Professionals tasked on new trends in construction industry

Professionals in the built environment have been urged to embrace new technology in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry (AEC). President, Association of Consulting Architects Nigeria (ACANigeria), Mansur Kurfi Ahmadu said the call became necessary because built professionals cannot afford to exist in insolation.

The architect, who spoke at a pre- event cocktail in Lagos to herald the association’s international conference titled: “Future Trends in ACE industry”, said construction project management software is getting better with more features, hence the need to learn new trends.

Also, former president of the association and chairman of the organizing committee, Tayo Babalakin stressed the need for technology in construction industry.According to him, the future is already here and we as professionals must embrace technology in our works to ensure sustainability.

Mr. Babalakin however, stressed the importance of infrastructure to make it happen.According to him, government has a role to play by setting up infrastructure banks to support infrastructure and give loans at a low rate.
“Infrastructure is capital intensive and we cannot rely on Chinese loan. If we really want to control this, we must make sure that we address the issue of infrastructure funding “, he added.

He said, the essence of the cocktail is to give the sponsors and participants to the incoming international conference a millage to showcase their products before the actual event.On his part, the partner OAC Architects, Mr. Wale Okubadejo, said the event offered architects the opportunity to learn new things and apply them to their works. AEC firms are largely responsible for the built environment because they do both the design and construction of every single structure.