August 2, 2024 • 36 mins
Can childhood hobbies really shape a successful career in construction technology? Join us as we sit down with Graham Condit, Director of Emerging Technology at Skanska USA, who shares his unique journey from building Dungeons and Dragons castles and playing with Legos to leading a cutting-edge construction tech team. Discover how these early creative activities spurred Graham's passion for architecture and engineering, laying the foundation for a career where creativity meets practical problem-solving.
Transitioning from a fascination with architecture to hands-on construction management, Graham recounts the pivotal moments and family influences that guided his career choices. From learning artistic techniques and working with rubberized molds to the inspiring legacy of his electrical engineer grandfather, Graham’s story is a testament to how early experiences and strong mentorship can profoundly impact career trajectories. This episode sheds light on the rewarding shift from theoretical design to the tangible world of construction, where every blueprint becomes a reality.
Looking towards the future, Graham offers an insider's perspective on the evolving role of technology in construction. At Skanska, advanced tools and processes are revolutionizing workflows, with AI and other emerging technologies playing a significant role. Gain insights into Skanska’s strategic approach to tech integration, emphasizing sustainability, diversity, and inclusion. But it doesn’t stop there—Graham also shares his personal passions, from 3D printing to furniture building, and imagines a world where AI enhances both his professional and personal creative projects. This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the fusion of personal interests and cutting-edge technology in shaping the future of construction.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to the Future Construct podcast, where we
explore the latest innovationsand trends shaping the
construction industry.
I'm your guest host, mark Oden,the CEO of BIM Designs Inc.
Today we have a very specialguest, graham Condit, the
Director of Emerging Technologyat Skanska, usa.
Graham has always had a passionfor building and now he's at
the forefront of integratingtechnology into the construction
(00:34):
process.
We're excited to dive into hisjourney and insights.
Welcome, graham, and thank youfor making the time to join me.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Graham, your childhood fascination with
construction is completelyevident and starting from your
days in construction, Iunderstand that you were
building Dungeons and Dragonscastles out of plaster and
spending time designing withLegos.
Can you tell me more aboutthose early experiences and how
they shaped your career path?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, yeah, I mean, I guess growing up I've always
had a fascination towards makingthings, and so it kind of took
root in, I guess, my parentsengaging me in differentnd.
They had friends over a lot andthey had like fun kind of going
(01:26):
through campaigns and doingkind of the the dnd thing.
Um, and one of the things I wasfascinated about it was scale
models that they would use tohelp kind of uh introduce the
space of how you're interactingin this role-playing environment
, and so that that kind of likesparked the creativity in me and
(01:47):
, like, I've always kind of likegathered back to that as like
one of the early things thatreally interested me in um, like
creation and and and makingthings and and doing things like
that.
Because, like I've always drawnbut never like uh, at that
point I hadn't built models anddone a lot of things around that
(02:08):
space.
So that got me into modelbuilding, which then sparked my
interest into like architectureand engineering and and all that
, and it's weird kind of therabbit holes that you go down to
try and kind of find some ofthose things.
But, um, I think the thing thatfascinated me is like even in
the building process of likebuilding these scale models of
(02:29):
of castles and going throughthat process, you start kind of
venturing into the constructionprocess, right.
And so, like I had this, thisset that was like this
rubberized mold set, um, thatallowed you to pour plaster of
Paris into these forms and thenbuild walls and build kind of
elements that could make up thecastle, and so like, looking
(02:52):
back on it now it's like crazyto think, okay, like I had a
production cycle going, I wasplanning out all the different
things I needed to kind of buildand went through a process of
kind of basically constructingwhile I was kind of designing at
the same time like what thisstructure or kind of environment
would look like, and along withthat, like engaging in painting
(03:14):
and finishes and all the otherstuff that you do to kind of
make things like that work.
And you know, I also had astrong kind of connection into
using Lego growing up, had astrong kind of connection into
using Lego growing up, and thatwas something that was like a
little bit easier kind ofprocess to get into, although,
like Lego is an expensive kindof toy to where it's not like
you had as much that you coulddo so I could control how much
(03:35):
of the built environment I couldcreate based off of how many
bags of plaster of Paris I couldbuy and kind of that process.
But yeah, no, that kind ofopened my eyes up towards model
making, which, like when I heardabout careers, it's like you
like back when I was growing up,like you heard about architects
, building scale models ofbuildings and things, and so
(03:56):
that kind of pushed me down thatpath towards engineering and
architecture and got me to thepoint where that's what I kind
of was gravitating towards evenin high school and architecture
and got me to the point wherethat's what I kind of was
gravitating towards even in highschool, like our high school
program had.
We had it was called century 21,which was like setting up the
future, and they had anengineering drafting environment
(04:18):
or a course that that was.
That was there and I signed upfor that, took those classes and
really got even more kind ofimmersed in the idea of
engineering and problem solvingand figuring things out.
And that's kind of the thingthat I love most about something
is like being creative andfiguring things out and always
kind of learning and kind ofengaging with people in that
(04:40):
process, and so that kind of youknow sparked me on my career, I
guess.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, thank you so much, and I have a million
questions, so I'll toss a fewyour way and then we'll
transition, gracefully, to youknow, speaking more about
architecture and constructionmanagement.
So you mentioned earlier theD&D thing and I have a cousin
that's very much into D&D aswell and um, uh, you know, I
would love to be a part of thatwith him and see him, you know,
see him in the role play andeverything.
I've not lived it yet with him.
Um, so, you know, can you helpme understand what, what would
(05:13):
you say the dnd thing is?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
uh, I mean, I I feel it's like, uh, you know, a lot
of role play, a lot of likeopportunity to kind of um
explore creativity beyond kindof your day-to-day like a.
A lot of like opportunity tokind of explore creativity
beyond kind of your day to day,like a lot, a lot of times you
can kind of put on your own kindof persona of what you want to
be to to where it gives youflexibility towards creativity
(05:38):
and and kind of also working andkind of interact with other
people in that space, right.
So it's just fun from astandpoint.
It's almost like a impromptukind of acting or kind of
working in a space where you'rekind of riffing and working off
of each other a little bit, andbut it's, it is also a game and
(06:00):
it's like something that is kindof planned out to to where it's
just kind of a fun kind ofexperience along those lines.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And how long?
How long could a role play or agame last?
Is it one night?
Some?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
campaigns can last a really long time.
It's been a long time, actually, since I've done D and D.
Like like my childhood likewe're talking like 30 years ago,
is when when this I was likemore into D and D and everything
.
But yeah, I mean, I've hadthings where it's even in high
school.
