024 / Covid Response
By Khaled Abou Alfa • 18 of April, 2020
How the Industry Responds
It’s heartening to see how many in the industry are bringing their creativity and resources to help tackle the pandemic. From converting buildings to hospitals, to designing and printing face shields and finding ways to build intensive care units from flatpacks and containers. My favourite story however was that of a boy scout in Canada who answered the call from local hospitals and printed 1200 ear guards for medical staff. Those Canadians start young.
Hadrian X
Construction Robotics showed the way on a modest scale, with their utility brick laying robot Sam100 (they also have the awesomely named Mule135). With their Hadrian X robot, FBR have made a serious step change in robotic brick laying. There is a long way to go, but these incremental steps are important towards a more automated construction industry.
Rest for a While
Every once in a while a shockingly simple design tweak comes along that makes you wonder why it has never been considered before. Although this seems like a concept at the moment, hopefully this design will go into production and maybe the concept will be adapted to existing staircases that can be retrofitted with it.
Tools of the Trade
Monograph
Let’s be honest, most enterprise project management software sucks. Don’t even get me started on antiquated timesheet software. It all sucks soo hard, you probably can’t even remember the name of one because you tried to forget about it as soon as you stopped using it. Enter Monograph. It does project forecasts, invoicing, timesheets and resourcing. I do take some umbrage in it’s marketing. It’s not only built for architects. It’s built for those working in the built environment who have taste. Bonus, their blog provides excellent insight across typically dry subjects.