January 22, 2025 • 38 mins
How does a childhood spent on construction sites turn into a career at the forefront of digital innovation in construction? This episode of the Future Construct podcast features Jason Howden, Chief Innovation Officer at Revizto, who recounts his remarkable journey from the dusty building sites of New Zealand to revolutionizing the industry with cutting-edge technology. Jason's early exposure to construction and his father's introduction of AutoCAD Sketch 1.0 ignited a passion that transformed his career. Listen as he reveals how hobbies like remote-controlled model aircraft and a knack for problem-solving, fueled by his dyslexia, laid the foundation for his innovative approach to construction technology.
Leadership and automation take center stage in our discussion with Jason, as he delves into how breaking down complex projects into manageable components has been key to his success. He introduces us to the concept of a "digital custodian" and explains how automating processes such as collision detection can streamline projects and mitigate costly errors. Jason's real-world anecdotes illustrate the tangible benefits of these methodologies, making a strong case for the progression from traditional CAD to Building Information Modeling (BIM).
We also take a futuristic leap into the integration of AR and gaming technology within the construction sector. Jason's firsthand account of overcoming skepticism and adopting these innovative tools for project collaboration is inspiring. He shares an intriguing story of a foreman in Christchurch, New Zealand, who went from mocking digital tools to embracing VR for enhanced project efficiency. As we anticipate the upcoming RevUp conference, Jason teases some groundbreaking advancements in construction technology that promise to reshape the industry landscape. Join us for a riveting conversation with one of construction technology's leading voices.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Future Construct podcast, where we
explore the cutting edgeinnovations shaping the built
environment of tomorrow.
I'm Mark Oden, the CEO of BIMDesigns Inc.
And your host today.
I'm thrilled to introduce ourguest, jason Howden.
A trailblazer in theintersection of technology and
construction, with over threedecades of experience in the
industry, jason has been adriving force behind the
(00:32):
development and integration ofemerging technologies worldwide.
From his early days shapingcomplex projects in New Zealand,
australia and the UK to hiscurrent role as the Chief
Innovation Officer at Revisto,jason's expertise spans the
spectrum of construction anddigital innovation.
As we delve into his journey,insights and vision for the
future of constructiontechnology, thank you for all of
(00:55):
your many contributions in theAEC space, jason.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you, mark, and thank you for having me here
today, looking forward to thispodcast.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I am as well Super excited to host you, Jason.
Let's jump right in and startfrom the beginning.
Can you recall any specificchildhood experiences or
interests that you believeshaped your eventual career path
?
And technology for the builtenvironment.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's a wonderful question and I've got many
memories.
My father was a builder andboth of my grandfathers were
builders as well, so buildingwas in my blood from a very
early age.
Me and my brother, we used tohelp dad on construction sites
all over the bottom part of NewZealand, from new homes to farm
(01:38):
sheds to light commercialbuildings.
We were involved in a lot ofstuff and that kind of really
shaped um, I guess my makers umcomponent of my, my passions, um
.
But in the mid 80s dad camehome with a computer.
Um, we were always intotechnology.
He'd, he'd give us the remotecontrol for the vcr.
(01:59):
You know, vcrs came out in theearly 80s in new zealand and we
figured it all out.
It didn't have a manual, didn'thave an internet or anything
like that.
And one day you came home witha computer and I was like wow,
this is cool.
And on that computer wasAutoCAD Sketch version 1.0.
Like it was so old when I thinkback now, but back then it was
(02:20):
like amazing.
And what was on it as a samplefile was the space shuttle.
Um, and I was just fascinatedthat you could dive into this 3d
model of the space shuttle andsomebody had created it and I
wanted to do that.
Um, I wanted to work in aprofession where I could use
computers to build things.
(02:41):
Um, I'd gotten not tired but II felt, you know, working
outside wasn't for me.
I wanted to work in a virtualenvironment but I wanted to
build things.
And as I went through my highschool years I started to align
my I guess my childhoodupbringing in construction with
technical drawing and drafting,and I found myself in a course
(03:05):
where they had specialised incomputer aided drafting in the
early 90s and I excelled in that.
I got top of the class everyyear running and that set me on
a pathway where I had to do CADin the construction sector.
And my first job, my first role,was a CAD manager for a firm in
(03:26):
New Zealand and I was, you know, automating things with scripts
.
I had a friend that I found viaa bulletin board when the
internet finally arrived to NewZealand, taught me how to write
Lisp and I was automating Lisp,that the next thing, you know,
downloading 3d studio max,writing animations, um, just
(03:48):
getting immersed in this virtualenvironment.
And then, over the years, itkind of stuck and as each new
technology came along, Icouldn't help myself.
I had to have a part of it.
Eventually, adt came along,archicad came along, 3d studio,
max viz, theyt came along,archicad came along, 3d Studio,
max Viz they all came along.
(04:08):
Tools like MaxMailRender camealong, revit came along, bim
came along.
It's got involved in everything.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
That's fantastic.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I'm just really excited to hearyou know not only about your
family's you know history ofbuilding but also your.
You know your maker.
I appreciated the how you saidthat sort of your maker
influence or maker focus andthat's you know.
That's that's eventually ledyou down this digital world and
(04:40):
led you to where you are today.
Just absolutely incredible.
What other particular hobbiesor activities from your youth
sparked your interest and ledyou to where you are today.
Just absolutely incredible.
What other particular hobbiesor activities from your youth
sparked your interest andbrought you further into
construction and technology.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Remote controlled model aircraft.
I was a teenager.
I was, like probably everytypical teenager out there, just
kind of not really sure of whatI wanted to do in life and
stuff.
And and mum said to me, whydon't you go along to this model
aircraft thing, you might enjoyit?
And I was like, oh, and Ioriginally thought model
(05:13):
aircraft was like those littleplastic planes that you stick
together and I was like, oh, I'mnot really interested.
Anyway, I went along, um, andit was this team of people that
were building stuff out of woodand making planes that actually
fly.
And I was like, whoa, what isthis world?
Um, they have engines, theyhave um wires that move, the
(05:35):
ailerons and rudders and stuff.
I got completely immersed inthat and would start designing
new wings, um, enteringcompetitions, um finding ways to
finding ways to refine things,and I think that just really
kind of propelled this kind ofmaker's attitude.
You know, I even went down asfar as designing a remote
(05:57):
controlled scale land yacht andremote control a car and remote
control a car.
I had an idea for making a carout of tubing brass tubing that
we would use in the modelaeroplanes.
So it's just kind of inventiveand making stuff and then, as
computers came along, a lot ofthat just transcended into that,
(06:22):
particularly with Revit.
Revit being a parametric enginereally sparked my interest and
I would make complex families toautomate things.
If there was a way to make afamily do 50 different things
efficiently, I was all over thatand just really trying to find
innovative ways to save time toprovide a better outcome in the
(06:46):
built environment.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
That's amazing.
I love the car, the remote car,the remote planes, but tell me
what is a land yacht?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
A land yacht is.
Think of a canoe with wheelsand then a big sail on it.
Think of a canoe with wheelsand then a big sail on it.
And it was a load of fun.
