the Design Build Competition (which culminated
in the online awards ceremony).
Normally, high school students show
off their construction skills in person
through a competition in March and
April to build tiny homes, sheds or storage
structures. Then came COVID-19.
At first, SRBX thought about scrapping
the event — it’s impossible to build
a shed online. How do you swing a
virtual hammer? Then they heard from
self-isolated teachers that the students
could use a distraction. So Blair and
SRBX whipped up a virtual program,
where the students would do things at
home, like design a tiny house that can
be built for the survivors of the Camp
Fire in Paradise, and then build a physical
model from materials they scrounged
up from around the home, like boxes of
macaroni and cheese. “We’re not trying
to fool anyone, it’s not a full replication,”
says Blair. “But it’s been awesome.”
Design Build usually attracts
around 500 students, so SRBX hoped it
would get maybe 100 for the onlineonly
version. It was wildly off; the final
tally was 621. “Thank you,” Steinberg
says in the virtual award ceremony.
“Thank you for not giving up on this
year’s competition. … Thank you for
being there for those students when
they needed you the most.”
The silver lining
The generational shift has a sneaky upside:
adoption of tech. “The construction
industry is not a leader in innovation,”
says Otto. “We’re always lagging just a
little bit behind.” Compare the laptops
of 2020 to the personal computers of
the 1980s, and then do the same thing
for homes. “The way your house is built
hasn’t changed,” says Bardis-Miry. “You
still pour your foundation. You frame
your walls. You do your electrical.” The
homes themselves can be a little different,
and they’re built more eco-friendly,
and perhaps they use different materials,
but Bardis-Miry says, “The basic structure
and foundation hasn’t changed.
Because of that, people are slow to react
and want to do new things. We’re a very
old industry that rarely gets shaken up.”
The construction industry has many
moving parts, with layer upon layer of
management. This adds to the challenge
of tech adoption. “Even if the general
contractor buys into the new tech,” says
Bardis-Miry, “this doesn’t mean that the
electrical subcontractor is willing to use
it or train his people to use it. They’ll say,
‘This is something new. Let’s just go back
to using a fax machine.’” Twist agrees,
“Just getting the old-timers to computers,
that’s the hard thing. They want to
use paper and pencil.”
Gen Z and millennials are more likely
to embrace new tech and new ideas, such
as digital and virtual design schematics.
“For a lot of the buildings built 30 or 40
years ago, you do your paper plans, but
then all of a sudden, when you put in
your plumbing and electrical, there’s
not enough space,” says Blair. “Now …
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