BuildBinder CEO Talks Tech-wise Construction
- Thursday, 22 June 2017
The construction industry is full of good intentions—placing priority on sustainable buildings, making continuous efforts to reduce waste and maximize resources, and even standardizing software and processes, to improve the quality of life for executives, owners, project managers, and developers alike.
When Oscar E. Nunez-Elias, CEO, BuildBinder, first set out to create a complete unique system for construction firms, he kept those good intentions in mind. “So far, we haven’t found any other solution outside of BuildBinder covering the whole lifecycle of a construction process in the same application,” Nunez-Elias shares.
Technology plays a key role in the success of construction projects, and as a result of tech-wise construction, firms reduce infrastructure vulnerability, decrease supply-chain communication costs, increase the reliability of information and increase the speed of project delivery.
With over 30 years in the AEC industry, Nunez-Elias has witnessed this technology transformation first hand. If he were to highlight just five trends to watch for in 2017, it would be drones, lean construction, augmented reality, business intelligence and construction information management systems (CIMS). “Lean construction is a whole new way to think about the construction process. It’s a broad concept, but once successfully applied, you can work on getting the best results with minimum impact on the environment and only the precise amount of effort applied,” says Nunez-Elias.
He shares that augmented reality proves to be the most revolutionary, based on the number of areas it can be applied. Augmented reality allows the construction professional to review designs in a real-world context, as well as an ability to measure, assess and forecast information throughout the lifecycle of a construction project. While construction professionals see augmented reality as a key opportunity for walkthroughs, Nunez-Elias also sees its value in regard to GPS data and image storage. “Ten years ago, you could only dream of seeing the inside of a structure, while construction was still in progress. With augmented reality, those dreams are realized,” Nunez-Elias explains.
Nunez-Elias shares that while the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is exciting, it’s also challenging. “Every project means creation and transformation. Creation of new structures and spaces to live, and transformation of the environment when putting something new where there used to be nothing. Construction provides people with what they need to live, work, travel, heal and enjoy. Because of that, I plan to keep helping the construction process evolve, so that all of those things are always possible.”