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Proptech Innovation NOW – Two things nobody wants: to innovate and to keep things the same

At the intersection of AI, BIM, sustainable operations, and the uncertainty of construction industry players, Proptech Innovation NOW, Proptech Hungary’s fifth innovation event, was held on 16 May at the Budapest Music Center. Event recap.

In beautiful sunshine, the Proptech Innovation NOW conference kicked off with a parade of international stars. The morning session opened with a series of C-level interviews with James Dearsley, a returning speaker at the event, who reported on his interviews with major innovators in the global real estate market. Specific examples and case studies were followed by a presentation by Dirk Paelinck, founder of Proptech House, who spoke about the EU taxonomy of European proptech organizations, the new European Bauhaus. He was succeeded on stage by Andrew Knight, Senior Data Analyst at RICS, who highlighted the growing role of AI in the overall property value chain.

Dirk Paelinck, CEO of ProptechHouse (Photo: Balázs Glódi) at the Proptech Innovation NOW conference
Dirk Paelinck, CEO of ProptechHouse (Photo: Balázs Glódi)

Fahad Al Tomaihy, founder of Tayaqan in Saudi Arabia, spoke about The Line project, the Saudi super city, a smart metropolis 170 kilometres long, 200 metres wide and 800 metres high, dreamed up in the desert, and its reality. “In the form of a digital twin, the whole city already exists,” he said, standing under a huge Unreal Engine logo. “We just need to make it happen. There are a lot of companies working on this, if you look at the NEON project website for The Line, you’ll see that we’ve broken it down into a lot of sub-projects.

To the layman’s eye, The Line looks like the setting for some exotic sci-fi set in the far future, and there is a reason why Fahad began his presentation with the general scepticism he experienced. The aim is to build a completely self-sustaining, zero-emissions city, and while the benefits of such an ambitious project are controversial, it is clear that it would bring many previously unrealized building solutions within reach. While this was undoubtedly the most stunning performance of the whole day, it is fortunately not the case that the achievements of modern architecture are only available to super-rich entrepreneurs or rulers in far-off countries.

AR, VR, BIM, AI

Over two hundred and fifty attendees at Proptech Innovation Now had the opportunity to attend presentations or participate in workshops in three halls, while various companies demonstrated their state-of-the-art solutions in the event centre lobby.

We no longer build plans, but virtual buildings that we can take out to the construction site or involve in the operation through the camera of an ordinary phone,” said Csaba Livják, founder and CEO of Buildext Ltd., holding a tablet running an augmented reality application of the web project platform of software developer Dalux.

After three clicks, it took seconds to load the floor plan of the Budapest Music Center, the planned interior design, and then show the systems running in the wall, based on the visitor’s position, via the phone’s camera.

Csaba Livják, CEO of BuildEXT (Photo: Balázs Glódi)
Csaba Livják, CEO of BuildEXT (Photo: Balázs Glódi)

This is the next phase in the digitalization of the construction industry. Designers are no longer just in charge of design, they are now digital integrators, building digital replicas of buildings in virtual space, connected to a web-based project platform, enabling faster and more efficient communication, information access, and change tracking during design, construction, and operation.

The designer is no longer only responsible for producing the “drawings” up to the delivery of the plans, but also for keeping the information model of the building alive as a digital integrator for the lifetime of the building. During the design phase, the specialist will build it, and during the construction phase, he will keep track of changes and update it with information, and ensure that it remains up-to-date for the next 20 years.

This is the basic idea, and on top of that there are endless new services, possibilities, and synergies, ranging from AR solutions on phones instead of paper-based designs, to VR and mixed reality glasses, simulations, IoT sensor integration, and digital twin technologies.

The result is a new world where building construction is shortened by months, conflicts are reduced to a fraction of their original number, and construction and operating costs are reduced by 20-30%.

Everyday surreality in the BuildEXT office (Photo: BuildEXT)
Everyday surreality in the BuildEXT office (Photo: BuildEXT)

A striking example during one of the presentations was a masonry structure that was almost impossible to build using ordinary methods, where the master builder was assisted by Hololens mixed reality glasses, which allowed him to see both reality and what he had to build.

However, standardization would be important. Through vivid examples, we saw how the construction industry suffers from teething problems, and how common and unsolvable it is to build a complex or large project with conventional tools, but, fortunately, we also saw examples of how to do it well.

This is the innovative and forward-looking direction taken by the Hungarian state’s digital strategy for the construction industry and the mandatory BIM investment law, which was later announced by State Secretary Regő Lánszki.

Those who fall behind, fall out

The solutions and the infrastructure are in place, and digitization solutions accompany projects from early needs assessment through design and implementation. Yet a recurring theme of the presentations is that industry players are often reluctant to introduce new solutions – either because of the need for resources or simply because they lack the know-how.”My aim is to accelerate the digital transformation of the real estate market” – stressed the main organiser, Zoltan Kalmar in his opening speech,and added –“Proptech Innovation NOW is an important milestone in bringing the construction and real estate industries closer together“. After four previous conferences, you would think it would be difficult to come up with new things, but Zoltán says that their fifth event has a strong message and purpose. As the motto of the conference, “Innovations of the present, challenges of the future”, suggests, the innovations are already here, but we need to find and seize the opportunities.

Zoltán Kalmár, Managing Director of Proptech Hungary, the organiser of the event (Photo: Balázs Glódi)
Zoltán Kalmár, Managing Director of Proptech Hungary, the organiser of the event (Photo: Balázs Glódi)

Gaps in the construction industry

“Industries operate at a different pace,” said Csaba Livják, CEO of BuildEXT. “I was a construction manager. I see and know the so-called analog construction industry. But the world has evolved and in the last few years, a digital and even virtual construction industry has emerged, which, like in other countries, is inevitably making its way into our country. “Csaba not only discussed the potential of BIM, but also the benefits of the advancement and rapid adaptation of artificial intelligence tools.

