Episodes
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Following World Environment Day 2024, we dig into a complex and difficult question.
Construction is the single biggest source of greenhouse gases.
It produces vast amounts of waste.
The resource extraction needed to feed its demands puts enormous pressure on habitats and biodiversity.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of buildings stand empty, even as we prepare to build hundreds of thousands more.
So, what does enough look like?
To explore this issue, 21CC editor Rod Sweet is joined by some of the most advanced thinkers in sustainable construction today.
In this bracing and thought-provoking discussion, you’ll hear from:
• Hero Bennett, sustainability leader at building services engineers, Max Fordham;
• Will Arnold, climate action leader at the Institution of Structural Engineers and lead author of the proposed Part Z embodied carbon regulation for the UK;
• Saul Humphrey, consultant and professor of sustainable construction at Anglia Ruskin University;
• Hudson Worsley, chair of Australia’s Materials & Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance (34.47); and
• Amanda Williams, head of environmental sustainability at the Chartered Institute of Building.
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Building Saudi’s Red Sea high-end tourist giga-project
[01:04 ]From bare sand to a collection of 50 separate resorts with its own international airport on Saudi Arabia’s remote west coast, The Red Sea giga-project is a high-end tourism scheme like no other. We speak to Andrew Tyson, head of construction at Red Sea Global, who’s in charge of bringing it all together.
Canada: Land of opportunity
[11:30] Two CIOB members who upped sticks to find their fortunes in Canada tell us how they did it, and what it’s like.
Iain Thomas FCIOB is leading Ontario’s unprecedented, $18bn rail expansion, while Ken Smyth FCIOB is leading construction on a new RCMP headquarters in Burnaby, British Columbia.
What clients really want
[22:27] Institute Fellow Dr Claire Handby has more than 25 years’ experience helping construction clients in many sectors.
She discusses their top three priorities in getting their hospital, school, or office building built.
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Missing episodes?
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Robotic micro-factories for housebuilding?
[00:25] High-tech companies down through the years have often seen construction as a tantalising frontier, ripe for disruption by new ways of putting things together.
Now, the Swiss multinational manufacturer ABB has entered the fray, with an idea for building affordable housing using robots at site-based micro-factories.
They’ve teamed up with UK architects Automated Architecture (AUAR) to develop the idea.
Global Construction Review’s David Rogers speaks to Craig McDonnell, managing director of ABB Robotics, to learn more.
UCEM goes to schools
[10:10] The University College of Estate Management (UCEM) has been educating built-environment professionals for generations.
Now, they’ve launched a new campaign of outreach to schools.
It says tapping into young people’s naturally fertile imaginations can help enthuse them about the interesting careers available in construction.
CIOB People editor Nadine Buddoo speaks to Charlotte Thackeray, UCEM’s outreach and inclusion lead, to find out more.
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Happy Birthday, CIOB! Three young professionals look ahead [01:00]
To celebrate the 190th anniversary of the founding of the Chartered Institute of Building, we speak to three young CIOB people from around the world – members of the Tomorrow’s Leaders network – about the one thing they’d like to change about the industry and how the CIOB can help with that.
This stimulating exchange features:
• Tadiwa Taimu, 23, a junior project manager building a retirement complex in Cape Town, South Africa;
• Ziad Abdeen, 25, a contracts engineer working on various projects in Dubai; and
• Dr Hamza Momade, 31, a construction project manager with Roni Group in Toronto, and professor of construction management at Ontario’s Durham College.
Michael Brown looks back [13:37]
Many will remember Michael Brown, educator, industry diplomat, and former CIOB deputy chief executive.
In 1966, he was one of the first people ever to enrol in the brand new BSc in Building at Lanchester Polytechnic, now Coventry University. That degree became the foundation of construction management education ever since.
He tells us how exotic he was as a graduate on site, what construction and the Institute were like before email, and suggests a few missions the CIOB might take on in its next 190 years.
Data-led construction [21:47]
The CIOB’s Royal Charter obliges it to promote the science and practice of building for the public benefit, so Justin Stanton is here to ask industry leaders how data can facilitate higher-performance construction.