You know, in the bottom of theSouth Island we didn't have much
at that time of, I guess, thedevelopment of the world and I
(07:20):
would go to the movies and I'dwatch one of them.
One of my favorite memories andmovies was a movie called bmx
bandits.
Um, probably no one on thiscall apart from myself actually
probably knows what that movieis, but nicole kidman starred in
it as a, as a teenager, um, andthey basically rode bikes
around.
I think it was australia, butit was um, kind of filmed in a
way that it was, uh, northamerica, america, and off the
(07:44):
back of that film it spawned awhole interest in New Zealand
and BMX and my dad was actuallyinvolved in building the BMX
track in our local town and Igot onto BMX and you know that
kind of again, you know, justbeing inventive, making things
was part of it.
So I ended up making a landyacht because I was um, I'd been
(08:07):
to a movie, I'd seen something.
It might have been I think itwas water world, um, when that
came out and he had the bigyacht and it was like moving
really fast and I wanted to makeone and we didn't have a lake
nearby so I put wheels on theyacht, um, and I would, I would
race it around um the highschool playground and it was a
load of fun.
And people would be like, whathave you built?
(08:27):
And I'm like, oh, this is aland yacht and it would zip
around, you know, 10 miles anhour, 15 miles an hour, just
under wind power and for scale.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
How big was this?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
um, it was about a gay big, probably a foot and a
half um foot long, about thelength of a subway sandwich.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh, very cool, Well fun.
So how did your?
Furthermore, how did yourupbringing and early education
influence your fascination withemerging technologies?
And I know you touched on thata little bit, but could you dive
deeper into that for me?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah.
So I struggled at high schoolwith English and it took me a
long time to realize that in myfamily we actually have a gene
that predicates dyslexia, andwhen I went through school there
was no acknowledgement for itand no understanding for it.
(09:24):
It was just that you couldn'tspell and you went into the, the
, the slow class, and but I wasincredibly intelligent in every
other aspect Physics top of theclass, you know, technical
drawing top of the class,engineering top of the class.
So there was this kind ofpolarized thing going on in my
(09:48):
brain.
I didn't understand it, but thedean of the school, when I'd
finally decided what I wanted todo for a career, um, I had was
having an interview aboutsubjects, and they were like oh
well, you know, you're not verygood at um, your english, so we
feel you should be in thesesubjects.
And I'm like but I want to dothis career and I need these
subjects.
And the the dean came and saidwell, we're going to take a
(10:11):
gamble.
Where there's a will, there's a.
We're going to take a gamblewhen there's a will, there's a
way.
We're going to put you in theseclasses and you prove to us
that you can do them.
And from that moment forth ittriggered something in me that
where there's a will, there's away, and I have used that and
relied on that to propel mycareer projects forward.
(10:32):
If there is enough will, youcan solve any problem, and if
you work with a great teamaround you, that just magnifies
that and I've taken that forward.
And then probably the otherthing that helped me on this
journey was reading RichardBranson's first autobiography
(10:53):
and he talked about hischallenges with dyslexia and how
he overcame it, and that gaveme an appreciation that there
was this thing out there whereit was okay to be able to not
spell correctly, but have theseincredibly bright, intelligent
conversations and ideas.
You just need to find thepeople to work with that can
balance that.
And then I've just leaned intothat.
And ideas, um, you just need tofind the people to work with
(11:13):
that can balance that.
And then I've just leaned intothat.
And as my, my own children, um,came on the scene.
Um kept a watchful eye out tosee if they had the um, the
dyslexia gene as well.
They both do um and worked withthe schools to ensure that they
had that kind of support um,and now both of them are doing
(11:34):
subjects in ai.
I think it's incrediblyfascinating.
One wants to be a gamedeveloper, the other one wants
to, um, create uh robotics, umfor prosthetics, um.
So you know this is.
I guess it's in the genesthat's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I really, really believe in these moments, these
powerful, powerful moments whereyou know, particularly people
can really influence thetrajectory in a very positive,
healthy way of someone.
And it sounds like thatprincipal, you know, saw your
talents and saw you know theability to transition you, you
know, from remedial school, uh,into um, you know, into a, a
(12:14):
career path or an education paththat he felt would would be
more resonant with with you andum.
I want to, I want to drill intodo you recall at all that
conversation or that moment thatthat principal had with you,
that that, you know, effectivelychanged your life?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
absolutely vividly, um it is, is burnt into my my
memory banks.
I can remember sitting therewith both my parents, two very
senior people of the school whowere trying to convince me that
the career path that I wanted toembark on was not for me.
For me, um, and the dean camein and was like actually, this
(12:56):
guy he's probably got a strongwill and if he wants to do this,
we should let him do this.
Um, and I'll never forget that.
And as I've um traveled forwardin my career, when I've noticed
um other people might becolleagues, peers, people in the
industry who um had that willto um, you know, propel forward,
I've always offered a guidinghand.
You know that kind of pay itforward approach, and it's been
(13:24):
incredibly enjoyable to watchpeople that I've had an
influence on go forth andrealize their dreams, goals and
ambitions and be inspired towork in this industry and to
evolve it to a new plateau,above and beyond where we've
always been.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I love that.
Thank you so much, jason.
Before we dive more into yourextensive project experience,
I'd love to take a moment tothank our sponsors, whose
support makes this podcastpossible.
Stay with us as we take a shortbreak to hear from them, and
when we return we'll continueour conversation with Jason
Howden, chief Innovation Officerat Revisto.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Welcome to the Future Construct podcast brought to
you by BIM Designs Incorporated,where innovation meets
construction.
Stay tuned as we delve into thelatest trends and technologies
shaping the future of the AECOindustry.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
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(14:38):
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(16:25):
Welcome back to the FutureConstruct podcast.
I'm your host, mark Oden, andtoday we're in conversation with
Jason Howden, chief InnovationOfficer at Revisto.
Before the break, we werediscussing Jason's journey and
childhood influences.
Now let's dive into hisextensive consulting experience.
Leadership and collaboration issomething I care very deeply
about and it's something thatthe industry is constantly
looking for new leaders and newways to collaborate.
(16:47):
I'd really like to dive intoyour experience, jason, as
someone who excels at leadingproject teams in the
implementation of advanceddigital automation.
What strategies do you employto foster collaboration and
innovation among diversestakeholders?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Wow, that's a really good question.
I guess the strategy I employis to take complex problems and
simplify it down to a humanlevel.
You know some of the feedbackwhen I left my previous role at
Waranamani Architects to joinRevisto.
You know it was amazing to get.
(17:24):
You know the comments from theteams that I'd worked with on
numerous projects in New Zealand, australia and further afield.
But one comment that stuck outto me was my good friend and
colleague, daryl Haynes.
He came up to me and he saidyou know, what you do is you
take really complex situationsand problems and just make it
(17:47):
human.
You just simplify it so I canunderstand the most complex
things easily.
And I think that's something Ido naturally and I credit a lot
of that to actually my dyslexia.
I break these things downwithout even thinking about it.
I don't have to struggle hardto create a pathway through
(18:10):
complex problems.
Maybe I feel a wee bit likerain man, that scene from tom
cruise and rain man where thenumbers are going um.
