrong here, Reza, but mass, like, industrial level construction in many of the great cities of the world seem to have happened or coincide with recent either disaster, tragedy, or some and you mentioned post World War 2. Uh-huh. It feels like there's this push. And you mentioned government, push by government, but also by the people for some sort of recovery after any of these events, the great Chicago fire, London, the fire in London.
Seyi:Yeah. Construction happens at a scale that in normal times, we don't typically see, but is the observation that popped to mind as you said that. And, I can imagine, some of the experts listening to this might either refute or agree with that, but that was the first observation. And, the second one stems from this. When we go to the cities that we love, that are touristy cities, it is the infrastructure of the city that attracts us sometimes.
Seyi:The architecture of Chicago, I'll mention that again. It's as a result of some ingenuity in construction at some point. And I find that fascinating just thinking about it from those two lenses. Yeah?
Reza:Yeah. Yeah. I agree. You know, architects play this huge role in, you know, the design of the built environment. And, I'm very passionate about architecture.
Reza:My dad was an architectural engineer. We grew up, around that a lot. And so, yeah, it's, you know, and we'll probably explore this in future episodes. We have, you know, one of our laws is about urban design and, you know, how you how it shapes the urban environment. But, you know, construction has had its challenges.
Reza:And I wanna use this episode to explore that. And So bring
Seyi:us to today. Yeah. So to today.
Reza:Yeah. Today, before I jump in, 2 things. 1 is alter this discussion, pay attention to what I believe is a primary cause for challenges in construction, which is coordination and collaboration. I'll bring that up later on, but just sort of pay attention to those, you know, keep that in mind. The second thing is I just wanna make a quick mention of the construction physics newsletter by Brian Potter.
Reza:So the majority of the insights for today's episode comes from reading that newsletter. It's brilliant. He is very, very analytical, very deep dives into a lot of topics around construction and all the adjacent sort of policies and technologies around it. Fascinating. I love that newsletter.
Reza:So thank you, Brian Potter. You know, I hope someday, you'll join us on this episode and and talk to us directly about some of these things.
Seyi:That would be great.
Reza:Yeah. So so let's jump in, and I'm gonna touch on 2 things. 1 is, why is it hard to innovate in construction? And then the second one is why has productivity in construction has not improved? So starting with the first one, the, the core idea of this part is that construction operates differently than other industries where innovation happens more rapidly, like ones that we know, manufacturing or software, the one that I work in.
Reza:And there are some very particular reasons about construction that make it that way. So the first one is it's a project based industry. Construction is project based, which means that every building or infrastructure project is unique. The site is different. Even if you're building the same building, it's in a different place.
Reza:You even you're probably not building the same building. It's always something different. So unlike manufacturing where production lines create identical products en masse, each construction project involves different variables, the site conditions, regulation, client preferences, materials. So this complexity makes it really difficult to create standardization and innovation that can be universally applied across each project. 2, fragmentation in the industry.
Reza:So this industry is highly fragmented with, you know, you have owners of the buildings, you have general contractors, and then you have all these small subcontractors working independently on different aspects of the project, plumbing, electrical, concrete. So innovation, especially technology driven, often requires coordination across these multiple firms, and this fragmented structure slows the adopt adoption of new practices and tools. These are so with every construction project, you have an average of 15 different companies that are working together. These are 50 independent different companies that have to work together to build this thing. And so you can imagine, like, if you want a standardized process, it's convincing 50 of these companies to standardize on something.
Reza:Very difficult. The next one is low margins and risk aversion. Production, companies, they operate on thin margins, which makes them very risk averse. They fear costly delays, or any failures. So they're not willing to adopt new technologies or methods that don't have a long track record that they can completely trust and believe in.
Reza:And so in industries with higher margins, like the ones that, you know, we probably have experience with, like software, you have high margins, you can take more risks, you have more flexibilities to invest in research and development, experiment innovations. 4, workforce and skills. It's a very labor intensive industry. You're physically moving objects and materials and, equipment to build this, you know, make this building. And so it relies heavily on skilled a skilled workforce.