Diving into this are:
• Paul Drayton, head of digital for Europe at Laing O’Rourke;
• Gareth Handley, director of operations at Wates Group;
• Andy Steele, strategic adviser and former chief executive of Osborne; and
• Paul Bamforth, head of global strategic accounts at Buildots.
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Crushed by a horse, now crushing prejudice [00:32]
Elite Australian athlete Hacia Atherton spent seven months in hospital recovering from a near-fatal accident in 2017.
She was told she may never walk again, but she was having none of it.
It took many months after leaving hospital, but she fought the pain and self-doubt to get back on her feet.
In the process, she hatched a new mission in life: to make the construction trades a beautiful career for women and men.
Her unique approach with Empowered Women In Trades (EWIT) has helped thousands of women take up a trade in an industry where only 3% of tradespeople are female, and she’s only just getting started.
Construction Skills Olympians [11:12]
November saw the WorldSkills UK National Finals, highlighting the talents of the country’s up-and-coming professionals.
One of the competition’s categories was Digital Construction, and Justin Stanton spoke to three digital construction specialists who came away with medals: Rebekah Over, Tom Bowles, and Calam Kearney.
The rhetoric of modernisation [20:20]
Have you ever wondered why report after report telling the industry to “modernise” never change anything? Or why they seem to bear little relation to the way the industry even works?
University of Reading Professor Stuart Green has been studying the construction “improvement” agenda for 30 years.
The second edition of his book, Making Sense of Construction Improvement, came out last month, covering the years of austerity, Brexit, and what he calls the “perma-crisis” gripping the industry, marked by a string of disasters including collapsing Edinburgh schools, the Grenfell catastrophe, and the ruination of Carillion.
Its overarching theme is the idea that “modernisation” itself is used as a kind of propaganda to deflect attention away from what really stops us improving quality, safety, and productivity.
It’s genius, he says, because while nobody can really define what “modern” construction means, absolutely nobody wants to be seen as old-fashioned.
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The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world. Brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building.
Got a topic you'd like us to cover? Email the podcast editor Rod Sweet [email protected]
In this episode:
New-homes confidence crisis [01:20]
In December, CIOB published results from a survey that showed an overwhelmingly negative public perception of new-build houses.
It asked 2,000 UK adults what they thought, and 55% of them believed that old houses are better than new ones.
32% described new-build housing as ‘poor-quality’.
There is a new set of standards called the New Homes Quality Code that is supposed to hold builders accountable, but signing up to it is voluntary.
CIOB recommends that government reviews this to consider making it mandatory.
CM deputy editor Cristina Lago spoke to the report’s author, the CIOB’s David Parry, to find out what this all means.
Get the CIOB report: https://www.ciob.org/industry/research/newbuilds
Lego-style building system [09:51]
A 96-unit apartment complex built with Lego-style, snap-together blocks has opened its doors to residents in Palm Springs, Florida.
It was put up by a small crew of unskilled workers armed only with mallets and glue guns.
The blocks are made from recycled plastic and glass fibre.
Glued together, they form a monolithic structure that is impervious to water, mould, and termites, and can withstand 250mph winds.
The material is lighter and stronger than concrete, and making the blocks produces a tiny fraction of the emissions concrete does.
The company behind the system, Renco USA, spent 10 years in testing, research and development.
In October they raised $18m in their first funding round to build a US factory with a view to making the system available across the country.
Renco USA executive Patrick Murphy tells this month’s 21CC Podcast how they did it, and why they’re not like Katerra.
Can project managers be coaches? [19:21]
Dave Stitt FCIOB used to be hard as nails.
A civil engineer, he came into the industry as a teenager and rose through the ranks at big UK contractors Taylor Woodrow, Birse, and Wates, thinking he had to be the toughest, meanest, and bossiest person on site.
Then he reformatted his style after he found himself leading culture-change programmes at national construction firms.
Now, he coaches construction leadership teams on team-building and people skills, and is convinced that construction managers should stop giving orders on site.
Instead, they should coach.
But how do you do that, and won’t it lead to chaos? Hear Dave make his case.
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The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world. Brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building.
In this episode:
Refugees building Britain [00:50]
Yemeni refugee Omar tells Cristina Lago how important his construction job is.
Jargon Buster [16:27]
What exactly do IFC and Cobie mean? And do you really need to know?
