Innovation Can Deliver Sustainability And Value Amid The Region’s Construction Boom
January 29, 2024 | Construction Business News
The GCC and broader Middle East construction sector is enjoying a period of unprecedented growth that can be compared in grandeur to the economic transformation triggered by the great industrial revolutions of our recent history.
Large-scale infrastructure, mega and giga real estate projects are in the spotlight daily, as the Gulf states move to diversify their economies and sectors away from fossil fuel dependency and replace them with knowledge-based ecosystems that will sustain their growth through the next decade and beyond.
As demand for new infrastructure, residential and commercial real estate continues to rise, sustainability becomes a key challenge at a time when regional governments and populations have become conscious to the environmental impact of construction.
The United Arab Emirates as well as its neighbour Saudi Arabia, are adopting global best practices such as low carbon sustainable construction, employing new modular construction practices as well as 3D printing to partially offset the inherent impact caused by construction on the environment. I touch on the first two practices here since 3D printing technology in the UAE has already made global headlines in 2016 with the world’s first 3D printed office at the Emirates Towers and was subsequently followed by the world’s largest 3D printed house in 2019. 3D printing in construction has been in development since and is being assessed for large scale construction projects in the near future.
