Developers and constructors are resolutely embracing the new era of data-driven building, sparked in part by owners’ expectations and encouraged by their initial achievements, panellists at the recent CityAge conference in Toronto told delegates.
The conference, held Sept. 24, was themed on The Data Effect and in a session billed as Data-Driven City Building, Scott Silverberg, vice-president of asset management for Oxford Properties, Jody Becker, chief strategy officer for EllisDon and Nadia Yen, director of green development for First Gulf, were tasked with reviewing the state of data technologies in the built environment.
Becker admitted construction came late to the game. Builders were assuring owners they had great schedulers and estimators and they delivered satisfactory results, she said, and the owners accepted those claims.
Additionally, Becker added, it takes time and effort to learn new techniques and constructors resisted the commitment.
“The formulas have generally worked,” said Becker. “Nobody was pushing us along, including our clients, to say, what if you could do it faster, better, cheaper?
“But once we got past that, which I believe we now have, we have seen a whole world opens up when you embrace a world of digitization. Virtual design, 3-D modelling, we do planning and scheduling in 3-D so we can simulate how the entire project is going.”
Becker said owners are now demanding the results that come with data-driven project execution.
“In order to fulfil our clients’ needs with regards to specific design types, we have to be able to use the digital tools that are available to us,” she said.
Yen is involved in master planning the 60-acre, mixed-use East Harbour project on Toronto’s eastern waterfront, one of the largest commercial developments underway in Canada right now, she said.
First Gulf is undertaking the project as owner, developer, designer and general contractor so integration of data is an ongoing major challenge.
“It is not an easy task,” she explained in an interview after the panel session. “You have to be thinking about it at every level of the design you are doing. There are a lot of different hats that have to come to the table and…you’re thinking about each process and how each hat owns that data and technology and how it needs to flow and integrate into the different levels.”
Examples Yen identified on the East Harbour project where data is informing the master plan or will assist in smart practices include determining how to install sensors in water pipes to identify leaks and also usage; implementing “peak shaving” strategies to study energy usage, to enable efficient energy use from the grid versus from their own microgrid; and developing a stormwater management plan, especially given that Metrolinx is planning a major transportation hub and First Gulf will want to ensure water does not become trapped on hardscapes and disrupt transportation.
The east Toronto waterfront is a hive of development right now, with Quayside, Port Lands projects and others all moving forward, Yen noted, so there are lots of opportunities for the sophisticated owners and developers involved, including George Brown College, Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, to share innovation strategies.
“We are all collaborating,” she said.
“The city of Toronto is in a great space right now. A lot of developers and government agencies are willing to work together to do things, which historically hasn’t been the case.
“I come from meetings all the time where we are sharing technologies. And we say, are there some cost-saving opportunities here? If we both invest in technology maybe we can both use it. It is right across the street.”
Data-enabled innovation is coming on so fast in the sector, and changing so quickly, Silverberg noted, that it makes choices very difficult.
“You can’t boil the ocean so you have to think, what can I tackle?” he said.
His firm initiated a “smart and connected” system in its office buildings with a “fibre backbone” to which tenants could be connected, but Silverberg said it is far from certain that will always be the preferred connectivity system.
“How can you be convinced there won’t be a better solution in the future?” he said.
“It is a challenge.”
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