The challenge
While researching the construction sector and evaluating solutions for making the whole industry more sustainable, we identified the initial design phase as a key opportunity area. In various talks with different industry stakeholders and experts (architects, engineers, contractors), finding adequate sustainable solutions while designing and conceptualizing buildings was reported as a constant problem. Typically, initial plans often have negative effects on the sustainability of buildings, as well as the overall lifecycle costs.
While energy codes impose only slowly increasing requirements on new buildings, AEC experts find it more and more difficult to meet clients' construction budgets. As a result, there is less interest on both sides to build even more sustainable buildings than the energy codes require - stakeholders focus is on initial construction costs. As a result, more sustainable design options that would be more beneficial in the long run through energy savings are being overlooked.
Our construction-tech team's challenge was to create a desirable, viable and feasible solution concept for this pain point.