It's kind of what goes on in myhead and I just see a clear
pathway from um a to b to c andI'm able to articulate that and
um very succinctly and simply soeverybody can come on the
(18:31):
journey.
And I think that's part of thechallenge is taking a world as
diverse and complex as theconstruction industry and
simplifying it.
We have hurdles of standards,we have hurdles of regulation,
we have hurdles of technologyand, at the end of the day,
we're're building while we'rebuilding.
But we need this orchestra ofpeople to come together on the
(18:55):
same song sheet, at the samerhythm, for it to all work and
fit together as planned withoutinterruption.
So the conductor of thatorchestra has to be able to read
the room at the same time anddirect change to keep the pace
of the project moving forward.
(19:16):
And what I've found over theyears is that nexus of being
able to take complex problemsand describe them simply,
empowered by technology, throughcollaboration, really provides
what I'm coining, or calling thedigital custodian, to act as
that custodian to flowinformation from all of the
(19:41):
facets of the constructionindustry to bring this project
to life.
And I think that's this nextkind of frontier that we're
maturing into.
We've had, we've had CAD comealong and that helped us do
better drawings.
Then we had bim come along.
That helped us prototypedigitally, prototype a building
before we go and build it andfind errors and emissions and
(20:03):
fix them before they becomeerrors and emissions on
construction sites.
I think the next evolution ofthis is around understanding the
need and the importance of thatdigital conductor, that digital
custodian, to flow and managethat information on projects.
So everybody has consolidatedinformation that is reliable and
(20:26):
they can then forge ahead fastwith their piece of work and
that part of the tune for thebeat of the project.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, thank you, and you navigated.
I love that statement of you.
Know make complex problemshuman and I see that in you.
So in managing all of thecomplexities and multi-layered
projects, how do you bringautomation into that to
streamline those processes?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Another good question .
You know breaking down thoseproblems into their bite-sized
pieces.
There's a phrase that I oftenthrow out you know how do you
eat an elephant?
Well, it's one bite at a time.
And construction projects,particularly hospitals, are the
largest building into its mostbinary packets, and then you can
(21:20):
find the patterns in thosepackets.
And when you start to align thepatterns in those binary bits
that make up a building, you canthen create a I like to call it
a framework and then, with thatframework, you can then look
for opportunity to automate it.
One of the things that I did alot of work with prior to
(21:42):
joining revisto was automatingcollision detection, clash
detection.
It's so important to be able tofind a lot of these things that
you know often bump into eachother in the design process, but
can't bump into each other inthe design process but can't
bump into each other in theconstruction process.
Find them early and thenmitigate them, and it's actually
(22:03):
quite well.
I find it actually quitesatisfying when you start to see
a framework that is highlyautomated, empowering teams to
build better together With lesseffort.
So they're prototyping thefinished product.
They're doing it in amethodology that actually is
(22:24):
less effort than what they woulddo traditionally and they're
enjoying the process.
And I remember back to one ofthe first ever BIM projects I
did 20 years ago so it's one ofthe first ever BIM projects I
did was 20 years ago and Iremember teaching the sub trades
, the precast detailer who wasdoing the precast reinforcing.
(22:45):
I taught him a workflow, aprocess that I'd broken down,
and he said to me Jason, I can'tdo this workflow and I've
priced to do this job and you'veshown me how I can do it with
10% of the effort.
I feel really bad and I said,well, pricing's not my problem,
that's a different department.
If you have a problem with theprice you gave and the amount of
effort that's going to take youto do this job, go speak to
(23:08):
them, but you need to do it thisway.
So I have confidence in thework that you've done is
coordinated and accurate.
So he carried on, did the work.
We didn't have any problems onthat project.
Every panel was accurate andevery panel went together like
it was lego.
And I've taken those kind offundamental break it down, find
the bits, align the bits, createa framework, automate the
(23:31):
framework, communicate it simplyforward to numerous projects.
Um.
You know another project Iremember doing um.
As architects we were engagedto do the shop drawings for
mechanical services for a coupleof office towers and um again,
we automated all of that.
Um I I went out and met withthe guys who were making the
ductwork, like the machine shop,and he showed me the cnc
(23:54):
machine and my brain just went,wow, this is amazing, this is
like remote control airplanes onsteroids, um.
And and I was like so whatinformation do you put into this
cnc machine?
He's like, oh yeah, we needthese dimensions, we need these
vectors, we need these angles.
I said then I was going I canbuild a family that can give you
that information.
And he goes what?
I was like what if I gave you aspreadsheet with all of the
(24:17):
cutting list, um, would thathelp?
And he goes no, you can't dothat.
And I was like yes, I can.
So I went off and I made awhole bunch of kit of parts,
ducting and this is um in revit9.1 um.
So it was like 2008 orsomething like 2009 um.
And then we had all these kitsof parts.
We modeled it all in Revit andit was probably like version two
(24:41):
of MEP for Revit.
We produced all of the cuffinglists directly out of Revit just
to schedule export to CSV, sendit over to the machine shop.
And they were making duct worksix months ahead of time,
barcoding it, wrapping it inGladwrap, sticking it in a
warehouse.
And when the actual site wasready to install it, they just
(25:01):
said we need, you know, xyzparts.
They came on a truck, theyscanned them, they put them up,
incredibly efficient.
And one of the other storiesfrom that project was the tilt
beams.
We'd modeled everything down tothe millimeter, including all
the hangers.
So we hung all the hangers inadvance.
We finished the ceiling, it wasall exposed and then they came
(25:26):
to hang the hangers and they putthem on lifting jacks and lift
them up and screw the bolts upthe the guys that were doing it.
Originally they had allowed aweek per floor per tower to
install these chill beamsbecause they thought they'd have
to, you know, lift them up andfiddle around and you know, take
a few hours to get one of thesebeams.
And they actually got it down sothey could do a floor of an
(25:49):
office tower in one day and theother floor of the office tower
in the other day.
So they shifted their entireconstruction methodology to do
um the install on a saturday anda sunday, and then they had a
week free up their sleeves.
They went and did other stuffum the.
The bottleneck then became themanufacturer couldn't make them
fast enough to get theminstalled and the other the.
(26:11):
The most amusing bottleneck wasthere was not enough hydraulic
lifting jacks to lift thesethings up fast enough, so they
had to hire them from all overthe country.
And I was like, wow, who wouldhave thought that lifting jacks
would have been the bottleneckof all of this?
Because typically on a projectit's like oh, this hanger
doesn't align with this one, andnow we're gonna put you know,
redraw this, hang this.
Um, it was the lifting jackswell.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Thanks, jason, for sharing that example of that
project um shifting into gearsinto your current role as your
chief innovation officer ofRevisto.
I'm super excited to heareverything you have to share
about this role and I'm superexcited to hear your experience
in entering the company and whatyou've done to leverage your
experience in digital innovationand what you're driving in
(26:57):
terms of Revisto's changes andhow you're impacting their
clientele.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, taking on this role is a big challenge and
there's a lot of responsibilitythat goes with it in terms of
you know, what are we doing as aconstruction industry?
We're designing a collaborationplatform to allow people to
collaborate better together.
Um.
I've been using revisto for avery long time as a customer um.
