Innovation in Construction February 8, 2012

Presenter: Professor Carl Abbott

SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE

In much literature, construction is portrayed as not being an innovative sector. Commentators have labelled the sector as being 'extreme conservative', 'low tech' and 'an industry of the old type'. There are many characteristics of the industry that are put forward as the 'cause' of this lack of dynamism and innovation.

These characterisations can be distilled into three strands. Firstly, the temporary project-based nature of the industry is seen as constraining innovation. Secondly the structure of the industry with its preponderance of small firms employing less than five people and associated limited capacity to innovate. Lastly the adversarial nature of the industry with associated short-termism and opportunism does not encourage long term solutions. Indeed, it has been argued 'the construction industry is infamous for the barriers it places in the way of innovation'.

This presumption has in the past been embedded at a government level. The 'Egan' report, for example, stated "that the UK construction industry will not reap the full economic benefits unless we identify the economic, legal, institutional and cultural obstacles to innovation, and do what are necessary to remove them."

However, is the construction industry really so backward or are the measures of innovation not appropriate for the sector? For example, measures for construction take a very narrow view of the industry and ignore value adding activity in design and use of buildings.

In this presentation Carl Abbott will contend that there is a false shadow, which hides the highly innovative aspects of the sector that are responsible for progressively enhanced levels of 'realised value'. Through the use of an Innovation Value Chain approach Carl will illustrate this through case studies that illustrate the widespread innovation within the sector and show that the full benefits of innovation can only be realised by fully understanding the components of the whole innovation process that is based on knowledge acquisition, transformation, and diffusion.

PRESENTER'S PROFILE

Professor Carl Abbott is Associate Head (Enterprise & Engagement) of the School of the Built Environment at the University of Salford. He is Co Director of the Engineering & Physical Science Research Council funded Salford Centre for Research & Innovation (SCRI) in the built & human environment.

Throughout his time at the University of Salford Carl has worked closely with industry in the region, helping to establish the Centre for Construction Innovation where he was General Manager. His research interests include innovation and the sustainable delivery of housing. In addition to SCRI, significant research projects in which Carl has been involved, include the ESRC Distributed Innovation Project 'The impact of environmental regulation on innovation in the housing sector: the case of the Code for Sustainable Homes', the EPSRC/EDF funded People Energy & Buildings project on the'Uptake of Micro-generation Technologies in Housing' and a UK/Finland comparative study on retrofit of apartment buildings.

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Official Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/home-page/events/events/innovation-in-construction