Reza:So many innovations such as automation or prefabrication requires retraining this workforce or shifting the types of skills needed, which is a significant barrier to doing it. So it's very related to the fragmentation of the industry. The 5th one over here is, you know, talking about incremental versus disruptive innovation. So most innovation in construction is incremental rather than disruptive. So instead of completely transforming the way a building is construction constructed, new methods and technologies are often used to improve, like, a small part, like reducing energy use or improving safety without fundamentally changing the overall process.
Reza:And so this incremental in in innovation, it's useful, it's valuable, but it means that dramatic shifts in productivity or efficiency are so you don't have, like, we've gone from on premise software to cloud software, and that was like a dramatic change in the software industry and, you know, productivity and innovation and things like that. And then the last one, just giving some examples of the slow uptake of innovation and construction, things like prefab construction, which has been around for decades, but only recently has gained some traction in certain markets. That's one that just hasn't stuck. The other one is BIM or Building Information Modeling. It's been available for years and it basically is like a, 3 d view of a building with all the data associated with each object of the building.
Reza:It's been around for years, but many small firms are still reluctant to adopt it because it's got a learning curve. It has upfront costs. And so despite its long term benefits in reducing errors, in improving project coordination, it's not adopted. Again, you have to have everyone on that construction project use it for it to be completely effective. And so that's an example of how, you know, it hasn't really been taken off.
Reza:So while innovation and construction is happening, it's slow, it's cautious, and it's a, it's a, it's a challenging process. So, and then the last thing that I want to bring up is that this industry is heavily regulated. So that can slow down innovation, building codes, safety regulations, zoning laws. They're all essential for keeping our community safe, but they can also make it really difficult to implement new technologies or materials or methods. And so that can be a barrier to affordable and more sustainable buildings and homes.
Reza:And so this this is a regulatory trade off that we often discuss on this podcast. And so, you know, so that's the that's the first thing that I wanted to talk about was, you know, the the nature of this industry. So I'm gonna pause over here before we touch on the second one, which is around productivity.
Seyi:Yes. Thanks so much for that. That was thorough and super informative. And, as we were putting show notes together, I decided to dig up what is the biggest construction project in the world. And as you were walking through each one of those constraints to innovation, it played out in my read of the project.
Seyi:And so I'll share this with our listeners. The biggest construction project in the world is a nuclear reactor being built in France. And it is being worked on by 35 countries, which equates to hundreds of companies working on this construction project. It is, called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. So it's an energy project Yeah.
Seyi:Which shows that intersection we always talk about between all the systems that make a city a city. And this is relating construction to energy, and it's, the name that's used for it is the Tokamak. But Yeah. The initial budget for this was, get this, €6,000,000,000.
Reza:Right.
Seyi:But projections, because the project is ongoing and has been delayed for many of the reasons you just shared, regulation, some industry innovation versus incremental innovation versus disruptive innovation, what materials should we use? And we've landed at projections that now put the cost of this project at closer to €45,000,000,000 from the €6,000,000,000 that was at the start. And completion is now projected to be 9 years later than originally planned, and completion will be 2039. And every single one of those issues you've identified that is a barrier to this regulation, slow take of technology, even as the time continues to move ahead and new approaches are coming in. The margins have pretty much disappeared on this construction project as you can imagine.
Seyi:Yeah. And so it's become it's been branded as a science experiment now, not really, and then, it is one of 1. It is a project that will not be repeated anywhere else for the reasons you mentioned. So thanks for sharing that. It it helps frame when I think or when our listeners will think about construction projects going forward.
Seyi:Yeah.
Reza:Yeah. That's, you know, again, that sounds like an incredibly complex, you know, piece of work Yeah. Project and, you know, all these coordination issues. I'm sure all these other issues have led to where it is. So the other thing that, you know, is oftentimes mentioned in construction is around productivity.
Reza:And there's the stat that is put out that, you know, productivity and construction has not changed since the 19 seventies, so more than 50 years. But there's more to it than the simple stat. Brian Potter has a really good article about this that I that I think really highlights this, to say why is it complex to measure productivity in construction. So first off, productivity is simply measured output per labor hour. But this metric can be misleading because it doesn't account for the variability in the project complexity.
