The Public Works Authority (Ashghal), represented by the Technical Office, on Tuesday organised an online workshop on ‘The Optimisation of Technology in Construction’. The objective was to reduce cost and create a more efficient work environment.
More than 70 local firms attended the exercise conducted as part of a series of workshops by Ashghal in cooperation with various partners and stakeholders on the use of technology in construction.
In his opening remarks, engineer Ahmed al-Ansari, Technical Office manager at Ashghal, talked about the objectives of the workshop and explained Ashghal’s current approaches while using the latest construction techniques.
Dr Alex Amato, head of Sustainability at Qatar Green Building Council; Prof Michael Phillips, academic manager, Applied Research and Innovation and Co-ordinator of Unesco-Unevoc, College of the North Atlantic in Qatar; Steven Humphrey, director, Leigh and Orange Middle East Ltd, spoke. Several experts, specialists and researchers representing Ashghal and other stakeholders also attended.
The experts talked in the workshop put forward several points of discussion regarding use of important latest technologies in construction and outputs of their proper usage. These include the latest sustainable building systems, possibility of using modular and volumetric intensive building systems such as steel and prefabricated materials, and latest construction systems using engineered timber to check carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and to reduce climate change resulting from human intervention.
The importance of vocational training for workers in the construction sector and its role in the institutional and economic reform process were also discussed. Other points of discussion in the workshop include the ability of new building technology systems off-site, role of using construction robots and their contribution to reduce costs, time and size of workers involved in projects.