I did a little D and D backthen and we would have it go on
(06:36):
basically on the weekends and sowe'd have multiple weekends
that were still kind of going onthe same campaign and it could
take months to get some of thestuff done, depending on how big
like the dungeon master set uptheir, their kind of quest or
this the kind of experience thatyou were going on.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But yeah, it can be a kind of a long event for sure
that's awesome and so and sowhen you're getting into the,
the model building or thecreation of the physical models,
right that the castles areobjects, so is it that those
would be?
You know those could often bestore bought, but instead you
were working on the physicalmanifestation of them yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think there were kind of sets and
things that you could get thatwere along those lines.
I think I took it as a level ofinspiration of, like you know,
looking at something like that,how could you modularize and
make certain things work forkind of an environment that is
always kind of changing too,like tower sections and
(07:42):
different villages and all sortsof stuff that you can can buy,
and kind of modularize and kindof actually build kind of this
experiential kind of thing thatyou can put in front of a group
so that everyone can kind ofvisualize the experience?
Um, but yeah, I was kind ofplaying around with that, like
trying to build my own thingsback then and and it also kind
of sparked things beyond justusing it.
(08:02):
In dnt, like I I built like acathedral out of out of plaster
in paris.
I, like you know, did somelarge castles and things that
like would be kind ofimpractical to actually use from
a standpoint of actually doinga campaign or something like
that.
But, um, it allowed me to kindof test out kind of the
experience of building my ownmodels and kind of like taking a
(08:25):
vision through um, kind of afinal kind of the experience of
building my own models and kindof like taking a vision through
um kind of a final kind ofpresentation of that.
So, yeah, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I mean, it sounds incredible and it
obviously, you know, it pullsyou into that architecture
component and probably, you know, put you ahead of the curve
when you were in your class withyour classmates and
architecture class so, um, sowhen you're, when you're um, you
(08:55):
know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
One more kind of detailed question on this topic
is is when you're working withthe plaster, are you?
Are you like scraping it awayto form what you want to form,
or using existing molds or bothcombination?
Yeah, they're actuallyrubberized molds and so you
would basically build all thesepanels and most of them are,
like you know, masonry or roofpanels or things like that, and
they had like teeth that couldkind of fit together, um, and so
like, yeah, you could build allthat.
Some of them had doorways builtin them or windows and other
(09:16):
kind of features.
In fact, like I took like theold remember, uh, back in the
90s there there weren't likeprojector displays of like
computers computers weren't't abig thing when I was in school
but we had the overheadprojectors that had the plastic
sheets that you'd put in toproject up and the teachers
(09:38):
would write on the plastic.
And in that process, like Itook some of those and then drew
stained glass windows and drewthings in them to then like
paste on the inside of the, theopening for a window, to really
kind of create that effect ofhaving like glass or whatever.
So it's like you start gettingkind of creative things like
(10:00):
that that would build into thatto build more realism.
And then you get into paintingand dry brushing and all the
other fun stuff to kind of makeit look more and more real.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's so much fun.
So how did you so, how did thatdirectly translate over to the
world of architecture and howdid that stage you and prepare
you for that world?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
you know, do all the projected lines and do all the
things that you need to do tokind of relate different
elevations and plans and viewsand stuff together.
And that's where I got exposedto like AutoCAD and tools like
that.
So super early in my kind ofeducational career, in getting
into like architecture andengineering, and in college, um,
you start getting grounded alittle bit on the reality of
(10:58):
like how much model building andall that really happens.
Like you don't really do awhole lot of that, and so like I
started thinking like and thisis where I made a pivot from
architecture into constructionis like after my first year of
kind of really realizing, um,you know, the the actual makers
and the builders of the actualtactile elements are actually
(11:19):
the contractors, and so that'slike when I made my shift from
being an architecture studentand going into construction
management as the career or thedegree that I was kind of going
after after that.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, fantastic.
Thanks for helping, yeah,thanks for helping me understand
that transition.
So so, yeah, I want to.
How did the architecture startinto college, impact your you
know, your future career and youknow how are you combining both
of those concepts?
You know, in some way, you know, maybe it's not official or not
, but you probably got somelevel of a minor in architecture
(11:52):
.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, I mean I think I sympathize, I guess, a little
bit more, or empathize more withhow, the challenge of creating
things right and being able to,you know, meet certain criteria,
and the design aspect of it,based off of, like, how hard of
a job that is.
And it's like I've always toldmyself, like, after kind of
(12:18):
making that transition, you knowit's it's right that you made
that move, cause I think peoplehave told me I'm too practical
to be an architect, I guess.
So, like the, the factor of melike looking at things and and
really scaling back some of myvision, based off of, um, well,
does that really work?
Um, and so, like, I guess, froman idea, uh, it's probably good
(12:41):
I didn't get into architectureany further than I did, because,
uh, yeah, I, I'm, I'm very muchinto like, uh, like, uh, making
things work well for, for, uh,for how we build things.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So the engineer bug almost bit you as well.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Huh, yeah the engineer bug definitely took
over.
I probably am moreengineer-driven than
architecture-driven.
And it actually runs in thefamily a little bit too.
My grandfather was anelectrical engineer.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh fantastic, he probably had some influence.
What's?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
that work on um, he actually worked for uh sparling
for a long time.
Um, he had worked on thingslike uh hydroelectric dams and
other kind of uh technologies.
In fact, like he shared with melike a book, um, from when he
was getting his electricalengineering degree I'll remember
(13:37):
this where it said and somedayimages will be able to be
broadcast wirelessly.
It's like in books, kind ofthinking, and, like you know,
today it's like everyone's kindof engaging in those images and
it's just amazing to me, likeyou see, how much technology has
changed from like hisgeneration to kind of now and it
(14:00):
, yeah, it's a, it's a.
It's something that you couldprobably talk about for a long
time on this podcast or whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So yeah, for sure.
And um, uh, you know, just onthe small topic of hydroelectric
dams, I'm just not knowing muchabout them.
I'm just so personally in awein the longevity of those
devices, those dams.
So, yeah, that's just somethingthat's always been impressive
to me, and it's cool to hearthat your grandfather worked on
(14:29):
that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, yeah.
No, it definitely took a lotfrom from those experiences and
and we I remember as a childgoing in and visiting a lot of
dams too.
So I guess I never reallythought of why we're we're going
in like doing tours, but maybe,maybe that had a factor in it.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it sounds like there
was a.
There was a pretty directinfluence there, awesome.
Well, this has been a greatconversation so far.
Um really loved hearing aboutyour, your background and and
how, how you know dnd, and andand legos and creativity as a
kid pulled you into you know thearchitecture background and
that pulled you intoconstruction management and then
learning more about yourgrandfather.