Reza:Building a high rise in an urban environment requires far more resources and time than constructing a suburban home. But both fall under this general construction productivity metric, and so you miss out on some of the nuances. The second, we try to compare industries. So unlike manufacturing, where productivity has increased steadily over the decades due to automation, process improvements, construction productivity has been stagnant. So manufacturing obviously benefits from the economies of scale, continuous production environments, while construction deals with the stop start nature of weather, site conditions, dependencies on trades, completing their tasks, delays in material, all that kind of stuff.
Reza:So you it's very difficult to measure in those stop start types of nature. And the third thing, external constraints. Construction productivity is often constrained by external factors like supply chain delays, materials like steel or concrete, site conditions like I already mentioned, and even regulatory inspections because every part of the project has to be inspected to make sure that it meets the regulations of that particular location, that locality of that, urban area. So these delays are really hard to control. They add inefficiencies, but are often not factored into traditional productivity metrics.
Reza:The next one is WeWork. A significant amount of construction time is lost to WeWork, fixing mistakes, addressing design changes, correcting miscommunication between teams. Again, you have these 30, 50, 80 companies that are different cultures, you know, sometimes speaking different languages, sometimes, you know, sometimes speaking the same language, but, you know, different to their company in how they speak. So and and you know about changes. Like, anyone who's done a home remodel, you know, you might decide, oh, I don't want that tile.
Reza:I want this tile. Well, that just changed, you know, what actually needs to happen in that bathroom with that size and, you know, what happens to the glass door, all that kind of stuff. So the you know, this fragmented nature of the industry where subcontractors work in silos, the electrical is doing their thing, the plumbing is doing their thing, All this contributes to this inefficiency. So each contractor might optimize for their task, the electrician's thinking about the conduit that's going through here, you know, the HVAC guy is thinking about that same area where he wants to put his ductwork. There's, you know, could be conflicts with that, but they're optimizing their own thing.
Reza:So that that whole project suffers from these coordination gaps. One frequently cited statistic is from, the Construction Industry Institute, and they estimate that the direct cost of rework can range from 2 to 20% of a project's total contract value. So it always is there, and it can go from, you know, that that wide range. So in terms of dollar value, according to research by Navigant, it's a consulting firm. Ework costs the US construction industry roughly $31,000,000,000 annually.
Reza:It's just staggering. It's staggering. So that's that you know, so that's the last point about, you know, construction and productivity. It's just not straightforward as it is in other industries, and and that's what makes construction innovation difficult and also measuring how you're getting better difficult. So if you can't measure it, like, how do you know you're getting better?
Reza:It's it's very challenging.
Seyi:It is. It is. And because of all these coordination requirements across all the entities present in, project, a construction project, Yeah. 2 very quick things talked to me, and so I had to go dig it up. And the first one is no wonder projects go beyond the budget and the, cost estimates that come at the beginning because of a thing like rework immediately.
Seyi:You are essentially almost working on a different construction project at that point, depending on the extent of, rework or changes that happen in the middle of a project. That was the first one. And in the first one, there was a second. There was a word I used, which is estimates. Mhmm.
Seyi:A lot of metrics and the measuring of how you're performing against these metrics are all based on estimates that were made about how long the project should take place
Reza:Yeah.
Seyi:Or how much it will cost. Yeah. And, I found a a phrase that I'm sure is familiar to you in the industry, and that the estimates that make up the final project design cost or budget or time Mhmm. Are called the opinion of probable cost estimates. See, those are words.
Seyi:Those words. It's Yeah. Opinion. Yeah. It's probable.
Seyi:It's estimates. And so it most inherently ensures imprecision and consequently mismatching productivity metrics or the delays to the project. So it's such a fascinating
Reza:Yeah.
Seyi:Construct that we need to deal with. No pun intended. Yeah.
