Introduction
With 35 years of experience in the building and construction industry, in multiple countries, I’ve worn many hats—structural engineer, designer, project manager, property developer, and supplier. This diverse background has given me a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities within our field.
Today, I want to share why I created The Build Review knowledge base and members only Advanced Building Network, and how we can all benefit from a more efficient, collaborative, and innovative building and construction industry.
The Journey from Concept to Completion
Few experiences rival the satisfaction of watching an idea transform into tangible reality – especially something you can live in. Whether it’s one of my own building projects or designing and building a client’s dream home, the creative process can be incredibly rewarding. However, the building and construction industries globally are struggling to produce affordable and profitable projects, and resource our projects properly, resulting in corners being cut – and inefficiencies – that are costing the industry and our clients dearly.
The Challenge: Inefficiency and Its Consequences
What often tarnishes this experience for both clients and professionals? It’s the inefficiencies born from poor planning, poor design, lack of collaboration, communication breakdowns, and flawed procurement processes. For most, nothing undermines a project’s success more than budget blowouts, delays, or that sinking feeling of being overcharged.
Interestingly, some high-end residential clients equate a hefty price tag with superior quality. Let me burst that bubble: it’s often not the case, and they’re the ones being taken for a ride.
When the economy is booming, it’s easy to sweep certain inefficiencies under the carpet – because the industry feels like it can do no wrong, but when times get tough, we see a different side of the industry. Everyone scrambles to make an extra dollar, bad habits emerge, corners get cut, and litigation cases multiply exponentially.
Price Gauging is here to Stay
As our basic necessities like groceries and fuel get more expensive, so in turn do our building materials and products – those who feel squeezed will also hike their prices accordingly.
Price gauging is reaching new heights, and we’ve all seen cases even where basic, unsustainable, and unhealthy products are marketed as luxury building products just to try and justify the price hike. The reality is many of these suppliers are getting away with it because our product and material knowledge isn’t great.
Procurement is Getting Tougher
We’ve noticed a concerning trend: many local builders’ merchants seem to be offering less value and choice, particularly here in New Zealand. In the past, our builders would visit these merchants regularly. Now, those in the know are shopping directly with manufacturers, nationally and internationally, to get what they need, at the right price and specification.
In today’s market, we’re bombarded with carefully crafted narratives and glossy advertising for building products. But here’s the stark reality: if we only listen to the marketing hype, we’re setting ourselves up for costly mistakes. Truly informed decision-making comes from understanding the complete picture – the pros, the cons, and the long-term implications of each building product.
Let’s move beyond advertising: give your potential customers the power of informed decision-making.
Without this comprehensive education, we risk choosing products that look good on paper – but fail to deliver in practice, leading to expensive, complicated installations or remedial work down the line. It’s not just about which story sounds best; it’s about having the knowledge to see beyond the sales pitch and make choices that truly benefit our projects and clients.
Redefining Good Design
Ask designers about optimal building design, and you’ll get a kaleidoscope of answers – some intriguing, others missing the mark entirely. So, what truly constitutes optimal design?
Optimal is not one thing; it’s a combination of design and build elements packaged as one, fulfilling as many positive attributes as possible. I liken it to a good restaurant. You can’t simply present amazing tasting food in a cramped, soulless space, where the service is poor and you smell the dirty water from the launderette next door. Yet, that’s somewhat what’s happening in our industry. Corners are being cut to save costs, but it doesn’t need to be this way.
To me, optimal design is about collaboration from the get-go. It’s bringing all building trades together at the conceptual stage to produce the highest quality, most sustainable, and best-performing building at the lowest cost. It’s about minimizing waste and disruption, reducing energy demands to near zero, and ensuring occupants are safe, healthy, and in love with their space.
But here’s the rub: our industry doesn’t typically operate this way. Instead, it functions more like a relay race, with one trade handing off to the next upon completion. This is the core problem we can easily solve by working together, learning from each other, and adopting better practices, systems, and products.
We can even cut considerable cost out of our builds and still use our existing out-of-date building systems and products, but we have to plan better, and think about our procurement differently.
The solution seems simple in theory, but it requires a significant mindset shift. As humans, we tend to learn once and repeat ad infinitum. It’s this very nature that often stunts our growth and improvement.
The Resource Crunch
Like many sectors, our industry requires a diverse range of skills – from labourers to engineers tackling complex structural challenges. The growing scarcity of these skilled resources often leads to the use of outdated practices and suboptimal building systems. The result? Unnecessary costs, additional labour requirements, and prolonged project timelines.
This comes at a time when we need to build faster than ever, as owners seek quicker returns on their investment.
The Path Forward
The solution to our challenges lies in four key areas:
- Collaboration
- Knowledge sharing
- Standardisation
- Efficiency
- Increased product choice
We need to empower our workforce through better training – not just in building practices, but in business acumen too. It’s startling to think that an estimated 99% of business owners in our industry have never invested in their own business training or that of their staff.
This is where two of our key initiatives come into play, each serving a distinct purpose:
- The Build Review tackles educational themed knowledge sharing, including better planning, design, and build practices. Projects, products, case studies, opinions, news, and views. This platform empowers our audience to make better-informed decisions by providing comprehensive educational insights into the industry.
- The Advanced Building Association delivers tools and services that help industry professionals and consumers find, specify, and source better building systems and sustainable products. Our goal is to increase market competition and global trade opportunities – and facilitate the creation of a superior built environment for both people and our planet.
Together, I feel these initiatives address the critical needs of our industry: educating professionals and consumers alike, promoting better practices, and providing practical tools and resources for much needed improvement.
A Call to Action
We can all contribute to positive change through knowledge sharing and a willingness to collaborate and evolve. While I’m trying to avoid clichés, our mission is simple: we want to make building fun and affordable again. We aim to create real communities and spaces that people actually want to live in, thrive in, – and can afford.
And, I do follow my own advice. I built my current family home at under half the current going market rate with three times higher thermal performance of the current building code. I didn’t go crazy, my team was just organised and efficient. We managed the procurement and the builders just did the build. I paid them more per hour but they didn’t get to clip the ticket on the building products and materials. I’m told that the average builder produces just over 3 effective building hours per day. I believe we doubled that on our build just by being better organised and employing more efficient practices and building systems.
So, let’s embrace change, prioritize efficiency, and rediscover the creativity and fun in what we do. After all, isn’t that why we got into this industry in the first place?
Collaborate with Us
I welcome individuals and organisations from all around the world who are passionate about making a genuine impact in the building and construction industries to collaborate and partner with us. Also, please contact us If you have an exceptional product, advanced building system, project, case study, review, or a promising idea.
Feel free to share your contact details and message via email to: [email protected]. Alternatively, you can contact us by phone: +64 9 212 8457 (NZST).