Building Egypt’s Grand Museum [20:49]
Hill International tells David Rogers about its epic project to build the Grand Egyptian Museum ahead of its imminent opening.
The Christmas site lunch [08:02]
Justin Stanton discovers how caterers at a large London construction site manage the Christmas lunch.
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The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world. Brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building.
This episode:
[01:25] Abbi Taylor describes what happened after her dad broke his back falling from a ladder on a construction site when she was three.
[09:16] 21CC jargon buster in chief Justin Stanton decodes the mystery of smart objects and how they work in modelling
[12:55] Meet ‘Defectorist’ Will Rudd, snagging supremo and scourge of bodging housebuilders.
[19:15] Lifelong industry scholar Prof Stuart Green on construction’s chronic dysfunction.
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The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world. Brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building.
In this episode, CM’s Cristina Lago grills ex-Arup engineer Stevan Lukic about the AI chatbot he developed for construction projects. Does it hallucinate? [01:23]
[08:44] Our expert panel discusses where AI sits in the digitalisation of construction. Hear from David Philp FCIOB, chief value officer at Cohesive Group and chair of CIOB’s innovation panel; Murillo Piazzi, digital consultant at the BIM Academy; and May Winfield, Buro Happold’s global director of commercial, legal and digital risks.
[17:44] Jargon-buster Justin Stanton takes a peek under the bonnet of “optioneering”.
[20:19] And with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, CIOB People’s Nadine Buddoo caught up with building control surveyor Jeannie Ambrose, who kept working and studying after being diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer.
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Welcome to the fourth episode of the 21CC Podcast, brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world.
This episode, Will Mann reports on an AI tool developed to detect RAAC in buildings[11:38]; Rod Sweet explores a proposal to build a Roman-style colosseum for Bath Rugby [00:54] ; two young engineers describe what it’s like to build in Antarctica [22:11] ; and Justin Stanton explains what Scope Three Emissions are [20:18].
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Welcome to the third episode of the 21CC podcast, brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world.
This episode we explore why a line is the worst possible layout for a planned new city in the desert [01:44]. Pioneering female crane operator Katie Kelleher tells how she started out in construction and explains why women are just as capable [14:56]. And we visit a construction site using a robot to print plans right on the concrete floor [25:08]. Digital twins is the topic for this month’s Jargon Buster. [11:01]
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Welcome to the second episode of the 21CC podcast, brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).21CC is short for 21st Century Construction, which means we’ll be looking ahead to the challenges the industry faces, such as Quality and Safety, Sustainability, and Skills.
In this episode 1979’s Usborne Book of the Future set out what life would be like in the 2000s. How correct was it? Justin Stanton and Tom Cheesewright discuss what it got right about today, and what it means for tomorrow.[01:39]
[10:56] New CIOB president Sandi Rhys-Jones kicked off her presidential year with an awkward question: Why can’t we give women #PPEthatfits? Hear her ideas for turning that industry blind spot into a surprising advantage.
[21:57] And, in a segment sponsored by Cohesive, we hear from David Philp, chair of the CIOB’s innovation advisory group, about the latest thinking on construction and “ESG”, meaning environment, social wellbeing, and governance.
[19:09] CM Communities Editor Nicky Roger jargon busting BIM Dimensions
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Welcome to the first episode of the 21CC podcast, brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building.
21CC is short for 21st Century Construction, which means we’ll be looking ahead to the challenges the industry faces, such as Quality and Safety, Sustainability, and Skills.
In this episode
With all eyes on Ukraine just now, we hear from a Canadian architect whose team has developed a modular, precast concrete system for fixing apartment blocks damaged by Russian missiles.[02:02]
Construction social media influencers tell us about the surprising benefits of getting a following on Linkedin.[09:53]
21CC’s resident jargon-buster, Justin Stanton, explains the difference between VR, AR, and MR.[17:03]
And, in association with Procore, we talk to Denise Chevin and Steven Frost of Milestone Infrastructure, about Procore’s “How We Build Now” report, and what it’s like to be a “Digital First” construction company.[19:57]
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The home of great construction stories. We go behind the headlines to meet the people who envision, create and manage the built world. Brought to you by the Chartered Institute of Building.Editor Rod Sweet outlines in one minute how we hope to bring the people stories behind the headlines...brought to you by CIOB