Reza:Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's a really I mean, I think that's the thank you for bringing that up. I I think that's a really good point. The last point that I wanna touch on before we jump into talking about our 21 laws is, you know, in addition to the industry being regulated, construction has to deal with, you know, regnant regulation for that urban area or or, you know, wherever they're in construction.
Reza:So there's zoning challenges, you know, land use regulations. And so there's all these challenges with, you know, NIMBY and, you know, that that make it difficult for construction to actually solve some of the challenges that we have with cities and Mhmm. Communities. And so with that, I know that we have one of our laws that really touches on this well. So, Shay, let let's talk about one of them.
Seyi:Yes. And, this one is around construction as it relates to housing. And the law is that affordable housing ensures social equity. And what this law suggests is that ensuring an adequate supply of affordable housing across all urban areas, cities is crucial for social equity, economic diversity, and sustainable growth of a city. And this is based on research from Bramley and a few other researchers from 2,009, which identified affordable housing as a key component of urban social sustainability.
Seyi:The consequence of not adhering to this law is that we end up with gentrification, displacement of low income residents, and increased homelessness in cities. And based on all you shared, the problems construction faces, it is super clear why project developers for the housing sector choose not to build low income housing. Because between the risks of exceeding the budget you estimated, the delays, and consequently, how much longer it will take for you to repoop the money spent on building affordable housing, then why do it? And I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying from a business perspective, it makes sense that we're not building enough affordable housing in the US currently.
Seyi:And, unfortunately, some of that comes from sort of the underlying issues that construction industry has and how it plays out in the construction projects that we see in our cities currently. Austin is, an interesting example of this. You have downtown Austin, the homeless community who put camps in front of or unhoused, put camps in front of city hall at some point, a few years ago. And all you need to do is just walk a few less than a mile down the same road, Cesar Chavez, and you see the largest hotel southern part of the US just being built right there in downtown Austin. So and it will be a premium hotel, high cost to stay there every night Yeah.
Seyi:Just down the road from homeless encampments. And that that just dissonance comes from, in our opinion, some of the the costs and delays that are inherent in construction projects. Yeah. City that has done a good job of addressing the social housing issue, if you wanna call it that, is Vienna, Austria with, 60% of residents living in subsidized housing Mhmm. Which is essentially the city telling construction companies, this is what we want, and we will make it worth your while to provide, and build the sort of construction projects that will help make our city sustainable and thriving city.
Seyi:So I thought it was good to share that as a model that's possible here.
Reza:Yeah. That's super interesting. Thanks for sharing the loss, Shay. So we're on the last segment of our episode where we're gonna talk about future trends. And over here, I'm just gonna pick on 2 things.
Reza:I mean, there's so many trends that we could explore, but I'm only gonna talk about 2. 1 is about prefabrication, and the second is about how construction can play a role in building thriving communities. Again, prefabitation, sort of pay attention to the sort of the role of coordination, which makes it a challenge. So let's first define that. Prefabification or prefab is a construction technique where building components are manufactured off-site in a factory setting and then assembled on-site.
Reza:And the method promises greater efficiency, reduced waste, shorter construction timelines. However, despite its potential, prefab has not yet achieved widespread adoption. I mean, it was, you know, started, you know, you know, dozens of years ago, but it hasn't really made much of a difference. The challenges of prefab so it could save, you know, 30 to 50%, you know, time and and money. But the complexity makes this a challenge.
Reza:1, there's a high upfront cost. Shifting to prefabrication requires a lot of capital investment in factories, machinery, logistics. In addition to that, the cost of transporting prefab modules can be high, especially for larger complex components. You can see you you know, look at those wide loads on on highways. It's really hard moving those big objects around, and so you need specialized transport.
Reza:And so this erodes the cost savings generated, that that you would want. The second is, you know, there's limited flexibility and standardization. So one of the biggest advantages of traditional construction is flexibility. Because every site is unique, traditional construction allows for customizations and adjustments on the fly. Prefab, on the other hand, relies on standardization, which means that a complex or highly custom design are harder and more expensive to achieve with prefab components.