Um really exciting and um lookforward to continuing the
(15:10):
conversation, especiallylearning more about the
evolution of your career andwhat emerging technologies are
piquing your interest for thefuture.
And before we continue thatconversation, Graham, let's take
a moment to hear from oursponsors, who helped make this
podcast possible.
Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Thank you so much for tuning in.
This is an episode of theFuture Construct podcast.
Let's take a moment to hearfrom our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
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(17:28):
We'd love to work with you,thank you.
Welcome back to the FutureConstruct podcast.
Prior to the break, grahamshared his early childhood
hobbies and how that influencedhis direction into architecture
and construction.
I'm now excited to shift gearsto his current role at Skanska
(17:50):
and look into the future oftechnology with Graham.
So, graham, you've had aremarkable journey at Skanska,
progressing from engineeringroles to your current position
as Director of EmergingTechnology.
What factors motivated yourtransition and how has your role
evolved over the years?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Well, I mean, I guess even before I came to Skanska,
I had spent a lot of time in theproject management, project
engineering space and likelearned in operations kind of
the needs of how teams kind ofoperate and how to deliver
projects.
And I think one thing that Iguess tying back to some of my
(18:25):
experiences, to, like my my dadhad always been kind of dabbling
in computers and working for intechnology, where his
occupation and so like I, alwayshad kind of this idea of like
can we make things better?
And so I think one of thethings that like Skanska, just
(18:46):
like all the companies I'veworked with, there's like
opportunities towards reallytrying to present alternate
ideas of how to do something andtrying to figure out how to do
it better and looking for valuein that effort.
And so that's kind of whatpushed me into technology and
pushed me into, you know,different methodologies to, to,
(19:09):
to help us build projects moreefficiently.
Some of the first projects thatI worked on, like before BIM,
you spent time modeling,figuring out the buildings,
before you had the tools thatyou have now.
And I think what you see islike this evolution the industry
(19:31):
slowly kind of trends into aspace to be able to kind of
manage some of those newmethodologies and things and so
like.
Through my career I've seen itgo from you know, more
simplified tools to like what wesee now, tools tailored to kind
of you know, help youcommunicate, design through BIM
(19:55):
and the integration of how teamscan work and so like.
Yeah, like Skanska was a greatopportunity for me because I had
previously worked for thecompany that was just a regional
contractor, limited in what Icould kind of really impact from
not only kind of the types ofprojects and efforts that were
(20:17):
going on to the kind of scale ofthe different kinds of projects
that you'd have.
And the beautiful thing aboutworking for a company like
Skanska is that, as a nationaland even a global company, there
are so many other people youcan collaborate, work with and
kind of start looking through adifferent lens of how you can
(20:37):
approach problems or issues inthe industry and really try and
solve those and not only look atthem through the lens of things
that are challenging for theindustry, but also looking
towards the other things thatkind of impact the environment
that we're in, whether it's likesustainability, diversity,
inclusion, like things that aregoing to really, you know,
(20:59):
resonate not only with thebuilding environment that you're
working in but also with thecommunity that you're around,
and the beautiful thing aboutlike how Skanska is is that,
yeah, that's the space that theykind of hone into right, and
those like-minded kind ofperspectives really help create
a good culture for you tocollaborate and figure out
(21:21):
better approaches on how you canbuild.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Well, thanks for sharing that, Graham.
One of the things you mentionedis a lot of the benefits of
working with a very largeorganization like Skanska, and
what I really appreciate aboutlarge organizations like Skanska
and what I really appreciateabout large organizations like
Skanska is the access to subjectmatter experts and the ability
to tap into a lot of differentknowledge sets.
I've had a number ofconversations about that
recently and I'm just soimpressed with companies like
(21:47):
Skanska that are constantlymaking sure that the right
subject matter expert isavailable to the right project.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, and I mean going back to the role that,
like I have in Sk, easier tokind of direct teams towards the
answer that they're looking forquicker.
And yeah, it's a great networkto kind of get involved with
because you learn constantly andeveryone's got great ideas and
(22:39):
different perspectives and thatalways helps.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So, um.
So how did your role, um, youknow, uh, evolve into the role
that you're in today at Skanska?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, so, like I had previously been in a role where
I'm like uh in, uh, like youknow, project management, all
that I was using tools that weregetting me into um, uh, bim and
vdc practices and everything,and then, like, for a long time,
the industry is focused aroundbim and vdc as being kind of the
(23:10):
hub for the spokes oftechnology that kind of come out
from there, and so that got mekind of engaged in a bunch of
other kind of technologies,whether it be wearables,
robotics, drones, other kind ofcontent that really interacts
with that same kind of ecosystem, and kind of evolve into the
(23:32):
role that I'm in right now,where making sure that there's
adequate representation for ourteams or adequate support for
our teams.
But yeah, it's been a funadventure getting into that role
(23:53):
.
I think you have to be flexibleand knowledgeable and kind of
engaged in that space to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
So, being so embedded into the process, can you help
me understand Skanska's approachto integrating technology into
its projects and your role inthat as well?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah.
So we've got a very value-basedapproach, like we're looking at
technologies as making surethat to get them successfully
executed, as making sure that toget them successfully executed,
we don't want technologies tokind of fall because the team
wasn't prepped to do it orweren't kind of engaged in the
process.
(24:30):
So we got to make sure that theteam is right.
We got to make sure that thesupport is there, like from a
documentation and IT and all ofthe other kind of facets that
kind of tie into it.
We've also got like and I thinkyou've talked to Danielle, but
like a tech enablement processto kind of carry that technology
(24:52):
through a process of comparingit against other technologies
and really kind of you know,pilot and understand what that
looks like.
And so, yeah, our process ofdealing with that is connecting
those teams together, recordingthe information from that
process and really thenadvocating and sharing that.
And sometimes technologiesdon't work and we've got to be
(25:13):
frank about kind of you know,identifying that and maybe
revisiting it in the futureidentifying that and maybe
revisiting it in the future.
But we need to make sure thatthe teams aren't stuck in a
situation where project jobsites get busy.
I've been on project job sitesfor a long time in my career and
the focus is always buildingthe building and so sometimes if
(25:36):
the focus is trending away fromthe technology, that may make
the technology fail and so weneed to make sure that we have
those conversations.
So then we're enabling thoseteams, so that doesn't happen,
to support them when they can'tsupport those activities and so
making sure that we have an eyeon that and that we've got kind
of a team of people that kind ofcan interact with that kind of
(25:58):
a team of people that kind ofcan interact with that.
