WHEN IS IT SAFE FOR YOUR FIRM TO ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGIES?

摘要

Engineering giant Arup recently started offering a new service: site-specific microclimate data analysis. It installs weather stations at sites during the project's conceptual stages to gather data that will inform the final design. Clients rarely push back on this service, says David Wilts, an Associate Principal who leads the Consulting Practice in Arup's Chicago office, because the resulting design will ultimately lower the building's energy bill. Sounds like a winner, doesn't it? Yet client demand for the service so far has been modest. "Implementation occurs only when a critical mass is aware of it," says Wilts. Therein lies the rub for AEC firms contemplating taking the plunge into the uncharted waters of new technologies. The design/construction industry's inherent resistance to change makes risk daunting and reward a question mark.