Reza:So, you know, that site condition might be a little hilly this way, but you wanna apply that same prefab component. It's gonna be a challenge and and cons you know, if you look at, you know, contractors, subcontractors, these trades are incredibly creative in how they put buildings together and all the challenges that they encounter along the way in doing it. The next one is logistical complexity. Prefab requires tight coordination between the factory that's producing the materials and the on-site assembly. And if there are delays in production or transportation or assembly, it can lead to costly inefficiency.
Reza:So there's just this additional logistical challenge. So Brian Potter, again, he he's written a really good piece on prefab. He discusses the idea of a prefab pivot, where there's a tipping point where prefab could shift from a niche, you know, a niche method to something that's more mainstream. And and he says for prefab to scale, what what it needs is, you know, 4 things. 1, standardization and repeatability.
Reza:The more projects that can be standardized, apartment buildings, hotels, office spaces, the more cost effective prefab becomes. 2 is urban demand. We, we do have a growing demand for urban housing, and that has driven some renewed interest in prefab. Technological advances, so innovations in material science or automation, digital design could, could make it more possible, and then integrating it with sustainable practices so it has the potential to lead, the way in sustainable construction. And so it might drive people to choose that as a way you can produce these components in a controlled environment, Waste can be minimized.
Reza:You can use more energy efficiency materials. And then there's one, really one more, which is, you know, there is government support and policy that's needed. You know, you talked about the example of Vienna in them making a concerted sort of effort to address affordable housing. And so it always helps when government sort of leans in to sort of pushing something like this forward. So so that's the point about FIFAB and what it could potentially do for us in the future.
Reza:I'm gonna pause over there, before we jump on the next, future trend.
Seyi:Yes. I'll I'll quickly just touch on the fact that one of the the things that I'm you again, the experts will correct me if I'm wrong here. The greener slash more carbon friendly elements of some of the prefab, construction methods and the use of materials that are less, carbon intensive is possible with prefab. And I think as much as we can factor that system, which is the climate system into improvements that we make in construction methods. I think, that this all speak to the benefits of prefab, and I hope that picks up a lot in the future here.
Seyi:Yeah.
Reza:So the next one that I wanna talk about, Shai, is not necessarily sort of one about technology, but I think, like, where can construction play a role in building thriving urban communities, because that's a topic that we really care about. And, you know, it's you know, construction, you know, does not just have a role in creating buildings and infrastructure, but it could play a role in spaces that foster strong, healthy, resilient communities. And so, you know, future construction practices must go beyond just efficiency and sustainability, and they must actively contribute to the social fabric and the quality of life in our cities. You know, we call it social infrastructure in, you know, in one of our laws. And so there's a few points that I have over here that that we need to consider, for the construction industry.
Reza:One is prioritizing people centric design. You know, an example is like complete street initiatives that are designed for safe access for all users, whether they're pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, public transport users. So really thinking about where the person is in this environment and how do we build for that. Mixed use development, we've talked about that before. We have it as one of our 24 laws.
Reza:We have the concept of the 15 minute city where residents can access all essential services, work, education, health care, recreation within a 15 minute walk or bike route. I mean, oh my god. I'd love to live in a place like that. That that would be that would be dreamy. Affordable housing and social equity, you've touched on that.
Reza:You know, the 3, 4, 5 example also above could help reduce costs to where we could integrate affordable housing into diverse neighborhoods rather than just building, you know, affordable housing in some place that, you know, we don't care about. We we want we don't wanna segregate low income residents into isolated areas. And so this integration helped build more equitable communities where economic diversity fosters better social networks, better access to opportunities for all residents. Biophilic design, this one's interesting. Integrating nature into urban environments through biophilic design principles can create healthier, more vibrant communities.
Reza:We have talked about parks as an example. So this includes the use of natural materials, abundant greenery, and maximizing natural light buildings. Community driven design involving cities in the design process. It's known as participatory design. We've talked about this in some of our episodes as well.