We got a glimpse of BuildEXT’s summer children’s camp project, in which a digital avatar brought a message directly from NASA to the children to design a space station on a newly discovered terraformable planet. After a week of conceptualizing the kids’ designs, it took them 2.5 hours using Midjourney’s image-generating AI to produce a visual design that was breathtaking even for the creators. “Where are we now with the balsa wood building models of universities…”

Where are we now with the balsa wood building models of universities..."
Where are we now with the balsa wood building models of universities…”

Digital catch-up needed

Artificial intelligence is now as much a buzzword as digitalization, which has many meanings, but its use is changing the way we work so rapidly that it seems that market players who are hesitant or even reluctant to adopt it are already at a disadvantage.

But at least as significant a leap is the use of lidar imaging tools: several presentations at the conference featured buildings and sites mapped with geographic information tools, which contained enough information to work with as a designer, engineer or contractor in the virtual environment. The client asks to see if it is possible to build on a plot of land full of sand and rubbish? All it takes is a drone and some hi-tech expertise and you have the answer.

Point cloud terrain survey results on the Dalux surface (Photo: BuildEXT)
Point cloud terrain survey results on the Dalux surface (Photo: BuildEXT)

Of course, it wouldn’t be real without the involvement of state actors. Regő Lánszki, State Secretary for Architecture at the Ministry of Construction and Transport, also gave a presentation at Proptech Innovation Now. “Hungary needs to catch up with the digital frontrunners, and there is still room for improvement because we are ranked 22nd out of the 27 Member States in the European Union’s Digital Economy and Society Index… Research suggests that in the coming decades, the automation of the digital transition will threaten the jobs of nearly half of Hungarian workers.“The Minister stressed that although the digital literacy of the population is not outstanding in Hungary, the real deterrent is businesses. Digital catch-up is therefore of fundamental economic interest.

It looks good on paper: digital factory

Of course, it’s one thing to declare the need for something, and another to get the market to develop it. During the roundtable discussion, Tibor Massányi, Managing Partner of DVM Group, stressed the importance of education, which he said is the primary task, because without showing industry players the real opportunities of digitalization, we cannot expect tangible results.

We are working in a very cost-sensitive market, so the question is why we need a BIM model in the operation and who pays for it” – said Gábor Décsi, CEO of Dome Group Hungary Zrt. According to him, energy is the area where such investments can pay off, and as such, operation plays a key role. At the same time, as a customer, no prior training is required. ” We have a client who has written on a piece of paper that he wants to run a digital factory in Hungary. Nor is he expected to have BIM expertise and experience that is hard to say but hard to show. However, he is looking for the innovative ability to find a partner with whom he can build a digital, BIM-based operation.

Gábor Décsi (CEO, Dome Group), Balázs Lengyel (Partner, Spányi Partners Zrt.), Zoltán Jánky (CEO, Opinion Builders), Tibor Massányi (Managing partner DVM Group) roundtable discussion (Photo: Glódi Balázs)
Gábor Décsi (CEO, Dome Group), Balázs Lengyel (Partner, Spányi Partners Zrt.), Zoltán Jánky (CEO, Opinion Builders), Tibor Massányi (Managing partner DVM Group) roundtable discussion (Photo: Glódi Balázs)

A World of Advanced Digital Strategies The conference was also reinforced by companies with the most advanced digital strategies in the country. Representing Budapest Airport Zrt, Gergely Bedő, Head of Buildings and Architectures, took us into the world of international airports and gave us an insight into BUD’s digital strategy.

Afterward, in the closed BIM round table, Gazdusné Izabella Wusinczky,(BOSCH), Zsigmond Bakk (LEGO) and Dr. Márk Zagorácz (University of Pécs) discussed their practical experiences, the research of failure, challenges and results.

The conclusion is that conscious preparation and planning pays off a hundredfold, but a successful BIM project can only be created if the needs are generated only by the client or the operating company, and if the designer, the contractor and the operating company meet these needs.

Culture of ass protection

The expertise and the technology are there. OK, the investment is never cheap, but it has many benefits, so it can pay off. So what is the world waiting for? The co-host of the event, Gábor Bazsó, aka Karotta, summed up the problem best: the phenomenon he called “culture of ass protection“, i.e. that nobody wants to innovate because they fear that doing so would jeopardize their long-established business model or even their position. But the reality, according to most experts, is the opposite: industry players are already making less profit due to their lack of digital skills, and the more time passes, the harder it will be to catch up.

Karotta’s presentation was about the current situation of electric cars and the general misinterpretation of this: although the press likes to write that the momentum of the switchover has slowed down, the motoring journalist says this is a misunderstanding, and that it is actually a slowdown in the growth of the switchover.

He responded to the criticisms of e-mobility in his typically sharp style, pointing to oil rigs and saying that oil doesn’t just come from a petrol station, it has to be brought here, so the complaints about infrastructure are more about the fatigue of changing the existing system. It’s not that producing electricity locally is difficult or even less sustainable; it’s just that the world is used to fossil fuels, and it’s easier to follow the old mantra than to admit that they are no longer efficient enough.

However, it cannot be said that there is no apparent need for change. The atmosphere at the conference was generally hopeful, with visitors often mingling with each other and with exhibiting companies. Whether the connection Zoltán outlines will be made remains to be seen, but Proptech Innovation Now has given it every opportunity this year.

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