MarketScale Manufacturing

Our guest on the AEC Podcast today, Michael Talbot, is an interior designer turned quartz designer for Hanstone Quartz. He knows what pops inside a home or business, and as of late, quartz has been not only an aesthetic trend, but a dynamic and versatile style. "With the technology of quartz, we’re able to keep integrity of visuals that people want and pair it with the performance aspects of it," Talbot said. We discuss evolving countertop trends and how much design really goes into quartz, which is simply manufactured stone. "For me the beauty of quartz is that whatever you can dream up, it can happen."

How do you take Continuing Education and turn it from a snore-fest to a big score? On the first episode of The AEC Stuck-Insider with Bryce Stuckenschneider, we dive into all things CE in AEC. With experience as a VP of Sales and Marketing in the AEC industry, Stuckenschneider has experienced his fair share of courses, both as an educator as a learner; what he's seen has been nothing short of disheartening. Busy schedules, boring presentations, and a lack of creativity is putting roadblocks in front of crucial educational material needed to keep AEC professionals in-tune with their customers and in-sync with the most innovative technology.

"If it's not coming to your firm, some of these architects and designers are so stinking busy," Stuckenschneider said. "If it's not in their office during their lunch hour, there are a lot of reasons they're not going to want to come, and so you have to be compelling."

In every industry there's a push to be more efficient, usually in our approach; improved methodology to increase accuracy in order to save both time and money is one example. In today's episode, Masoud Akbarzadeh, assistant professor of architecture in structures and advanced technologies at the University of Pennsylvania, explains a different type of efficiency - one that involves the materials used and the way they interact with people and the planet. "In all of our research what we are trying to achieve is to reduce the amount of material that we are actually using for construction, to achieve lightweight-ness and in the meantime to preserve the performance," Akbarzadeh said. We broke down efficiency in additive manufacturing of smart materials and robotic fabrication, and how Akbarzadeh is communicating these industry changes to his students.

"Quartz has become the go to product, even supplanting natural stone because of its uniqueness and characteristics," said Don Luther of Hanwha Surfaces L&C on this episode of the AEC Podcast.

Luther shared the trends he's seeing for quartz counter-tops and bathroom surfaces--both commercial and residential--in the market, and why this manufactured stone is getting the attention of a new generation of home buyers.

The best way to approach a workplace injury is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Traditionally, one of the most dangerous workplace environments can be found in the construction industry. Technology is helping reduce the perilous nature in various ways, but advancements in drone functionality are drastically improving the landscape. Sean Heath sat down with Jonathan Ramirez, an account representative from Hangar to discuss the help that Hangar is providing for California's wildfire relief, the resistance that drone deployment has to face, how repeatable programming can significantly improve project management, and what the actual future might hold for machine PLUS human collaboration.

Pivot doors have been around for millennia, first recorded in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. You've probably seen them in movies like Indiana Jones or TV shows like Atlanta as secret panel doors. They're not a new technology, but in the United States, seeing them as the front door of a home feels pretty new.

The trend is making it's way from across the seas, and with upgrades in installation technologies, manufacturers and designers are looking to pivot doors as the next upgrade for the traditional hinged door. John DeRosa, part of the Building Development team at Bridgeport Worldwide, came on today's AEC Podcast to give insight on why pivot doors are finally taking mainstream hold in the States, how Bridgeport is aiming to be the point-of-contact for pivot door solutions, and how both their aesthetics and practicality shouldn't be ignored.