Building The Future: Unveiling Educational and Competence Demands for Smart and Sustainable Buildings

Abstract

The Swedish construction sector is said to be highly traditional with a slow pace of development, e.g., in terms of adapting new technologies. However, current developments related mainly to digitalization, but also sustainability and entrepreneurship, are forcing this sector to change from almost static to highly dynamic. This paper presents results from an interview study performed with eight industry experts from various property management and/or construction companies in Sweden, all in different ways connected to research at KTH Live-In Lab. The interviews were performed to discuss and identify what engineering skills are required to operate and manage the smart and sustainable buildings of the future. The results indicate that changes in the three areas of digitalization, sustainability and entrepreneurship have different characteristics. The interviewees describe rapid changes in these areas, changes that have an unknown end goal. What is asked for in the construction industry seems unreachable. The construction sector cannot fully harvest the benefits of ongoing technological development, and academia is, in the short term, unable to help. Hence, dedicated actors solve the competence need outside traditional university educational programs.