We basically have a setup wherethat SME kind of environment we
have them set up also as kindof a concierge network, so a
group of people that kind ofwork with project teams to kind
of help enable technologies onprojects and so that allows kind
of this greater kind of spacethat allows that connection to
(26:19):
happen.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
That's fantastic.
You mentioned Danielle earlier,so I was fortunate to be on a
panel with her at GeoWeekearlier this year and she talked
a little bit about the processthat, as Ganska does decide, if
you know, technology should moveforward with the investment or
the integration.
Are you able to speak a littlebit about that process?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I mean, I think she's probably the better person to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, no problem, see , this is when we look and we
just transition out to adifferent question.
No problem, cool.
I also didn't mean to put youso much on the spot.
I knew that I wish I wasrecalling what she had a name to
that process, so I was.
I was hoping yeah, it's a techenablement process.
(27:06):
Oh, is it?
Yeah, okay, cool, cool.
So you are familiar with that.
Okay, I'm familiar.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
But like I think that's another thing Like, if
you want to talk to like whatwe're doing, like we all have
different focuses and my focusis more on BIM VDC.
Also, I've worked a bit inpre-con and planning, so that's
an area that I support ourpre-con planning teams.
So, yeah, it's like we can't.
We can't do everything, I guess, is the thing.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So Cool, no, that's, that's where the SMEs come into
play.
Well, fantastic.
So what we'll do is just foredit notes when Graham wrapped
up and right before I startedtalking about you know that next
thing, we'll just sort of cutthat out and transition to the
next engagement.
Cool, okay, so we'll move to.
With emerging technologiescontinuously reshaping the
(27:53):
construction industry, whatupcoming advancement are you
most excited about?
And then, how do you envisionthem impacting project workflows
?
Does that sound fun?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, that sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, all right, cool , okay, so we'll come back in
five, four, three, two, oneFantastic, Graham, thank you so
much for sharing how Skanskaapproaches integrating
technology.
I'd like to step outside of thefold here and look a little bit
more at emerging technologiesaround the world.
So they're constantly reshapingthe construction industry and
(28:22):
the world itself.
So what upcoming advancementsare you most excited about and
how do you envision themimpacting project workflows?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, I mean it's hard to kind of narrow in on
just one, but I'll try.
Obviously there's a lot of focus, even beyond the construction
industry, around AI.
I think the thing that I findkind of fascinating about
something like that is likewe're not like short of a lot of
(28:51):
information in construction,and using AI to help boil that
information down or take likeyou know, taking advantage like
large language models and thingslike that to really be able to
kind of hone in on things isamazing.
Like I feel like that's likegonna, you know, the more this
evolves and the more that thekind of engineering behind it
(29:13):
really kind of grows, like we'reseeing tremendous value in that
and like thinking like, ifwe're getting to a future state
where I'm trying to kind of likeselfishly look at, look at some
of the space that I engage in,which is like BIM and VDC, can
we use AI to help drive theinformation quality that's in
(29:34):
the model?
Are we able to kind of make iteasier to interact with the
model and make it something moreuser-friendly for people that
aren't maybe technically focusedaround that space?
That's where I see a lot ofpotential in how we can kind of
interact and being able to queryeverything from our
(29:56):
disconnected environments oflike scheduling and plans and
all the documentation forchanges and the costing
information and all this stuff.
There's so many differentplaces you can go for it and
that information is not alwaysas connected as it could
potentially be.
But having an engine that cango out and find that and be able
(30:16):
to connect that stuff togetherfor you, I see there's a lot of
opportunity in that space, Iguess, and really could empower
our teams to do better.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, I completely agree with you in terms of the.
You know you saying not shortof data right, the construction
industry not being short of data, and I'm super excited to see
what gets distilled there andhow that becomes.
You know, much easier to digestinformation so that decisions
could be made faster, livessaved, money saved, increased
(30:47):
safety on the job site.
I'm very excited about all thepossibilities that exist, just
from the concept of how do weanalyze this in super rapid time
and allow for those real-timedecisions or even suggestions of
decisions.
Yeah, very exciting.
So, personal note, before wehead to the last question of the
(31:07):
podcast we talked about yourhobbies, maybe 30 years ago, and
how those influenced yourcareer.
Tell me a little bit aboutwhere you are today and your
hobbies and interests and familylife and your hobbies and
interests and family life.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, so now I've got a daughter who's in high school
and so and I think one of thethings when I was growing up
that I didn't talk about at all,but, like our family, like
growing up in the Northwest,there's a strong like football
for for us, but soccer to mostAmericans there's like that kind
of presence in in people'slives, and so like I've I've
(31:44):
always kind of been like aSounders fan Like so like I
remember like there's picturesof me when I was little with my
parents going to like old NASLsoccer games with my parents.
But we're still huge soccer fans.
We go to all the games that wecan go to as season ticket
(32:06):
holders and so our family andeven my mom and sister share
tickets with us.
But that's one of our bighobbies.
It's a good escape from kind ofthe realities of, like you know
, a construction kind of career.
That's like demanding, likethere's a lot of time you spend
working.
So it's good to have kind ofthose distractions that happen
(32:28):
and gives you time to connectback with your family and focus
on other things.
And sometimes those can befrustrating when they don't
score or they don't do whatyou're hoping them to do, but
it's a fun distraction.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Well, cool, well, to come to close and always ending
with this final question of ourshow and a tradition of Future
Construct, if you could projectyourself out 25 years and wanted
to have any device ortechnology that would benefit
you personally, what would it beand what would it do?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah.
So I mean this is anotherreally hard question.
But knowing, just like, withthe way my joints are, like I
wrote in college, so my jointsare starting to feel it now and
going through that effort, soI'm imagining 25 years from now
I'm going to probably be even,like, in less great shape.
So I really like one of thethings that I really is a kind
(33:18):
of a passion of mine is makingstuff.
I have 3D printers and I carveand I and I build furniture and
I do all sorts of things and Idraw and I, you know, laser cut
things and I just like love tomake stuff.
That you know.
(33:41):
Knowing that I will probably beless mobile and less kind of
active when I get older is like,you know, if AI is really kind
of trending down that path ofreally helping people, kind of
enable things, well, who's tosay you can't have your own
personal Jarvis like from Ironman?
Right, have someone, somethingthat you can interact with, talk
with and basically have it.
Do the big lift, Like I meanyou see it, with large language
(34:03):
models now being able to kind oftake in stuff through like
Copilot and actually codesomething for you, Well, who's
to say in the future is like youjust tell it to do something
and like you don't have to knowRevit anymore, it can model the
building for you.
