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An estimator is often the first line of defense on a construction project.

Ask anyone who works in the construction sector, and they’ll tell you what they love most about their job: teamwork, problem-solving, and hands-on work are all common threads.

A sleek office space has become synonymous with some of the biggest tech companies in the world. While Silicon Valley is typically the region people think of first when it comes to this trend, tech offices across the world are following suit. 

Safety is a mindset, not a checklist, right? A sixth sense. And it’s self-evident at this point that internalizing a safety sensibility mitigates dangerous and expensive risk, increases morale and loyalty and brings exponential returns. But it wasn’t always an accepted industry norm.

In our last series, we explored emerging smart solutions for indications of where our industry is going. This article explores an area in which the sector lags.

Our final entry on asking the right questions before launching a design-build project for a smart building covers what may be the most important aspect—or benefit—of smart buildings. Here’s what Conserve means to us.

The third entry in our series on preparing to design and build a smart building brings a new set of questions and possibilities, based on four themes: Connect, Collaborate, Control, and Conserve. Here’s what Control means to us.

Here’s another article in our four-part series on planning for smart building design, in which we re-frame the questions we ask before getting started, with a focus on Connect, Collaborate, Control, and Conserve. Here’s what Collaborate means to us.

In our last post, we outlined what a smart building is—one in which monitoring devices and analytics assigned to heating, lighting, security, etc., come together in a single network—and concluded that smart thinking needs to happen from the very start of a project, with all hands on board.

This is the first post in a series researching the near future technologies that commercial builders, entrepreneurs, and developers will be adopting. We’ll take a look at how technology is affecting build decisions and what this could mean for the future of our industry and the people who inhabit our spaces.

This, our last discussion on risk management based on the HBR article, we’re looking forward towards the future of human-centred design and how design decisions change why we build. 

This week, we’re continuing our discourse on risk mitigation; looking at how planning tools can help us manage project unknowns. If you haven’t read the HBR article yet, it’s timeless!

This week, we’re continuing our discourse on risk mitigation; looking at how a strong team can prepare you for project unknowns. If you haven’t read the HBR article yet, now is the time!

Revisiting a smart Harvard Business Review article got us thinking about how we, as an industry, can better mitigate risk. People perceive construction projects as perpetually running over budget, blowing timelines and being full of frustration and uncertainty. In 30 years, why hasn’t this reputation changed?

A funny thing happened on the way to the September 12 Green building breakfast meeting on cutting-edge green building research. The old-time green economics movement became a business niche. I went to the meeting at the Royal York to hear the latest on new proof that green buildings boost employee productivity big time. But it…read more.

The notion of dealing with a building from the “inside-out” is characteristic of the contemporary approach to building and is a result of the application of highly specialized knowledge which permits teams of specialists to design and manipulate various elements individually.

For every story about a budget over-run, timeline obliterated, shoddy workmanship or cheated-tradesman, we’ve got a story about a project, partner or peer that inspires us.