(27:25):
I fell in love with it when Imet armin at las vegas um.
We had a conversation about hisdream for building um a
construction collaborationplatform on gaming technology.
And we had a?
Um a strong conversation aboutwhy gaming technology?
Because there were othertechnologies out there in the
market.
And he explained to me it wasabout getting people lots of
(27:47):
people into this environment sothey could see information the
same way.
And I stood there and I thoughtabout it.
I was like damn, you're right,we've been doing this with the
wrong tool all this time.
Um and um.
So we bought some licenses, wegot into it and the thing I
loved the most about revisto wasthere were three things that I
(28:08):
needed to teach my team 2dequals 2d, 3d equals 3d.
And the issue tracker is whereyou go to sort all of your
issues and you take those threethings and you apply it to any
project and you suddenly hadthis ability to communicate like
you haven't been able tocommunicate before, but, more
(28:30):
importantly, check informationthat was on detailed drawings
against the prototype, the 3Dmodel, and see if they were
aligned or not.
The biggest problem I've seenover the years is, for all the
right reasons, the wrong thingsget done, the 2D drawing gets
modified, but the original modelis left behind and the two get
(28:51):
out of sync with each other andthat's where the errors emerge.
So, having this responsibility,um to then, how do we take that
foundation and build on it forthe future?
You know, I worked hard withthe dev team, um as a customer,
around all sorts of thingsreporting, dashboards, clash
detection, a whole bunch ofthings that came into revista
(29:13):
and and now I'm on the inside,working intimately with the
developers, working intimatelywith our customer success team
globally, but, more importantly,connecting with our global
customers around the world tounderstand their challenges,
understand the problems they'rehaving, so I can start to break
them down and create patternsand find new ways of solving
(29:35):
what we take for granted.
As this is the way we do things, and I think that's one of the
things that inspires me the mostwith revisto our mantra is to
understand the problem andreimagine the problem with
today's technology.
We've got some exciting thingscoming out at our rev up
conference in a couple of weeks.
One of the ones is one of theones I've been hanging out for
(29:58):
so long for the industry.
This recording will probably goout after it.
But, yeah, we're bringing AR toconstruction, and AR is one of
the things that I've longed tohave in the construction
industry.
I grew up watching Star Wars andStar Trek.
Being able to dial up on yourmobile phone and say, hey,
(30:20):
computer, show me my issues onthis floor.
Who wouldn't want that on aconstruction site?
And then to be able to thenlook at your screen and go
actually I can see what I needto do and then make those
decisions in real time withconfidence and track them so you
know why the decisions weremade and this is how this
(30:41):
building has come together, andleave that as a record, as a
warranty manual, as a blueprint,as an x-ray of the building
when it's handed over to theclient for its operational
lifetime that's great, jason,and yeah, very excited to hear
more about RevUp and thatconference and the announcements
that you have there.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
And tell me what are some specific challenges that
you anticipate facing andpromoting the use of digital
technologies and, for example,ar and construction, and getting
that implemented into into theclients, and how do you plan to
address some of those challenges?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
that that's.
That's a really good question,um.
You know you've given me somany good questions to tap into
um.
Some of the challenges I've hadin my career um being able to
educate um and um break downthose barriers around the way
we've always done things.
I remember vividly walking intoa project the first of its
(31:43):
typology in New Zealand to everbe constructed, a very
significant project that waspart of the Christchurch rebuild
, and a very experienced foremanapproached me and saw my laptop
bag, saw my shiny shoes, made acomment about the laptop and
the shiny shoes.
We're all sitting on aconstruction site and I took
that as a challenge.
(32:04):
I was like I'm going to workwith you.
You've got experience and thatexperience in the built
environment is invaluable.
But there were, I guess,fundamental cautions or personal
fears around this new thing.
You know people don't like new.
It's part of our DNA.
That's how we survived on thisplanet.
(32:26):
We were cautious around newthings, proposing new ways of
working or needing to modifywhat you've already done for
many decades.
In some cases it's natural tohave that fear, have that
concern.
It would be wrong if you didn't.
(32:47):
So I work with people tounderstand where their knowledge
is.
I work with them to showcasethe power of the technology and
how it can augment theirknowledge and how they can
become more engaged.
So there's one example and it'sa great example because to my
knowledge it was probably one ofthe first Revisto projects in
(33:11):
New Zealand.
It was definitely the first tobe using VR on a construction
site.
I ordered the oculus gogglesthey were the beta, the
developer version um, I had toget them from america and um we
got them through.
I got them into the site hutand I set up in a, in a
container you know those sitehut container things and I put
(33:33):
on the door bim cave.
Um, so you step inside the bimcave and there were just
computers and servers and vrgoggles and um.
So that this senior foreman whoum challenged me on my first
day within three months, he wasregularly in the bim cave going,
jason, get me in the model andand he put on the vr and he'd
(33:54):
stand there and he would see howhe was going to build the
building digitally before he wasbuilding it months in advance.
And there was one day he cameup over from the construction
site.
There's a big construction site,you know, a couple of thousand
people working on it and he washaving an argument and he
stormed in through the door andI'll never forget it and and
(34:15):
he's like I'm having an argumentand he used some other very
colorful words um, and I, I needto get it, I need to get in the
model, fire it up.
And he put the goggles on and Ifired it up and he goes now go
over to the xyz part of thebuilding and he goes and he's
looking down and he's lookingdown at the framing and he's
like now, turn off theplasterboard, turn on the
structure.
(34:35):
And he, yeah, I knew I wasright and he took it off and he
stormed out, slammed the door.
You could probably hear himfrom the other side of the site
as he clarified hisunderstanding of the building to
his team who were thinking itneeded to go together a
different way, and it wasincredibly enriching and
empowering that the model, thedigital environment, was
(34:59):
empowering these conversationsthat you know traditionally
would have taken days to resolve, and he was able to kind of
walk across site, understand it,go back across site and move
forward at pace.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Well, thanks for sharing that, Jason, and I'm so
excited to just tease into yourbackground of Revisto and also
tease into what's coming out inthe future, and I look forward
so much to sharing more timewith you in the future.
As a final question of the showand a traditional future
construct, if you could projectyourself out 25 years and wanted
to have any device ortechnology that would benefit
(35:33):
you personally, what would it?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
be, and what would?
it do technology that wouldbenefit you personally.
What would it be and what wouldit do?
Oh, wow, so much, so many ideas.
Anything, anywhere.
Anyhow, you know, my mind spinsfrom warp drive to travel the
universe to time machine to justrevisit things over and over
again.
But I think the ability.
(35:56):
Ability because we have toolsthat bring ar onto construction
sites.
We have tools like um ai rightnow, where I can do speech to
text recognition and create animage, create a movie.
Um, I think I would like ateleportation tool where I could
be anywhere on this wonderfulplanet and a moment's notice and
(36:18):
experience and help people withtheir projects and feel like
travel was not a limitation.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Fantastic.
I love that too, and I knowthat I would be able to be
everywhere all at once, whichwould be amazing.
As we wrap up today's episodeof the Future Construct podcast,
I want to extend a heartfeltthank you to our guest, Jason
Howden, for sharing hisinvaluable expertise and
insights with us.
