There is an urgent need for the construction sector to digitise in the face of rapid urbanisation and the growing threat of climate change.

Speaking during a webinar on proptech run by Institutional Real Estate Europe, Pål-Christian S Njølstad, the COO at Spacemaker AI, a company that provides AI-powered site development software, said that planners, architects, developers and local authorities have to quickly find new ways to build smarter and more sustainable cities and buildings. Njølstad believes that a properly digitised construction sector will be able to balance the need to curb carbon emissions while building denser city spaces.

Njølstad says the industry has been slow moving and resistant to change, which has left it using old processes to manage sites. This situation has caused it to stagnate as a sector, particularly in the face of ever more complex building codes, site regulations and architecture.

“The construction sector accounts for