Disruptors Roundtable is an exploration of responding to disruption through design. Our focus is on developing resiliency – using planning and design (specifically Design Thinking rather than simply crisis or strategic planning) to help institutions develop flexible, efficient, long-range solutions that leave them not only less vulnerable to the next crisis, but in fact in possession of better ways of teaching, learning, and living than before.

Episode One: Construction Forecasting During the Pandemic

Most of the initial focus of the COVID-19 pandemic was on the immediate impact to our daily lives and how we could quickly respond to quarantine to slow the spread of the virus. The effects of these disruptions slowly reverberate throughout the system and economy, typically having a delayed impact on the design and construction industry.  Several months into the pandemic, as organizations have adjusted to this “new normal”, we began to wonder about the impact to come.

Topics include:

• Regional Issues and how different geographies have responded
• The impacts to workforce and labor availability
• Project scheduling and how the disruption to the supply chain will extend beyond the virus
• Considerations related to private and public funding and implications of population shifts due to widespread work from home
• Innovation that has been more widely embraced, such as modular construction

Join Kyle Wagner, Clay Phillips, and Merrilee Hertlein of Mackey Mitchell Architects, Gary Aanenson of CORE Construction, and Kyle Veater and Tom Strandberg of OCMI as we attempt to uncover what more the COVID-19 pandemic has in store with regard to design and construction.