Building our future and the future of building: Challenges from an organizational-cultural viewpoint

Since the world was shaken because of the globally spread Covid-19 Pandemic, starting in late 2019/early 2020, many societies, including their businesses and sociological/behavioral systems, seem to be -and have been- influenced and -moreover- even been “shaken on their foundations”. All around the world such related daily experiences have lead to reconsidering for example the way we live, how we work and how we relax.

Nevertheless, when focusing more into detail on the construction industry and their outcomes (buildings, infrastructure, etc.) it is challenging to see if the way the construction industry was organized still might be the way how it will be kept organized after the COVID-19 Pandemic; especially because it seems that the influence of the pandemic on daily lives and businesses is now gradually decreasing; at least in the western developed world…

This discussion-paper aims to analyse and reflect on construction processes, derived from experiences and practices within case-studies, related to the project-development of buildings, from an organizational-cultural viewpoint. And this is especially important not only because it has been proven that the “soft factors” are maybe even more important than the “hard” factors in construction industry, but -moreover- because construction is a people’s business....and it will stay so, despite -or even thanks to- increasingly “data-driven” (i.e. behavioral) developments. Conclusions and recommendations are focusing on the future of building, being part of the construction activities that are used and/or needed to keep building our future.