I've personally enjoyedlearning so much about you,
Jason.
Your wealth of experience innavigating complexities of
(36:49):
construction projects and yourpassion for driving digital
innovation is truly inspiring.
From discussing your childhoodinfluences to your role at
Revisto, Jason, you've providedus with a wealth of knowledge
and inspiration for the futureof construction technology.
Thank you again, Jason, forjoining me, Mark Oden on Future
Construct and to our listenersstay tuned for more fascinating
(37:09):
conversations on the forefrontof construction innovation.
Thank you so much, Jason thankyou, mark.
Welcome to the Future Construct podcast, where we
explore the cutting edgeinnovations shaping the built
environment of tomorrow.
I'm Mark Oden, the CEO of BIMDesigns Inc.
And your host today.
I'm thrilled to introduce ourguest, jason Howden.
A trailblazer in theintersection of technology and
construction, with over threedecades of experience in the
industry, jason has been adriving force behind the
(00:32):
development and integration ofemerging technologies worldwide.
From his early days shapingcomplex projects in New Zealand,
australia and the UK to hiscurrent role as the Chief
Innovation Officer at Revisto,jason's expertise spans the
spectrum of construction anddigital innovation.
As we delve into his journey,insights and vision for the
future of constructiontechnology, thank you for all of
(00:55):
your many contributions in theAEC space, jason.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you, mark, and thank you for having me here
today, looking forward to thispodcast.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I am as well Super excited to host you, Jason.
Let's jump right in and startfrom the beginning.
Can you recall any specificchildhood experiences or
interests that you believeshaped your eventual career path
?
And technology for the builtenvironment.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's a wonderful question and I've got many
memories.
My father was a builder andboth of my grandfathers were
builders as well, so buildingwas in my blood from a very
early age.
Me and my brother, we used tohelp dad on construction sites
all over the bottom part of NewZealand, from new homes to farm
(01:38):
sheds to light commercialbuildings.
We were involved in a lot ofstuff and that kind of really
shaped um, I guess my makers umcomponent of my, my passions, um
.
But in the mid 80s dad camehome with a computer.
Um, we were always intotechnology.
He'd, he'd give us the remotecontrol for the vcr.
(01:59):
You know, vcrs came out in theearly 80s in new zealand and we
figured it all out.
It didn't have a manual, didn'thave an internet or anything
like that.
And one day you came home witha computer and I was like wow,
this is cool.
And on that computer wasAutoCAD Sketch version 1.0.
Like it was so old when I thinkback now, but back then it was
(02:20):
like amazing.
And what was on it as a samplefile was the space shuttle.
Um, and I was just fascinatedthat you could dive into this 3d
model of the space shuttle andsomebody had created it and I
wanted to do that.
Um, I wanted to work in aprofession where I could use
computers to build things.
(02:41):
Um, I'd gotten not tired but II felt, you know, working
outside wasn't for me.
I wanted to work in a virtualenvironment but I wanted to
build things.
And as I went through my highschool years I started to align
my I guess my childhoodupbringing in construction with
technical drawing and drafting,and I found myself in a course
(03:05):
where they had specialised incomputer aided drafting in the
early 90s and I excelled in that.
I got top of the class everyyear running and that set me on
a pathway where I had to do CADin the construction sector.
And my first job, my first role,was a CAD manager for a firm in
(03:26):
New Zealand and I was, you know, automating things with scripts
.
I had a friend that I found viaa bulletin board when the
internet finally arrived to NewZealand, taught me how to write
Lisp and I was automating Lisp,that the next thing, you know,
downloading 3d studio max,writing animations, um, just
(03:48):
getting immersed in this virtualenvironment.
And then, over the years, itkind of stuck and as each new
technology came along, Icouldn't help myself.
I had to have a part of it.
Eventually, adt came along,archicad came along, 3d studio,
max viz, theyt came along,archicad came along, 3d Studio,
max Viz they all came along.
(04:08):
Tools like MaxMailRender camealong, revit came along, bim
came along.
It's got involved in everything.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
That's fantastic.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I'm just really excited to hearyou know not only about your
family's you know history ofbuilding but also your.
You know your maker.
I appreciated the how you saidthat sort of your maker
influence or maker focus andthat's you know.
That's that's eventually ledyou down this digital world and
(04:40):
led you to where you are today.
Just absolutely incredible.
What other particular hobbiesor activities from your youth
sparked your interest and ledyou to where you are today.
Just absolutely incredible.
What other particular hobbiesor activities from your youth
sparked your interest andbrought you further into
construction and technology.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Remote controlled model aircraft.
I was a teenager.
I was, like probably everytypical teenager out there, just
kind of not really sure of whatI wanted to do in life and
stuff.
And and mum said to me, whydon't you go along to this model
aircraft thing, you might enjoyit?
And I was like, oh, and Ioriginally thought model
(05:13):
aircraft was like those littleplastic planes that you stick
together and I was like, oh, I'mnot really interested.
Anyway, I went along, um, andit was this team of people that
were building stuff out of woodand making planes that actually
fly.
And I was like, whoa, what isthis world?
Um, they have engines, theyhave um wires that move, the
(05:35):
ailerons and rudders and stuff.
I got completely immersed inthat and would start designing
new wings, um, enteringcompetitions, um finding ways to
finding ways to refine things,and I think that just really
kind of propelled this kind ofmaker's attitude.
You know, I even went down asfar as designing a remote
(05:57):
controlled scale land yacht andremote control a car and remote
control a car.
I had an idea for making a carout of tubing brass tubing that
we would use in the modelaeroplanes.
So it's just kind of inventiveand making stuff and then, as
computers came along, a lot ofthat just transcended into that,
(06:22):
particularly with Revit.
Revit being a parametric enginereally sparked my interest and
I would make complex families toautomate things.
If there was a way to make afamily do 50 different things
efficiently, I was all over thatand just really trying to find
innovative ways to save time toprovide a better outcome in the
(06:46):
built environment.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
That's amazing.
I love the car, the remote car,the remote planes, but tell me
what is a land yacht?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
A land yacht is.
Think of a canoe with wheelsand then a big sail on it.
Think of a canoe with wheelsand then a big sail on it.
And it was a load of fun.
You know, in the bottom of theSouth Island we didn't have much
at that time of, I guess, thedevelopment of the world and I
(07:20):
would go to the movies and I'dwatch one of them.
One of my favorite memories andmovies was a movie called bmx
bandits.
Um, probably no one on thiscall apart from myself actually
probably knows what that movieis, but nicole kidman starred in
it as a, as a teenager, um, andthey basically rode bikes
around.
I think it was australia, butit was um, kind of filmed in a
way that it was, uh, northamerica, america, and off the
(07:44):
back of that film it spawned awhole interest in New Zealand
and BMX and my dad was actuallyinvolved in building the BMX
track in our local town and Igot onto BMX and you know that
kind of again, you know, justbeing inventive, making things
was part of it.
So I ended up making a landyacht because I was um, I'd been
(08:07):
to a movie, I'd seen something.
