Why construction needs to go digital.

“There will always be construction happening on-site and it’s here that I think digital can really shine to solve this information problem.”

In this episode, Aprao’s Julian Brockhurst speaks to Robert Sobyra, Director of Research & Digital at Construction Skills Queensland, about the increasing viability of digitisation within construction. Robert is responsible for driving CSQ’s research agenda, he is a leading thinker at the intersection of construction and skills and is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Queensland, with a special interest in regional economic growth. 

Topics covered in this episode include a high-level overview of the current construction market, such as the house building boom and its intersection with the material supply chain and the labour market shortage, as well as a detailed discussion about how we can adopt digital and technological solutions to streamline construction processes. Robert talks about CSQ’s upcoming innovation research projects, including investigating virtual reality as a use case for training programmes (something that has never been done before within the construction industry).

“People often ask this question in my industry, ‘why do we need to innovate? We’ve been just fine for the last 300 years doing it this way’. And it is true, we have been, but ultimately there is going to be a day of reckoning, at least around this demographic disruption - an economy that doesn’t innovate, that doesn’t get productivity gains, is a stagnant economy, and living standards will fall.”