Reza:It ensures that new buildings and spaces meet the specific needs of the local community. I have a really good example over here. So I, was on a nonprofit called Friends of Deep Eddy. It's a pool here in Austin, and we were rebuilding the historic bathhouse, you know, where we go and change clothes before getting in the pool. And the, you know, the architect and the, you know, the construction team met with us a number of times to understand our needs for those, you know, those changing rooms.
Reza:And in the process, they were gonna build the same changing room for men and for women. But in the process, they learned all these needs from the women about what they wanted in their changing area that was different than what men needed. And because of that, you have more people, we believe. You have more people, more women coming to the pool because they feel, you know, safe or comfortable in that space, and it's not just built in a standard way based on some person's idea. So I think that type of, you know, community involvement or people involvement is really critical.
Reza:The next one I have on here is using architecture as a reflection of community identity. It plays a key role in maintaining and celebrating the cultural identity of, urban communities. And so future construction should focus on integrating local culture, history, traditions into the design and architecture of buildings and public spaces. And I have another example from the Betty pool. One of the improvements that we made to the pool, there's this big sort of walkway.
Reza:So there's this big concrete wall along one side of the pool. And it was just a bare concrete wall. And what we did is we invited you know, this artist came forward and invited the community to build a mosaic on that wall, invited schools and different community groups to make these little custom tiles with artwork, and then that artwork went into that wall. So you have this big, beautiful mosaic wall with people's art and thoughts about, you know, our community, our pool. And every time I go past that, I I I'm just so touched.
Reza:I mean, I was just there on Friday evening. I just look at that wall, and I'm like, you know, this is the story of our community. This is the story of everyone that loves Deep Eddy, and we have integrated it into our pool. And, you know, whoever comes here gets to enjoy that. And so that's an example of how, like, we can bring that and and and enrich our communities through it.
Seyi:Yes. Thanks so much for sharing those specific examples, because we've heard time and time again that those are the things that really bring these conversations we have to life for people. And as you were talking, thankfully, you mentioned this, in the architecture as a reflection of the community's identity. A thought popped in my head that maybe there's a problem with prefab in that sense. Because we might end up with the same of everything everywhere Right.
Seyi:At the altar of efficiency in construction. And if there's anything that, has come of or shared and discussed on this podcast, it's the organic nature of cities. And consequently, as much as we can, whatever the future of construction is, we should I I suggest actively refuse to just make everything, everything we construct Yeah. The same or bland or just standardized to a point of ripping away the unique identity of the places and spaces that people want to be in. And Jane Jacobs talks about this a little bit in her book as well.
Seyi:Yeah. So I
Reza:I love that you bring it up because, you know, maybe FreeFam had a place, you know, for some specific needs, but it can't be the answer for everything. You know, I I I I I so resonate with that because, you know, I love good design. I love what architects do in creating the spaces that reflect, you know, the site, the community, the the needs. And, and you'd lose that. You'd lose that.
Reza:And you just sort of get this land, you know, Palette. Yeah. Yeah, whole palette, which, you know, that that that makes it so, you know, so so not a city that would thrive
Seyi:Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. With
Reza:that. The last thing that I wanna bring up, Shay, before we bring up my call to action is one thing that I did not touch on and that was deliberate is technology and smart cities and IoT and sensors and AI and things like that. It probably warrants another episode. We probably have some strong opinions about this. We brought up our strong opinions in the past.
Reza:I think collaboration and coordination, as you have seen in this episode, is construction's main challenge, and I'm curious how technology can address this. And so, you know, that we're gonna we're gonna put a pin in that. That's a future episode. I'd I'd love to explore, like, is is there a way? And this is my day job.
Reza:You know, we constantly, are faced with this challenge. It makes it a fascinating job to have. I love my job because it's a very interesting problem space for us to work on. So yeah. So we'll we'll we'll, we'll keep that for the future.
Seyi:Yes. Another one that I wanted to bring up, and I hope some experts in the space, respond to this, is because of this coordination problem that results as, that comes about because of the siloed nature. There are different companies doing different things within each step of the construction project, and consequently, the information gaps that exist across those silos. Is it possible to have the one construction company that is vertically integrated on a project, and consequently, those gaps get closed? The silos get the walls of information get broken down.