It might have been I think itwas water world, um, when that
came out and he had the bigyacht and it was like moving
really fast and I wanted to makeone and we didn't have a lake
nearby so I put wheels on theyacht, um, and I would, I would
race it around um the highschool playground and it was a
load of fun.
And people would be like, whathave you built?
(08:27):
And I'm like, oh, this is aland yacht and it would zip
around, you know, 10 miles anhour, 15 miles an hour, just
under wind power and for scale.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
How big was this?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
um, it was about a gay big, probably a foot and a
half um foot long, about thelength of a subway sandwich.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh, very cool, Well fun.
So how did your?
Furthermore, how did yourupbringing and early education
influence your fascination withemerging technologies?
And I know you touched on thata little bit, but could you dive
deeper into that for me?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah.
So I struggled at high schoolwith English and it took me a
long time to realize that in myfamily we actually have a gene
that predicates dyslexia, andwhen I went through school there
was no acknowledgement for itand no understanding for it.
(09:24):
It was just that you couldn'tspell and you went into the, the
, the slow class, and but I wasincredibly intelligent in every
other aspect Physics top of theclass, you know, technical
drawing top of the class,engineering top of the class.
So there was this kind ofpolarized thing going on in my
(09:48):
brain.
I didn't understand it, but thedean of the school, when I'd
finally decided what I wanted todo for a career, um, I had was
having an interview aboutsubjects, and they were like oh
well, you know, you're not verygood at um, your english, so we
feel you should be in thesesubjects.
And I'm like but I want to dothis career and I need these
subjects.
And the the dean came and saidwell, we're going to take a
(10:11):
gamble.
Where there's a will, there's a.
We're going to take a gamblewhen there's a will, there's a
way.
We're going to put you in theseclasses and you prove to us
that you can do them.
And from that moment forth ittriggered something in me that
where there's a will, there's away, and I have used that and
relied on that to propel mycareer projects forward.
(10:32):
If there is enough will, youcan solve any problem, and if
you work with a great teamaround you, that just magnifies
that and I've taken that forward.
And then probably the otherthing that helped me on this
journey was reading RichardBranson's first autobiography
(10:53):
and he talked about hischallenges with dyslexia and how
he overcame it, and that gaveme an appreciation that there
was this thing out there whereit was okay to be able to not
spell correctly, but have theseincredibly bright, intelligent
conversations and ideas.
You just need to find thepeople to work with that can
balance that.
And then I've just leaned intothat.
And ideas, um, you just need tofind the people to work with
(11:13):
that can balance that.
And then I've just leaned intothat.
And as my, my own children, um,came on the scene.
Um kept a watchful eye out tosee if they had the um, the
dyslexia gene as well.
They both do um and worked withthe schools to ensure that they
had that kind of support um,and now both of them are doing
(11:34):
subjects in ai.
I think it's incrediblyfascinating.
One wants to be a gamedeveloper, the other one wants
to, um, create uh robotics, umfor prosthetics, um.
So you know this is.
I guess it's in the genesthat's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I really, really believe in these moments, these
powerful, powerful moments whereyou know, particularly people
can really influence thetrajectory in a very positive,
healthy way of someone.
And it sounds like thatprincipal, you know, saw your
talents and saw you know theability to transition you, you
know, from remedial school, uh,into um, you know, into a, a
(12:14):
career path or an education paththat he felt would would be
more resonant with with you andum.
I want to, I want to drill intodo you recall at all that
conversation or that moment thatthat principal had with you,
that that, you know, effectivelychanged your life?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
absolutely vividly, um it is, is burnt into my my
memory banks.
I can remember sitting therewith both my parents, two very
senior people of the school whowere trying to convince me that
the career path that I wanted toembark on was not for me.
For me, um, and the dean camein and was like actually, this
(12:56):
guy he's probably got a strongwill and if he wants to do this,
we should let him do this.
Um, and I'll never forget that.
And as I've um traveled forwardin my career, when I've noticed
um other people might becolleagues, peers, people in the
industry who um had that willto um, you know, propel forward,
I've always offered a guidinghand.
You know that kind of pay itforward approach, and it's been
(13:24):
incredibly enjoyable to watchpeople that I've had an
influence on go forth andrealize their dreams, goals and
ambitions and be inspired towork in this industry and to
evolve it to a new plateau,above and beyond where we've
always been.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I love that.
Thank you so much, jason.
Before we dive more into yourextensive project experience,
I'd love to take a moment tothank our sponsors, whose
support makes this podcastpossible.
Stay with us as we take a shortbreak to hear from them, and
when we return we'll continueour conversation with Jason
Howden, chief Innovation Officerat Revisto.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Welcome to the Future Construct podcast brought to
you by BIM Designs Incorporated,where innovation meets
construction.
Stay tuned as we delve into thelatest trends and technologies
shaping the future of the AECOindustry.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
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building the future.
Hello and thank you for yourinterest in our firm.
I'm Mark Oden, ceo of BIMDesigns Inc.
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(14:38):
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For over six years, our unionmembers have provided
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We have become subject matterexperts in not only the
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Contact us at sales atbimdesignsnet for a consultation
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We'd love to work with you,thank you.
(16:25):
Welcome back to the FutureConstruct podcast.
I'm your host, mark Oden, andtoday we're in conversation with
Jason Howden, chief InnovationOfficer at Revisto.
Before the break, we werediscussing Jason's journey and
childhood influences.
Now let's dive into hisextensive consulting experience.
Leadership and collaboration issomething I care very deeply
about and it's something thatthe industry is constantly
looking for new leaders and newways to collaborate.
(16:47):
I'd really like to dive intoyour experience, jason, as
someone who excels at leadingproject teams in the
implementation of advanceddigital automation.
What strategies do you employto foster collaboration and
innovation among diversestakeholders?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Wow, that's a really good question.
I guess the strategy I employis to take complex problems and
simplify it down to a humanlevel.
You know some of the feedbackwhen I left my previous role at
Waranamani Architects to joinRevisto.
You know it was amazing to get.
(17:24):
You know the comments from theteams that I'd worked with on
numerous projects in New Zealand, australia and further afield.
But one comment that stuck outto me was my good friend and
colleague, daryl Haynes.
He came up to me and he saidyou know, what you do is you
take really complex situationsand problems and just make it
(17:47):
human.
You just simplify it so I canunderstand the most complex
things easily.
And I think that's something Ido naturally and I credit a lot
of that to actually my dyslexia.
I break these things downwithout even thinking about it.
I don't have to struggle hardto create a pathway through
(18:10):
complex problems.
Maybe I feel a wee bit likerain man, that scene from tom
cruise and rain man where thenumbers are going um.
It's kind of what goes on in myhead and I just see a clear
pathway from um a to b to c andI'm able to articulate that and
um very succinctly and simply soeverybody can come on the
(18:31):
journey.
And I think that's part of thechallenge is taking a world as
diverse and complex as theconstruction industry and
simplifying it.
We have hurdles of standards,we have hurdles of regulation,
we have hurdles of technologyand, at the end of the day,
we're're building while we'rebuilding.
But we need this orchestra ofpeople to come together on the
(18:55):
same song sheet, at the samerhythm, for it to all work and
fit together as planned withoutinterruption.