But yeah, having something likethat, where there's, like this,
digital assistant that reallyis an assistant and not just
(34:24):
someone that will say you know,I found this on a web page.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Right, right.
Help you in the co-creation ofthe making that you want to make
.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, fantastic.
Well, an amazing conversation.
Graham, I really loved speakingwith you today.
Thank you so much for sharingyour journey and insights into
the intersection of constructionand technology.
Thank you for everything you doas the director of emerging
technology at Skanska and to ourlisteners.
Stay tuned for a morecaptivating discussion on future
, future construct podcasts.
(34:56):
Until next time, thank you all.
Thank you all.
Yeah, thank you.
Welcome to the Future Construct podcast, where we
explore the latest innovationsand trends shaping the
construction industry.
I'm your guest host, mark Oden,the CEO of BIM Designs Inc.
Today we have a very specialguest, graham Condit, the
Director of Emerging Technologyat Skanska, usa.
Graham has always had a passionfor building and now he's at
the forefront of integratingtechnology into the construction
(00:34):
process.
We're excited to dive into hisjourney and insights.
Welcome, graham, and thank youfor making the time to join me.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Graham, your childhood fascination with
construction is completelyevident and starting from your
days in construction, Iunderstand that you were
building Dungeons and Dragonscastles out of plaster and
spending time designing withLegos.
Can you tell me more aboutthose early experiences and how
they shaped your career path?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, yeah, I mean, I guess growing up I've always
had a fascination towards makingthings, and so it kind of took
root in, I guess, my parentsengaging me in differentnd.
They had friends over a lot andthey had like fun kind of going
(01:26):
through campaigns and doingkind of the the dnd thing.
Um, and one of the things I wasfascinated about it was scale
models that they would use tohelp kind of uh introduce the
space of how you're interactingin this role-playing environment
, and so that that kind of likesparked the creativity in me and
(01:47):
, like, I've always kind of likegathered back to that as like
one of the early things thatreally interested me in um, like
creation and and and makingthings and and doing things like
that.
Because, like I've always drawnbut never like uh, at that
point I hadn't built models anddone a lot of things around that
(02:08):
space.
So that got me into modelbuilding, which then sparked my
interest into like architectureand engineering and and all that
, and it's weird kind of therabbit holes that you go down to
try and kind of find some ofthose things.
But, um, I think the thing thatfascinated me is like even in
the building process of likebuilding these scale models of
(02:29):
of castles and going throughthat process, you start kind of
venturing into the constructionprocess, right.
And so, like I had this, thisset that was like this
rubberized mold set, um, thatallowed you to pour plaster of
Paris into these forms and thenbuild walls and build kind of
elements that could make up thecastle, and so like, looking
(02:52):
back on it now it's like crazyto think, okay, like I had a
production cycle going, I wasplanning out all the different
things I needed to kind of buildand went through a process of
kind of basically constructingwhile I was kind of designing at
the same time like what thisstructure or kind of environment
would look like, and along withthat, like engaging in painting
(03:14):
and finishes and all the otherstuff that you do to kind of
make things like that work.
And you know, I also had astrong kind of connection into
using Lego growing up, had astrong kind of connection into
using Lego growing up, and thatwas something that was like a
little bit easier kind ofprocess to get into, although,
like Lego is an expensive kindof toy to where it's not like
you had as much that you coulddo so I could control how much
(03:35):
of the built environment I couldcreate based off of how many
bags of plaster of Paris I couldbuy and kind of that process.
But yeah, no, that kind ofopened my eyes up towards model
making, which, like when I heardabout careers, it's like you
like back when I was growing up,like you heard about architects
, building scale models ofbuildings and things, and so
(03:56):
that kind of pushed me down thatpath towards engineering and
architecture and got me to thepoint where that's what I kind
of was gravitating towards evenin high school and architecture
and got me to the point wherethat's what I kind of was
gravitating towards even in highschool, like our high school
program had.
We had it was called century 21,which was like setting up the
future, and they had anengineering drafting environment
(04:18):
or a course that that was.
That was there and I signed upfor that, took those classes and
really got even more kind ofimmersed in the idea of
engineering and problem solvingand figuring things out.
And that's kind of the thingthat I love most about something
is like being creative andfiguring things out and always
kind of learning and kind ofengaging with people in that
(04:40):
process, and so that kind of youknow sparked me on my career, I
guess.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, thank you so much, and I have a million
questions, so I'll toss a fewyour way and then we'll
transition, gracefully, to youknow, speaking more about
architecture and constructionmanagement.
So you mentioned earlier theD&D thing and I have a cousin
that's very much into D&D aswell and um, uh, you know, I
would love to be a part of thatwith him and see him, you know,
see him in the role play andeverything.
I've not lived it yet with him.
Um, so, you know, can you helpme understand what, what would
(05:13):
you say the dnd thing is?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
uh, I mean, I I feel it's like, uh, you know, a lot
of role play, a lot of likeopportunity to kind of um
explore creativity beyond kindof your day-to-day like a.
A lot of like opportunity tokind of explore creativity
beyond kind of your day to day,like a lot, a lot of times you
can kind of put on your own kindof persona of what you want to
be to to where it gives youflexibility towards creativity
(05:38):
and and kind of also working andkind of interact with other
people in that space, right.
So it's just fun from astandpoint.
It's almost like a impromptukind of acting or kind of
working in a space where you'rekind of riffing and working off
of each other a little bit, andbut it's, it is also a game and
(06:00):
it's like something that is kindof planned out to to where it's
just kind of a fun kind ofexperience along those lines.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And how long?
How long could a role play or agame last?
Is it one night?
Some?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
campaigns can last a really long time.
It's been a long time, actually, since I've done D and D.
Like like my childhood likewe're talking like 30 years ago,
is when when this I was likemore into D and D and everything
.
But yeah, I mean, I've hadthings where it's even in high
school.
I did a little D and D backthen and we would have it go on
(06:36):
basically on the weekends and sowe'd have multiple weekends
that were still kind of going onthe same campaign and it could
take months to get some of thestuff done, depending on how big
like the dungeon master set uptheir, their kind of quest or
this the kind of experience thatyou were going on.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But yeah, it can be a kind of a long event for sure
that's awesome and so and sowhen you're getting into the,
the model building or thecreation of the physical models,
right that the castles areobjects, so is it that those
would be?
You know those could often bestore bought, but instead you
were working on the physicalmanifestation of them yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think there were kind of sets and
things that you could get thatwere along those lines.
