AEC Business

In this podcast interview I talk with Teemu Lehtinen, Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, about AEC Hackathons. The AEC Hackathon gives those designing, building, and maintaining our built environment the opportunity to collaborate with cutting edge technologies and its developers and designers. It’s a weekend of ‘geek-sourcing’ for improving the industries that affect all that live or work in a house or building. It has become a global community of innovators that include all elements of the built environment.

Teemu was the organizer of the first Finnish AEC Hackathon in November 2015. My company, AE Partners, was one of the supporters of the event. Teemu is now organizing the second hackathon that will kick off on June 3, 2016,  at Sweco in Helsinki.

Who should attend?

Quoting from AECHackathon.com: "AEC Professionals – This also includes Facilities Managers, GIS Specialists, Public Utilities, Policy Makers, and everyone that deals with the built environment. Come with your industry experience and the problems you want to solve. Tech Developers – We need tech ninjas, makers, game programmers, and rebels that code. Come to hack with new hardware and tech all in the name of doing something crazy and fantastic–and helpful. UI/UX Designers – We need people like you to make everything look beautiful, work intuitively, and create a stellar user experience. Great applications require great design."

Useful links

Email Teemu at [email protected]

Facebook event - https://www.facebook.com/events/1756326367923311/

Registration -  http://aechackathon.com/helsinki-2/

Blog - http://making-of-aec-hackathon-helsinki.tumblr.com/

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In this episode of the AEC Business podcast I talk with Ali El Hariri, Co-Founder and CEO of BulldozAIR. Ali's company developed a mobile and Web solution for visual task management for construction.

Ali is a construction engineer who realized, while working on projects, certain limitations with existing construction software. They were internal solutions that did not allow collaboration with subcontractors that are responsible for most of the tasks in a modern project. Ali saw that with the introduction of tablet computers came punch list apps, but they were focused on the end of a project. He wanted a solution that would serve throughout the construction period.

After prototyping and collecting customer feedback, Ali and his team created BulldozAIR. It allows teams working in the field to better collaborate with the office by exchanging information in a visual way. Today, the company operates in Paris, France, and San Francisco.

You can learn more about BulldozAIR and sign up for a 30-day test drive at www.bulldozair.com.

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The leading Finnish residential business conference of 2016 gathered industry leaders to Helsinki on January 26, 2016. In addition to the presentations on the present state and future trends of the market we also learned about digitalization and residential innovations.

My company, AE Partners, was one of the organizing partners of the Asuntomarkkinat 2016 conference. During the conference, I had a change to interview three presenters for my podcast.

Linda Liukas – Author, Programmer, Educator

Linda Liukas is a world-famous children’s book author, programmer, Rails Girls co-funder, and illustrator. Her book for kids on programming, Hello Ruby, received over $380,000 in pre-orders during the first month on Kickstarter.

Linda thinks that programming languages will become the first second languages for kids. All companies will become software companies, and all future problems will be connected to information technology. Quite radical claims, but she had a lot of evidence to back them up in here very inspiring presentation. As for home automation and Internet of Things, she calls for open standards. Who wants a home that in 10 years will become obsolete because of outdated proprietary technology?

Visit http://lindaliukas.com for more information on Linda. In the title photo of this article, Linda is with another presenter, Juha Kostiainen, Senior Vice President, Urban Development and Corporate Relations of YIT.

OurHouse – Festival for Suburbia

Executive Producer Katja Linderoos presented OurHouse, a festival for suburbia. As a legacy of the rapid urbanization of the country between 1950s and 1970s, Finland’s suburban condominiums require huge repair investments. How to cope with the challenge is the theme of the OurHouse festival.

The festival is open to everyone that’s interested in the future of the suburbia: inhabitants, politicians, authorities, investors, builders, and so on. During one week, there are workshops, presentations, demos, parties, and exhibitions. The idea of the festival is to raise awareness, search for solutions, and inspire to action. The first event took place in August 2015 in Vantaa, but there are going to many more in the near future.

You can contact Katja via email at [email protected]. The website is at ourhouse.fi (in Finnish).

SATO StudioHome – Affordable Metropolitan Housing with Style

I did the third interview is with Miikka Karjaluoto, Investment Manager at SATO, a leading Finnish housing investment company. He talks about SATO StudioHome, a next-generation housing format for the increasing demand for affordable housing in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The concept aims to provide an excellent customer experience and comfort as well as low housing costs.

StudioHomes are well-equipped, almost four-meter-high small apartments with shared communal spaces on the ground and top floors of the condominium.

Learn more about StudioHomes at SATO's website.

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Marco Steinberg is a consultant, architect, and former Associate Professor at the Harvard Design School. He's also been the Strategic Design Director at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. Currently, he has his own practice,  Snowcone & Haystack.

Marco writes on his homepage: "I believe we can solve the complex challenges that our governments, societies, and environment face. To do so we need to shift from trying to improve the efficiency of what was, to redesigning what could be. My passion is in helping leaders find the pathway to these strategic improvements.

I’m based out of Helsinki, Finland and share an office with Esko Aho, our former Prime Minister. We share a deep interest in helping governments transform themselves to meet 21st century challenges."

In this interview, Marco talks about the value and need of experimentation in the built environment.