So the conductor of thatorchestra has to be able to read
the room at the same time anddirect change to keep the pace
of the project moving forward.
(19:16):
And what I've found over theyears is that nexus of being
able to take complex problemsand describe them simply,
empowered by technology, throughcollaboration, really provides
what I'm coining, or calling thedigital custodian, to act as
that custodian to flowinformation from all of the
(19:41):
facets of the constructionindustry to bring this project
to life.
And I think that's this nextkind of frontier that we're
maturing into.
We've had, we've had CAD comealong and that helped us do
better drawings.
Then we had bim come along.
That helped us prototypedigitally, prototype a building
before we go and build it andfind errors and emissions and
(20:03):
fix them before they becomeerrors and emissions on
construction sites.
I think the next evolution ofthis is around understanding the
need and the importance of thatdigital conductor, that digital
custodian, to flow and managethat information on projects.
So everybody has consolidatedinformation that is reliable and
(20:26):
they can then forge ahead fastwith their piece of work and
that part of the tune for thebeat of the project.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, thank you, and you navigated.
I love that statement of you.
Know make complex problemshuman and I see that in you.
So in managing all of thecomplexities and multi-layered
projects, how do you bringautomation into that to
streamline those processes?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Another good question .
You know breaking down thoseproblems into their bite-sized
pieces.
There's a phrase that I oftenthrow out you know how do you
eat an elephant?
Well, it's one bite at a time.
And construction projects,particularly hospitals, are the
largest building into its mostbinary packets, and then you can
(21:20):
find the patterns in thosepackets.
And when you start to align thepatterns in those binary bits
that make up a building, you canthen create a I like to call it
a framework and then, with thatframework, you can then look
for opportunity to automate it.
One of the things that I did alot of work with prior to
(21:42):
joining revisto was automatingcollision detection, clash
detection.
It's so important to be able tofind a lot of these things that
you know often bump into eachother in the design process, but
can't bump into each other inthe design process but can't
bump into each other in theconstruction process.
Find them early and thenmitigate them, and it's actually
(22:03):
quite well.
I find it actually quitesatisfying when you start to see
a framework that is highlyautomated, empowering teams to
build better together With lesseffort.
So they're prototyping thefinished product.
They're doing it in amethodology that actually is
(22:24):
less effort than what they woulddo traditionally and they're
enjoying the process.
And I remember back to one ofthe first ever BIM projects I
did 20 years ago so it's one ofthe first ever BIM projects I
did was 20 years ago and Iremember teaching the sub trades
, the precast detailer who wasdoing the precast reinforcing.
(22:45):
I taught him a workflow, aprocess that I'd broken down,
and he said to me Jason, I can'tdo this workflow and I've
priced to do this job and you'veshown me how I can do it with
10% of the effort.
I feel really bad and I said,well, pricing's not my problem,
that's a different department.
If you have a problem with theprice you gave and the amount of
effort that's going to take youto do this job, go speak to
(23:08):
them, but you need to do it thisway.
So I have confidence in thework that you've done is
coordinated and accurate.
So he carried on, did the work.
We didn't have any problems onthat project.
Every panel was accurate andevery panel went together like
it was lego.
And I've taken those kind offundamental break it down, find
the bits, align the bits, createa framework, automate the
(23:31):
framework, communicate it simplyforward to numerous projects.
Um.
You know another project Iremember doing um.
As architects we were engagedto do the shop drawings for
mechanical services for a coupleof office towers and um again,
we automated all of that.
Um I I went out and met withthe guys who were making the
ductwork, like the machine shop,and he showed me the cnc
(23:54):
machine and my brain just went,wow, this is amazing, this is
like remote control airplanes onsteroids, um.
And and I was like so whatinformation do you put into this
cnc machine?
He's like, oh yeah, we needthese dimensions, we need these
vectors, we need these angles.
I said then I was going I canbuild a family that can give you
that information.
And he goes what?
I was like what if I gave you aspreadsheet with all of the
(24:17):
cutting list, um, would thathelp?
And he goes no, you can't dothat.
And I was like yes, I can.
So I went off and I made awhole bunch of kit of parts,
ducting and this is um in revit9.1 um.
So it was like 2008 orsomething like 2009 um.
And then we had all these kitsof parts.
We modeled it all in Revit andit was probably like version two
(24:41):
of MEP for Revit.
We produced all of the cuffinglists directly out of Revit just
to schedule export to CSV, sendit over to the machine shop.
And they were making duct worksix months ahead of time,
barcoding it, wrapping it inGladwrap, sticking it in a
warehouse.
And when the actual site wasready to install it, they just
(25:01):
said we need, you know, xyzparts.
They came on a truck, theyscanned them, they put them up,
incredibly efficient.
And one of the other storiesfrom that project was the tilt
beams.
We'd modeled everything down tothe millimeter, including all
the hangers.
So we hung all the hangers inadvance.
We finished the ceiling, it wasall exposed and then they came
(25:26):
to hang the hangers and they putthem on lifting jacks and lift
them up and screw the bolts upthe the guys that were doing it.
Originally they had allowed aweek per floor per tower to
install these chill beamsbecause they thought they'd have
to, you know, lift them up andfiddle around and you know, take
a few hours to get one of thesebeams.
And they actually got it down sothey could do a floor of an
(25:49):
office tower in one day and theother floor of the office tower
in the other day.
So they shifted their entireconstruction methodology to do
um the install on a saturday anda sunday, and then they had a
week free up their sleeves.
They went and did other stuffum the.
The bottleneck then became themanufacturer couldn't make them
fast enough to get theminstalled and the other the.
(26:11):
The most amusing bottleneck wasthere was not enough hydraulic
lifting jacks to lift thesethings up fast enough, so they
had to hire them from all overthe country.
And I was like, wow, who wouldhave thought that lifting jacks
would have been the bottleneckof all of this?
Because typically on a projectit's like oh, this hanger
doesn't align with this one, andnow we're gonna put you know,
redraw this, hang this.
Um, it was the lifting jackswell.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Thanks, jason, for sharing that example of that
project um shifting into gearsinto your current role as your
chief innovation officer ofRevisto.
I'm super excited to heareverything you have to share
about this role and I'm superexcited to hear your experience
in entering the company and whatyou've done to leverage your
experience in digital innovationand what you're driving in
(26:57):
terms of Revisto's changes andhow you're impacting their
clientele.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, taking on this role is a big challenge and
there's a lot of responsibilitythat goes with it in terms of
you know, what are we doing as aconstruction industry?
We're designing a collaborationplatform to allow people to
collaborate better together.
Um.
I've been using revisto for avery long time as a customer um.
(27:25):
I fell in love with it when Imet armin at las vegas um.
We had a conversation about hisdream for building um a
construction collaborationplatform on gaming technology.
And we had a?
Um a strong conversation aboutwhy gaming technology?
Because there were othertechnologies out there in the
market.
And he explained to me it wasabout getting people lots of
(27:47):
people into this environment sothey could see information the
same way.
And I stood there and I thoughtabout it.
I was like damn, you're right,we've been doing this with the
wrong tool all this time.
Um and um.
So we bought some licenses, wegot into it and the thing I
loved the most about revisto wasthere were three things that I
(28:08):
needed to teach my team 2dequals 2d, 3d equals 3d.