I think I took it as a level ofinspiration of, like you know,
looking at something like that,how could you modularize and
make certain things work forkind of an environment that is
always kind of changing too,like tower sections and
(07:42):
different villages and all sortsof stuff that you can can buy,
and kind of modularize and kindof actually build kind of this
experiential kind of thing thatyou can put in front of a group
so that everyone can kind ofvisualize the experience?
Um, but yeah, I was kind ofplaying around with that, like
trying to build my own thingsback then and and it also kind
of sparked things beyond justusing it.
(08:02):
In dnt, like I I built like acathedral out of out of plaster
in paris.
I, like you know, did somelarge castles and things that
like would be kind ofimpractical to actually use from
a standpoint of actually doinga campaign or something like
that.
But, um, it allowed me to kindof test out kind of the
experience of building my ownmodels and kind of like taking a
(08:25):
vision through um, kind of afinal kind of the experience of
building my own models and kindof like taking a vision through
um kind of a final kind ofpresentation of that.
So, yeah, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I mean, it sounds incredible and it
obviously, you know, it pullsyou into that architecture
component and probably, you know, put you ahead of the curve
when you were in your class withyour classmates and
architecture class so, um, sowhen you're, when you're um, you
(08:55):
know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
One more kind of detailed question on this topic
is is when you're working withthe plaster, are you?
Are you like scraping it awayto form what you want to form,
or using existing molds or bothcombination?
Yeah, they're actuallyrubberized molds and so you
would basically build all thesepanels and most of them are,
like you know, masonry or roofpanels or things like that, and
they had like teeth that couldkind of fit together, um, and so
like, yeah, you could build allthat.
Some of them had doorways builtin them or windows and other
(09:16):
kind of features.
In fact, like I took like theold remember, uh, back in the
90s there there weren't likeprojector displays of like
computers computers weren't't abig thing when I was in school
but we had the overheadprojectors that had the plastic
sheets that you'd put in toproject up and the teachers
(09:38):
would write on the plastic.
And in that process, like Itook some of those and then drew
stained glass windows and drewthings in them to then like
paste on the inside of the, theopening for a window, to really
kind of create that effect ofhaving like glass or whatever.
So it's like you start gettingkind of creative things like
(10:00):
that that would build into thatto build more realism.
And then you get into paintingand dry brushing and all the
other fun stuff to kind of makeit look more and more real.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's so much fun.
So how did you so, how did thatdirectly translate over to the
world of architecture and howdid that stage you and prepare
you for that world?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
you know, do all the projected lines and do all the
things that you need to do tokind of relate different
elevations and plans and viewsand stuff together.
And that's where I got exposedto like AutoCAD and tools like
that.
So super early in my kind ofeducational career, in getting
into like architecture andengineering, and in college, um,
you start getting grounded alittle bit on the reality of
(10:58):
like how much model building andall that really happens.
Like you don't really do awhole lot of that, and so like I
started thinking like and thisis where I made a pivot from
architecture into constructionis like after my first year of
kind of really realizing, um,you know, the the actual makers
and the builders of the actualtactile elements are actually
(11:19):
the contractors, and so that'slike when I made my shift from
being an architecture studentand going into construction
management as the career or thedegree that I was kind of going
after after that.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, fantastic.
Thanks for helping, yeah,thanks for helping me understand
that transition.
So so, yeah, I want to.
How did the architecture startinto college, impact your you
know, your future career and youknow how are you combining both
of those concepts?
You know, in some way, you know, maybe it's not official or not
, but you probably got somelevel of a minor in architecture
(11:52):
.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, I mean I think I sympathize, I guess, a little
bit more, or empathize more withhow, the challenge of creating
things right and being able to,you know, meet certain criteria,
and the design aspect of it,based off of, like, how hard of
a job that is.
And it's like I've always toldmyself, like, after kind of
(12:18):
making that transition, you knowit's it's right that you made
that move, cause I think peoplehave told me I'm too practical
to be an architect, I guess.
So, like the, the factor of melike looking at things and and
really scaling back some of myvision, based off of, um, well,
does that really work?
Um, and so, like, I guess, froman idea, uh, it's probably good
(12:41):
I didn't get into architectureany further than I did, because,
uh, yeah, I, I'm, I'm very muchinto like, uh, like, uh, making
things work well for, for, uh,for how we build things.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So the engineer bug almost bit you as well.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Huh, yeah the engineer bug definitely took
over.
I probably am moreengineer-driven than
architecture-driven.
And it actually runs in thefamily a little bit too.
My grandfather was anelectrical engineer.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh fantastic, he probably had some influence.
What's?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
that work on um, he actually worked for uh sparling
for a long time.
Um, he had worked on thingslike uh hydroelectric dams and
other kind of uh technologies.
In fact, like he shared with melike a book, um, from when he
was getting his electricalengineering degree I'll remember
(13:37):
this where it said and somedayimages will be able to be
broadcast wirelessly.
It's like in books, kind ofthinking, and, like you know,
today it's like everyone's kindof engaging in those images and
it's just amazing to me, likeyou see, how much technology has
changed from like hisgeneration to kind of now and it
(14:00):
, yeah, it's a, it's a.
It's something that you couldprobably talk about for a long
time on this podcast or whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So yeah, for sure.
And um, uh, you know, just onthe small topic of hydroelectric
dams, I'm just not knowing muchabout them.
I'm just so personally in awein the longevity of those
devices, those dams.
So, yeah, that's just somethingthat's always been impressive
to me, and it's cool to hearthat your grandfather worked on
(14:29):
that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, yeah.
No, it definitely took a lotfrom from those experiences and
and we I remember as a childgoing in and visiting a lot of
dams too.
So I guess I never reallythought of why we're we're going
in like doing tours, but maybe,maybe that had a factor in it.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it sounds like there
was a.
There was a pretty directinfluence there, awesome.
Well, this has been a greatconversation so far.
Um really loved hearing aboutyour, your background and and
how, how you know dnd, and andand legos and creativity as a
kid pulled you into you know thearchitecture background and
that pulled you intoconstruction management and then
learning more about yourgrandfather.
Um really exciting and um lookforward to continuing the
(15:10):
conversation, especiallylearning more about the
evolution of your career andwhat emerging technologies are
piquing your interest for thefuture.
And before we continue thatconversation, Graham, let's take
a moment to hear from oursponsors, who helped make this
podcast possible.
Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Thank you so much for tuning in.
This is an episode of theFuture Construct podcast.
Let's take a moment to hearfrom our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Hello and thank you for your interest in our firm.
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(15:59):
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(17:28):
We'd love to work with you,thank you.
Welcome back to the FutureConstruct podcast.
