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The construction industry is in a period of exciting growth as the demand for various facilities continues to rise. For example, McKinsey estimates that the global demand for data centers could rise annually between 19% and 22% from 2023 to 2030. Addressing future artificial intelligence (AI)-related workloads would require at least twice the data center capacity built since 2000 to be built in less than a quarter of the time1.

However, the construction industry faces several key challenges such as skilled labor shortages due to retiring experts, increasing regulations around sustainability, high material costs, supply chain disruptions and weather unpredictability.

There’s a big difference between making a house with toy building blocks and a real-world construction project. Or is there?

Traditional construction processes have long been highly fragmented, involving multiple stakeholders – from architects to materials suppliers to builders – across the lifecycle of a typical project. This can make it difficult to deliver projects at the best of times. But doing so whilst navigating today’s biggest strategic challenges, from the global skills shortage to rising material and labor costs to ever evolving ESG regulations, is a huge task.

Digital transformation in construction is sorely needed, and after years of slow progress, it is finally happening. At the vanguard of this revolution is productization, which aims to transform construction elements from static, bespoke objects into generative assets, allowing for more convenient, cost-effective, and flexible approaches to construction.