And the issue tracker is whereyou go to sort all of your
issues and you take those threethings and you apply it to any
project and you suddenly hadthis ability to communicate like
you haven't been able tocommunicate before, but, more
(28:30):
importantly, check informationthat was on detailed drawings
against the prototype, the 3Dmodel, and see if they were
aligned or not.
The biggest problem I've seenover the years is, for all the
right reasons, the wrong thingsget done, the 2D drawing gets
modified, but the original modelis left behind and the two get
(28:51):
out of sync with each other andthat's where the errors emerge.
So, having this responsibility,um to then, how do we take that
foundation and build on it forthe future?
You know, I worked hard withthe dev team, um as a customer,
around all sorts of thingsreporting, dashboards, clash
detection, a whole bunch ofthings that came into revista
(29:13):
and and now I'm on the inside,working intimately with the
developers, working intimatelywith our customer success team
globally, but, more importantly,connecting with our global
customers around the world tounderstand their challenges,
understand the problems they'rehaving, so I can start to break
them down and create patternsand find new ways of solving
(29:35):
what we take for granted.
As this is the way we do things, and I think that's one of the
things that inspires me the mostwith revisto our mantra is to
understand the problem andreimagine the problem with
today's technology.
We've got some exciting thingscoming out at our rev up
conference in a couple of weeks.
One of the ones is one of theones I've been hanging out for
(29:58):
so long for the industry.
This recording will probably goout after it.
But, yeah, we're bringing AR toconstruction, and AR is one of
the things that I've longed tohave in the construction
industry.
I grew up watching Star Wars andStar Trek.
Being able to dial up on yourmobile phone and say, hey,
(30:20):
computer, show me my issues onthis floor.
Who wouldn't want that on aconstruction site?
And then to be able to thenlook at your screen and go
actually I can see what I needto do and then make those
decisions in real time withconfidence and track them so you
know why the decisions weremade and this is how this
(30:41):
building has come together, andleave that as a record, as a
warranty manual, as a blueprint,as an x-ray of the building
when it's handed over to theclient for its operational
lifetime that's great, jason,and yeah, very excited to hear
more about RevUp and thatconference and the announcements
that you have there.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
And tell me what are some specific challenges that
you anticipate facing andpromoting the use of digital
technologies and, for example,ar and construction, and getting
that implemented into into theclients, and how do you plan to
address some of those challenges?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
that that's.
That's a really good question,um.
You know you've given me somany good questions to tap into
um.
Some of the challenges I've hadin my career um being able to
educate um and um break downthose barriers around the way
we've always done things.
I remember vividly walking intoa project the first of its
(31:43):
typology in New Zealand to everbe constructed, a very
significant project that waspart of the Christchurch rebuild
, and a very experienced foremanapproached me and saw my laptop
bag, saw my shiny shoes, made acomment about the laptop and
the shiny shoes.
We're all sitting on aconstruction site and I took
that as a challenge.
(32:04):
I was like I'm going to workwith you.
You've got experience and thatexperience in the built
environment is invaluable.
But there were, I guess,fundamental cautions or personal
fears around this new thing.
You know people don't like new.
It's part of our DNA.
That's how we survived on thisplanet.
(32:26):
We were cautious around newthings, proposing new ways of
working or needing to modifywhat you've already done for
many decades.
In some cases it's natural tohave that fear, have that
concern.
It would be wrong if you didn't.
(32:47):
So I work with people tounderstand where their knowledge
is.
I work with them to showcasethe power of the technology and
how it can augment theirknowledge and how they can
become more engaged.
So there's one example and it'sa great example because to my
knowledge it was probably one ofthe first Revisto projects in
(33:11):
New Zealand.
It was definitely the first tobe using VR on a construction
site.
I ordered the oculus gogglesthey were the beta, the
developer version um, I had toget them from america and um we
got them through.
I got them into the site hutand I set up in a, in a
container you know those sitehut container things and I put
(33:33):
on the door bim cave.
Um, so you step inside the bimcave and there were just
computers and servers and vrgoggles and um.
So that this senior foreman whoum challenged me on my first
day within three months, he wasregularly in the bim cave going,
jason, get me in the model andand he put on the vr and he'd
(33:54):
stand there and he would see howhe was going to build the
building digitally before he wasbuilding it months in advance.
And there was one day he cameup over from the construction
site.
There's a big construction site,you know, a couple of thousand
people working on it and he washaving an argument and he
stormed in through the door andI'll never forget it and and
(34:15):
he's like I'm having an argumentand he used some other very
colorful words um, and I, I needto get it, I need to get in the
model, fire it up.
And he put the goggles on and Ifired it up and he goes now go
over to the xyz part of thebuilding and he goes and he's
looking down and he's lookingdown at the framing and he's
like now, turn off theplasterboard, turn on the
structure.
(34:35):
And he, yeah, I knew I wasright and he took it off and he
stormed out, slammed the door.
You could probably hear himfrom the other side of the site
as he clarified hisunderstanding of the building to
his team who were thinking itneeded to go together a
different way, and it wasincredibly enriching and
empowering that the model, thedigital environment, was
(34:59):
empowering these conversationsthat you know traditionally
would have taken days to resolve, and he was able to kind of
walk across site, understand it,go back across site and move
forward at pace.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Well, thanks for sharing that, Jason, and I'm so
excited to just tease into yourbackground of Revisto and also
tease into what's coming out inthe future, and I look forward
so much to sharing more timewith you in the future.
As a final question of the showand a traditional future
construct, if you could projectyourself out 25 years and wanted
to have any device ortechnology that would benefit
(35:33):
you personally, what would it?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
be, and what would?
it do technology that wouldbenefit you personally.
What would it be and what wouldit do?
Oh, wow, so much, so many ideas.
Anything, anywhere.
Anyhow, you know, my mind spinsfrom warp drive to travel the
universe to time machine to justrevisit things over and over
again.
But I think the ability.
(35:56):
Ability because we have toolsthat bring ar onto construction
sites.
We have tools like um ai rightnow, where I can do speech to
text recognition and create animage, create a movie.
Um, I think I would like ateleportation tool where I could
be anywhere on this wonderfulplanet and a moment's notice and
(36:18):
experience and help people withtheir projects and feel like
travel was not a limitation.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Fantastic.
I love that too, and I knowthat I would be able to be
everywhere all at once, whichwould be amazing.
As we wrap up today's episodeof the Future Construct podcast,
I want to extend a heartfeltthank you to our guest, Jason
Howden, for sharing hisinvaluable expertise and
insights with us.
I've personally enjoyedlearning so much about you,
Jason.
Your wealth of experience innavigating complexities of
(36:49):
construction projects and yourpassion for driving digital
innovation is truly inspiring.
From discussing your childhoodinfluences to your role at
Revisto, Jason, you've providedus with a wealth of knowledge
and inspiration for the futureof construction technology.
Thank you again, Jason, forjoining me, Mark Oden on Future
Construct and to our listenersstay tuned for more fascinating
(37:09):
conversations on the forefrontof construction innovation.
Thank you so much, Jason thankyou, mark.
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