Towards the end of May, a few of us here at Baker Baynes were lucky enough to attend the second Digital Construction Expo. Vaughan Harris, the Digital Director for the expo, said that the event was there to “allow us to rethink our current business models to adapt to the new trends. This advancement brings with it an explosion in technology and allows us to look into market best practices and boost our future value from design to operation application”. We couldn’t agree more.

We wanted to attend this event so we could be in the know with the latest innovative technology in the construction industry. And, we certainly are after seeing the latest equipment available, plus some other new and exciting trends.

We were joined by architects, construction managers, students, suppliers and building contractors at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg. But, don’t panic if you missed it – we want to fill you in on the newest trends plus our top takeaways from the event so you too can be up to date on all there is to know about digital construction.

What’s trending?

BIM! BIM is short for Building Information Modeling and it’s a process of generating and maintaining data rich digital models. This means you can plan, design, construct, and manage structures much more efficiently than before. And, the expo was full of information on this new intelligent way of working.

Shuaib Yunos, a BIM Specialist at Baker Baynes, found that the expo was very much focused towards the construction phase and any equipment and technology that streamlines construction, reduces risk and costs. BIM undoubtedly does this.

Collaboration was another trending topic at the Expo, as Thabelo Netshivhungululu, Head of BIM Services and expo attendee said: “Construction is definitely going digital, and soon moving to the big data space, where different disciplines in construction would start collaborating.”

BIM enables multi-disciplinary digital collaboration. It allows architects, structural engineers, contractors and any other members of the project to have access to a central source of truth. Where project data and design is easily shared and viewed. This makes communication and coordination seamless and knowledge transfer is streamlined, improving accuracy and reducing reworks.

Our top takeaways from the event

Our top three takeaways from this year’s event are:

1. Laser scanning and drones are becoming more and more mainstream and the benefits of utilising this technology in the construction industry is evident.
2. BIM education is on the rise. Leandri Kruger from Baker Baynes found that there are a lot more people inquisitive and open-minded about it with industry business owners trying to get their companies to move to the next level of BIM adoption.
3. 3D printing is getting increasingly innovative (and daring with the expo showcasing the 3D printing of concrete!)

That’s it for this year’s Digital Construction Expo. We will definitely be back next year and in the meantime, we’ll be reporting back on more industry-related events, so keep checking back to our blog.