The following construction, engineering, and architecture trends will stand out in 2022. Here’s what homeowners and business leaders should know.
- Automation and digital tech are expected to solve all issues, from building the supply chain to health and maintenance.
- Remote collaboration and work are the new realities in the industry and require innovative methods.
- Sustainability conversation approaches subjects like embodied carbon and other novel ideas.
Adaptation is the keyword used to describe the construction industry of the previous years. Construction, engineering, and architecture organisations reacted to the uncertain times they faced, reshaped, and improved their methods to meet the market’s needs. Digital technology and automation allowed them to sharpen their pencils and provide top-notch services.
In a time when disruptions are daily events, the construction sector transformed adaptation into a constant state. It no longer considers it a reaction to the everyday struggles but a way of putting their methods into practice. From taking advantage of technological innovation to integrating sustainability principles into their work, massive shifts are expected to impact the construction, engineering, and architecture sectors in 2022 and become catalysts for the new reality.
Here are the trends everyone interested in construction, engineering, or architecture should keep an eye on in 2022.
Automation can fix supply-chain and labour problems
Automation becomes crucial for addressing shortages of skilled workforce and materials, easing supply-chain and labour issues. For example, the construction organisations that fail to find building designers to match their requirements could use automation to develop projects. The advantage of automation is that it provides 10 unique visions for 10 buildings. Investment in automation could convert a significant part of building design into a semiautomatic job which is of paramount importance when experiencing engineers’ shortages.
Construction companies already use software to automate the design of spaces, cutting costs and boosting performance. It takes minutes for an automated system to design a space that used to take hours or even days for a human engineer. Automated solutions will increase in value in the following years because they can save constructors, engineers, and architects time required to manually develop and evaluate projects allowing them to focus on the creative aspects of their work.
Increased focus on embodied carbon
The construction sector progressed in addressing operational carbon, but sadly, it paid little to no attention to embodied carbon (emissions generated during manufacturing, refining, and moving construction materials). In 2022, constructors, engineers, and architects will focus their attention on making buildings more eco-friendly and energy-efficient, so embodied carbon is becoming a factor they consider when discussing greenhouse gas emissions. The UN’s COP26 climate summit highlighted that the heavy industry must direct its immediate attention to embodied carbon and find scalable solutions to support the worldwide emissions-reduction strategy.
Constructing leaders answered the call by developing complex roadmaps and embracing processes like carbon-capturing cement and green steel. During the following months, we’ll witness how change unfolds with the help of innovative ideas. It’s crucial for engineers and architects not to reduce embodied carbon in a vacuum but to use sustainable designs and materials that reduce the environmental footprint of the constructions they develop.
Use of visualisation to power industry convergence
Collaboration is vital in a world where remote work is the new normal. Interactive design visualisation facilitates new opportunities and bridges collaboration for engineers and architects. Experts in the industry are aware that the advancement of extended reality can be a work environment.
XR and gaming technologies improve traditional workflows transforming virtual environments into cost-effective, immersive, and streamlined settings. Construction companies use interactive design visualisation to engineer buildings. An engineering company in Norway used virtual-reality technology to design the Route E39 bridge. Visualisation software enables a straightforward design of urban environments and structures. The American Society of Civil Engineers is working on an XR environment called the Future World Vision that could provide industry experts with scenarios of how cities of the future should look.
Enhanced outdoor spaces
Architects and home designers have been bringing the indoors out for a while now, and one of the most effective ways to achieve this goal from a functional perspective is to create awnings and other similar shade structures. More homeowners will integrate these structures in their renovation plans as outdoor renovations remain a house design priority in the future. Shade structures are more than aesthetically pleasing settings; they offer comforting protection during the summer and enable homeowners to connect the outdoor space with the interior.
The homeowners who neglected to build an outdoor space will most likely hire contractors and architects to repurpose their outdoor space and convert them into flexible and functional areas. They will invest in outdoor rooms, and structures such as fire pits, outdoor kitchens, and pools are high on their wish lists. Collaborating with contractors that offer reliable supply and delivery is essential as outdoor spaces must follow particular guidelines to become the spotlight of properties and provide the homeowner with complete control over temperature.
IoT integration
Climate change puts high pressure on infrastructure to perform and integrate systems that enable comfortable living. When infrastructure design must be evaluated, and building codes must change to meet the quickly shifting reality in construction and architecture. The construction industry demands smart and more efficient buildings to prevent tomorrow’s climate from affecting people’s quality of life.
Reckoning with the great advances in consumer tech that allow users to monitor their health, IoT can do the same for constructions. How do buildings perform during natural disasters? Could the constructors improve them? Communities, facilities, and owners search for technology that allows them to evaluate performance to predict and prevent problems and design buildings for the future.
The construction industry is expected to make huge advancements regarding technology in 2022. Digital construction was already rising before the pandemic, and now constructors, engineers, and architects forced to practice social distancing see its efficiency as becoming even more significant. Companies are already implementing artificial intelligence to develop products to match their clients’ requirements.
Once the construction sector adopts the above trends, it’ll be more efficient and flexible.