Prior to the break, grahamshared his early childhood
hobbies and how that influencedhis direction into architecture
and construction.
I'm now excited to shift gearsto his current role at Skanska
(17:50):
and look into the future oftechnology with Graham.
So, graham, you've had aremarkable journey at Skanska,
progressing from engineeringroles to your current position
as Director of EmergingTechnology.
What factors motivated yourtransition and how has your role
evolved over the years?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Well, I mean, I guess even before I came to Skanska,
I had spent a lot of time in theproject management, project
engineering space and likelearned in operations kind of
the needs of how teams kind ofoperate and how to deliver
projects.
And I think one thing that Iguess tying back to some of my
(18:25):
experiences, to, like my my dadhad always been kind of dabbling
in computers and working for intechnology, where his
occupation and so like I, alwayshad kind of this idea of like
can we make things better?
And so I think one of thethings that like Skanska, just
(18:46):
like all the companies I'veworked with, there's like
opportunities towards reallytrying to present alternate
ideas of how to do something andtrying to figure out how to do
it better and looking for valuein that effort.
And so that's kind of whatpushed me into technology and
pushed me into, you know,different methodologies to, to,
(19:09):
to help us build projects moreefficiently.
Some of the first projects thatI worked on, like before BIM,
you spent time modeling,figuring out the buildings,
before you had the tools thatyou have now.
And I think what you see islike this evolution the industry
(19:31):
slowly kind of trends into aspace to be able to kind of
manage some of those newmethodologies and things and so
like.
Through my career I've seen itgo from you know, more
simplified tools to like what wesee now, tools tailored to kind
of you know, help youcommunicate, design through BIM
(19:55):
and the integration of how teamscan work and so like.
Yeah, like Skanska was a greatopportunity for me because I had
previously worked for thecompany that was just a regional
contractor, limited in what Icould kind of really impact from
not only kind of the types ofprojects and efforts that were
(20:17):
going on to the kind of scale ofthe different kinds of projects
that you'd have.
And the beautiful thing aboutworking for a company like
Skanska is that, as a nationaland even a global company, there
are so many other people youcan collaborate, work with and
kind of start looking through adifferent lens of how you can
(20:37):
approach problems or issues inthe industry and really try and
solve those and not only look atthem through the lens of things
that are challenging for theindustry, but also looking
towards the other things thatkind of impact the environment
that we're in, whether it's likesustainability, diversity,
inclusion, like things that aregoing to really, you know,
(20:59):
resonate not only with thebuilding environment that you're
working in but also with thecommunity that you're around,
and the beautiful thing aboutlike how Skanska is is that,
yeah, that's the space that theykind of hone into right, and
those like-minded kind ofperspectives really help create
a good culture for you tocollaborate and figure out
(21:21):
better approaches on how you canbuild.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Well, thanks for sharing that, Graham.
One of the things you mentionedis a lot of the benefits of
working with a very largeorganization like Skanska, and
what I really appreciate aboutlarge organizations like Skanska
and what I really appreciateabout large organizations like
Skanska is the access to subjectmatter experts and the ability
to tap into a lot of differentknowledge sets.
I've had a number ofconversations about that
recently and I'm just soimpressed with companies like
(21:47):
Skanska that are constantlymaking sure that the right
subject matter expert isavailable to the right project.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, and I mean going back to the role that,
like I have in Sk, easier tokind of direct teams towards the
answer that they're looking forquicker.
And yeah, it's a great networkto kind of get involved with
because you learn constantly andeveryone's got great ideas and
(22:39):
different perspectives and thatalways helps.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So, um.
So how did your role, um, youknow, uh, evolve into the role
that you're in today at Skanska?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, so, like I had previously been in a role where
I'm like uh in, uh, like youknow, project management, all
that I was using tools that weregetting me into um, uh, bim and
vdc practices and everything,and then, like, for a long time,
the industry is focused aroundbim and vdc as being kind of the
(23:10):
hub for the spokes oftechnology that kind of come out
from there, and so that got mekind of engaged in a bunch of
other kind of technologies,whether it be wearables,
robotics, drones, other kind ofcontent that really interacts
with that same kind of ecosystem, and kind of evolve into the
(23:32):
role that I'm in right now,where making sure that there's
adequate representation for ourteams or adequate support for
our teams.
But yeah, it's been a funadventure getting into that role
(23:53):
.
I think you have to be flexibleand knowledgeable and kind of
engaged in that space to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
So, being so embedded into the process, can you help
me understand Skanska's approachto integrating technology into
its projects and your role inthat as well?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah.
So we've got a very value-basedapproach, like we're looking at
technologies as making surethat to get them successfully
executed, as making sure that toget them successfully executed,
we don't want technologies tokind of fall because the team
wasn't prepped to do it orweren't kind of engaged in the
process.
(24:30):
So we got to make sure that theteam is right.
We got to make sure that thesupport is there, like from a
documentation and IT and all ofthe other kind of facets that
kind of tie into it.
We've also got like and I thinkyou've talked to Danielle, but
like a tech enablement processto kind of carry that technology
(24:52):
through a process of comparingit against other technologies
and really kind of you know,pilot and understand what that
looks like.
And so, yeah, our process ofdealing with that is connecting
those teams together, recordingthe information from that
process and really thenadvocating and sharing that.
And sometimes technologiesdon't work and we've got to be
(25:13):
frank about kind of you know,identifying that and maybe
revisiting it in the futureidentifying that and maybe
revisiting it in the future.
But we need to make sure thatthe teams aren't stuck in a
situation where project jobsites get busy.
I've been on project job sitesfor a long time in my career and
the focus is always buildingthe building and so sometimes if
(25:36):
the focus is trending away fromthe technology, that may make
the technology fail and so weneed to make sure that we have
those conversations.
So then we're enabling thoseteams, so that doesn't happen,
to support them when they can'tsupport those activities and so
making sure that we have an eyeon that and that we've got kind
of a team of people that kind ofcan interact with that kind of
(25:58):
a team of people that kind ofcan interact with that.
We basically have a setup wherethat SME kind of environment we
have them set up also as kindof a concierge network, so a
group of people that kind ofwork with project teams to kind
of help enable technologies onprojects and so that allows kind
of this greater kind of spacethat allows that connection to
(26:19):
happen.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
That's fantastic.
You mentioned Danielle earlier,so I was fortunate to be on a
panel with her at GeoWeekearlier this year and she talked
a little bit about the processthat, as Ganska does decide, if
you know, technology should moveforward with the investment or
the integration.
Are you able to speak a littlebit about that process?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I mean, I think she's probably the better person to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, no problem, see , this is when we look and we
just transition out to adifferent question.