Seyi:I don't know if this is possible, but, the example that came to mind for me was the more Boeing as a company, even though they're in manufacturing, not in construction, but the more Boeing moved away from having of the work for the most part in house and started to work with more OEMs and vendors and different companies, the worse the product got Yeah. As we're experiencing. This is manufacturing. Not sure it applies as much in construction because of the project specific nature, but Yeah. I'd love for any of our listeners to to comment on that as well.
Seyi:Yeah.
Reza:Yeah. I love that. I'm I'm curious about that too. Yeah. Yeah.
Reza:So we're gonna, close with our call to action before we do the mailbag, and I have 2 calls to action. 1 is you live in a city, look around at the construction work that's happening in your city. These folks that work in this industry work really hard. Just observe how challenging construction can be. Like, you know, a skyscraper going up downtown in a very narrow space, the construction worker working on this huge lot, you know, in the in the beating heat of the summer.
Reza:Just have some empathy for how challenging this industry is and what a critical part it is to, you know, create shelter for us and just be grateful for the work that they do. So that's my first one. The second one is more around our communities, which is so consider where you live, what regulations your city has or is considering, and think about how it can make your community more affordable, more inclusive. You know, Austin is going through this process of reconsidering some of its regulations on housing and zoning and things like that. And, and my friend Mark is involved in that process, so I'm constantly hearing from him about what's going on.
Reza:But if you're in your consider what your community is doing and have your voice heard about how you can make your community thrive more by creating regulations that allow for, you know, a more affordable community.
Seyi:Thanks for those. I always love the call to action, and they bring it to life again. I think that's how how what we'd hope people take away from this podcast is how they can actively contribute to building thriving communities and sustainable cities, and the call to actions are the best way to action those. So thanks for sharing.
Reza:Yeah. So we'll jump in the mailbag, Shay. We got 2 really good mailbags. 1 is from our, you know, frequent listener, Alpesh, on our sports episode last week. I laughed when I read this.
Reza:He's like, you guys are thinking of sports very differently than the Indian people that I've met here in Toronto and the Bay Area. And they're thinking about how sports is a way to get my kid into an Ivy League school by giving them free a free scholarship by playing racquet.
Seyi:Yeah. It's how it's hilarious.
Reza:This is not about Indians. This is just human behavior.
Seyi:So this happens,
Reza:you know,
Seyi:with every sport in every tribe. Yeah. Yeah. And I
Reza:think the point he was making is like, I didn't hear you talk about that in the episode. You were talking about how, you know, people can be inclusive. And so thank you for sharing that. Yeah, we are thinking about sports as a way to bring more people together, you know, not as a way to sort of, you know, drive people apart. So thank you for sharing that, Alpesh.
Seyi:Thanks, Alpesh. And the 2nd mailbag this week is from Erin Orten, and she commented on the Charter City episode. First of all, thanks for listening, Erin. She she claimed this as now one of her favorite podcasts, which brings, joy to our hearts. Yes.
Seyi:And, Hamil Bag here says, I remember first hearing about the idea of a charter city back before I ever worked in energy and smart cities. I thought it was a cool idea, but even then, I wondered if it was realistic. Fast forward a decade spent researching and working in some of the systems that comprise cities like energy and transportation, And it seems obvious that charter cities are more of a billionaire's idea of utopia and places for all residents to thrive. For all the intricacies and inner workings of cities, it is the people that really makes them organic. I love that one.
Reza:Boom. So good. Thank you, Aaron. We couldn't have put it any better.
Seyi:You for sharing and listening.
Reza:Yeah. So with that, Shay, we come to the end of another episode, episode 18. Thank you everyone for listening. Yes. Take a minute to, you know, like and subscribe, you know, rate and review.
Reza:This is a way that other people, like you can find this episode. And as always, we say share this episode with someone close to you, someone close in your life that you think will enjoy it. We keep growing every week, and, we thank all our listeners that are sharing it with others. You know, keep listening, and, we look forward to talking to you next week.
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