Here are the links that Marco mentiones in the interview:

http://snowcone.fi

http://helsinkidesignlab.org

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I had the pleasure of interviewing consultant Tommi Rissanen of Digital Media Finland. He’s working on his PhD dissertation on business models.

We talk about the following themes:

What are digital business models and what makes them different from more traditional models?

How could digital business models challenge companies in the construction industry?

How can an established firm start experimenting with new business models?

Tommi says that the whole concept of a business model is relatively new. There are many models that try to describe a business model, e.g. the famous business model canvas by Alexander Osterwalder. However, he has found that these four basic elements that are present in all the models:

Value proposition – what the customer gets

Business processes – the way to produce the value

Resources – personnel and other resources

Revenue model – the way that the company extracts value from the customers

There are several trends that can potentially challenge the traditional construction industry. Tommi presumes that the need for new construction (in Finland) will start to decline at some point. He also mentions how ownership is becoming less important. People are getting used to using services instead of owning things. Urbanization will require new construction, but also create demand for new services.

Tommi thinks that every company should experiment with new business models. He sees experimentation as a way to learn. Every day, companies receive signals from customers, employees, and competitors. They can use this information as a starting point for small scale experiments that can eventually lead to large scale changes.

As an example of new opportunities that arise from digitalization, Tommi mentions offering design and engineering services globally over the internet. This is something that you can try out without big investments.

Learn more and contact Tommi at

www.digitalmedia.fi

www.businesshacker.fi

https://fi.linkedin.com/in/trissane

https://twitter.com/rissanen

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Here are highlights from last year and a few words about the future of my podcast and blog.

The most popular posts and podcast episodes in 2015

The most popular of last year's blog posts were

How Scrum Entered Sweco Structures and Forever Changed the Way They Manage Projects

A Finnish Startup Takes 3D Printing of Buildings to a New Level

The Future of 3D Printing in Construction

These were the most downloaded podcast episodes

Innovating with LEGOs – Interview with Per Kristiansen

Life Cycle Assessment with One Click – Interview with Ryan Zizzo

State of IPD in Finland – Interview with Lauri Merikallio

See all the posts from 2015.

What's coming next

I'll continue to provide inspiration, ideas, and education. I want to serve, especially, innovators and game changers in the construction industry.

I want to improve interaction with my audience. Please, join my LinkedIn group AEC Business and start the conversation!

If you have ideas or tips, email me at [email protected].

Petri Kokko is a Finnish architect, service developer, and the CEO of Sova3D. In the 40th episode of the AEC Business podcast Petri shares his experiences and ideas on using game technology in construction.

The slogan of Petri's newly founded company is Internet of spaces. Sova3D creates interactive building models and develops new applications that utilize interactive modeling.  The company collaborates with an international network of tech companies.

Sova3D has published two architectural models that you can examine online:

Sinebrychoff Art Museum

Ateneum Art Museum (the title image of this article is captured from this model)

On the first one, you can see how wind makes the leaves of the adjacent trees shake. You can change the date and time, weather conditions, and other parameters of the model.

You need to have Unity Web Player installed. On a PC or Mac, use arrow keys to walk, mouse to change direction, and click on doors to open them.

https://youtu.be/T8V7G_Qq6Ko

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In this podcast episode I interview Doug Vickerson, the CEO of Renoworks Software. Their design and presentation sofware tools help manufacturers and remodelers sell more through personalized visualizations.

You can learn more about Renoworks at renoworks.com and about Renoworks Pro at renoworkspro.com.

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In this podcast interview I have two guests: Jeroen de Paepe and Pieter Eerlings of ArchiSnapper. Jerry and Peter share the story of their company and tell about their mobile app for field reports, ArchiSnapper.

Jerry and Peter of ArchiSnapper

The founders of ArchiSnapper originally offered Web and mobile software development. When one of their clients, an architecture firm, asked if they would develop a field reporting software, the company founders saw an opportunity to change their business model.  They developed ArchiSnapper, an app for field reports, site visits, and bunch lists. Now over 2,000 businesses use their services.

ArchiSnapper is well-known in Europe, and now getting a foothold in the USA and Canada. You can learn more by visiting archisnapper.com.

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Life cycle assessment of buildings and infrastructure using smart tools and BIM is the theme of my interview with Ryan Zizzo.

Ryan is the International Sales Manager at Bionova, a leading developer of sustainability metrics solutions, specializing in web-based, user friendly life cycle assessment (LCA). In this podcast, he will briefly describe life cycle assessment and the innovative LCA tools that Bionova offers, 360optimi and OneClickLCA. He will explain how you can create a standards-compliant LCA with just one click!

Ryan also works as a freelance consultant through ZED Consulting, helping building designers and facility managers meet their sustainability goals, including obtaining stringent internationally recognized green building certifications such as LEED.

Additionally, Ryan lectures in the Sustainable Building Engineering program at Helsinki’s Metropolia University of Applied Science and through the Green Building Professional education series for national Green Building Councils throughout Europe.

Ryan holds a Masters degree in Applied Science in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering from the University of Toronto, is a licenced Engineer in the Province of Ontario, and holds a LEED Accredited Professional designation in Neighbourhood Development.

You can reach Ryan directly at [email protected]

More info can be found at:

www.oneclicklca.com

www.bionova.fi

www.zedconsulting.fi

Listen to the interview (also on iTunes and other podcasting services)