No problem, cool.
I also didn't mean to put youso much on the spot.
I knew that I wish I wasrecalling what she had a name to
that process, so I was.
I was hoping yeah, it's a techenablement process.
(27:06):
Oh, is it?
Yeah, okay, cool, cool.
So you are familiar with that.
Okay, I'm familiar.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
But like I think that's another thing Like, if
you want to talk to like whatwe're doing, like we all have
different focuses and my focusis more on BIM VDC.
Also, I've worked a bit inpre-con and planning, so that's
an area that I support ourpre-con planning teams.
So, yeah, it's like we can't.
We can't do everything, I guess, is the thing.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So Cool, no, that's, that's where the SMEs come into
play.
Well, fantastic.
So what we'll do is just foredit notes when Graham wrapped
up and right before I startedtalking about you know that next
thing, we'll just sort of cutthat out and transition to the
next engagement.
Cool, okay, so we'll move to.
With emerging technologiescontinuously reshaping the
(27:53):
construction industry, whatupcoming advancement are you
most excited about?
And then, how do you envisionthem impacting project workflows
?
Does that sound fun?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, that sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, all right, cool , okay, so we'll come back in
five, four, three, two, oneFantastic, Graham, thank you so
much for sharing how Skanskaapproaches integrating
technology.
I'd like to step outside of thefold here and look a little bit
more at emerging technologiesaround the world.
So they're constantly reshapingthe construction industry and
(28:22):
the world itself.
So what upcoming advancementsare you most excited about and
how do you envision themimpacting project workflows?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, I mean it's hard to kind of narrow in on
just one, but I'll try.
Obviously there's a lot of focus, even beyond the construction
industry, around AI.
I think the thing that I findkind of fascinating about
something like that is likewe're not like short of a lot of
(28:51):
information in construction,and using AI to help boil that
information down or take likeyou know, taking advantage like
large language models and thingslike that to really be able to
kind of hone in on things isamazing.
Like I feel like that's likegonna, you know, the more this
evolves and the more that thekind of engineering behind it
(29:13):
really kind of grows, like we'reseeing tremendous value in that
and like thinking like, ifwe're getting to a future state
where I'm trying to kind of likeselfishly look at, look at some
of the space that I engage in,which is like BIM and VDC, can
we use AI to help drive theinformation quality that's in
(29:34):
the model?
Are we able to kind of make iteasier to interact with the
model and make it something moreuser-friendly for people that
aren't maybe technically focusedaround that space?
That's where I see a lot ofpotential in how we can kind of
interact and being able to queryeverything from our
(29:56):
disconnected environments oflike scheduling and plans and
all the documentation forchanges and the costing
information and all this stuff.
There's so many differentplaces you can go for it and
that information is not alwaysas connected as it could
potentially be.
But having an engine that cango out and find that and be able
(30:16):
to connect that stuff togetherfor you, I see there's a lot of
opportunity in that space, Iguess, and really could empower
our teams to do better.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, I completely agree with you in terms of the.
You know you saying not shortof data right, the construction
industry not being short of data, and I'm super excited to see
what gets distilled there andhow that becomes.
You know, much easier to digestinformation so that decisions
could be made faster, livessaved, money saved, increased
(30:47):
safety on the job site.
I'm very excited about all thepossibilities that exist, just
from the concept of how do weanalyze this in super rapid time
and allow for those real-timedecisions or even suggestions of
decisions.
Yeah, very exciting.
So, personal note, before wehead to the last question of the
(31:07):
podcast we talked about yourhobbies, maybe 30 years ago, and
how those influenced yourcareer.
Tell me a little bit aboutwhere you are today and your
hobbies and interests and familylife and your hobbies and
interests and family life.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, so now I've got a daughter who's in high school
and so and I think one of thethings when I was growing up
that I didn't talk about at all,but, like our family, like
growing up in the Northwest,there's a strong like football
for for us, but soccer to mostAmericans there's like that kind
of presence in in people'slives, and so like I've I've
(31:44):
always kind of been like aSounders fan Like so like I
remember like there's picturesof me when I was little with my
parents going to like old NASLsoccer games with my parents.
But we're still huge soccer fans.
We go to all the games that wecan go to as season ticket
(32:06):
holders and so our family andeven my mom and sister share
tickets with us.
But that's one of our bighobbies.
It's a good escape from kind ofthe realities of, like you know
, a construction kind of career.
That's like demanding, likethere's a lot of time you spend
working.
So it's good to have kind ofthose distractions that happen
(32:28):
and gives you time to connectback with your family and focus
on other things.
And sometimes those can befrustrating when they don't
score or they don't do whatyou're hoping them to do, but
it's a fun distraction.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Well, cool, well, to come to close and always ending
with this final question of ourshow and a tradition of Future
Construct, if you could projectyourself out 25 years and wanted
to have any device ortechnology that would benefit
you personally, what would it beand what would it do?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah.
So I mean this is anotherreally hard question.
But knowing, just like, withthe way my joints are, like I
wrote in college, so my jointsare starting to feel it now and
going through that effort, soI'm imagining 25 years from now
I'm going to probably be even,like, in less great shape.
So I really like one of thethings that I really is a kind
(33:18):
of a passion of mine is makingstuff.
I have 3D printers and I carveand I and I build furniture and
I do all sorts of things and Idraw and I, you know, laser cut
things and I just like love tomake stuff.
That you know.
(33:41):
Knowing that I will probably beless mobile and less kind of
active when I get older is like,you know, if AI is really kind
of trending down that path ofreally helping people, kind of
enable things, well, who's tosay you can't have your own
personal Jarvis like from Ironman?
Right, have someone, somethingthat you can interact with, talk
with and basically have it.
Do the big lift, Like I meanyou see it, with large language
(34:03):
models now being able to kind oftake in stuff through like
Copilot and actually codesomething for you, Well, who's
to say in the future is like youjust tell it to do something
and like you don't have to knowRevit anymore, it can model the
building for you.
But yeah, having something likethat, where there's, like this,
digital assistant that reallyis an assistant and not just
(34:24):
someone that will say you know,I found this on a web page.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Right, right.
Help you in the co-creation ofthe making that you want to make
.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, fantastic.
Well, an amazing conversation.
Graham, I really loved speakingwith you today.
Thank you so much for sharingyour journey and insights into
the intersection of constructionand technology.
Thank you for everything you doas the director of emerging
technology at Skanska and to ourlisteners.
Stay tuned for a morecaptivating discussion on future
, future construct podcasts.
(34:56):
Until next time, thank you all.
Thank you all.
Yeah, thank you.
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