Lucas Winter on the Future of Construction, Data, and Sustainable Housing

This interview is part of a series featuring the members of our diverse AU community, from speakers and conference attendees to forum participants and online commenters. You are AU.

1. What’s your current job role?
I am managing director of CONTAKT, a company of Umdasch Group Ventures, based in Austria.

2. What are your main areas of expertise and interest?
I have a multi-industry history of productivity/lean production challenges and business model innovation with digital services. I am passionate about contributing to sustainable and affordable housing globally.

3. What do you enjoy most about your work?
Innovating step by step every single day and staffing an amazing team.

4. What’s your favorite piece of technology?
Artificial intelligence. I see it as a technology that allows human creativity to fully focus on bold ideas and creativity and leave repetitive tasks to clever machines.

5. What one challenge in your work would be most satisfying to solve?
The challenge we solve with many of our clients: more productive construction sites. That means a well-balanced and coordinated workload for the guys doing hard labor outside of cozy offices all year round.

6. What one thing should new graduates entering your field know?
The future of construction is built on two pillars: tacit knowledge of experienced guys and innovative solutions. To succeed, it needs both.

7. What is your all-time favorite AU class and why?
Morten Stilling speaking about benchmarking in construction. It was striking, how data-driven decisions are not only the best but the only option if we want to be successful in the future.

8. Describe a favorite project you’ve worked on using Autodesk software.
A construction site with Strabag, where the building model in Revit was not only precisely planned but also a lot of metadata in the model, such as concrete type, were used. With that information, execution on-site using Autodesk products and CONTAKT was a seamless experience.

9. What has been one of your most impactful moments attending AU and why?
My own AU Las Vegas 2019 class, Field Data: The Black Hole in Bringing Planning and Construction Execution Together, with a lot of interesting questions and ideas from the audience. As well, all the interesting talk at the Leadership Forum.

10. What inspires you?
Sustainable solutions that also have a nice business case: they are the proof that the environment and economy can benefit mutually.

11. Where do you see your industry in 10 years?
Drastically changed. The global demand in housing and office capacity leaves no room for anything but a drastic change in the way we plan, build, and operate buildings and infrastructure. There will be many global players gone in the next 10 years and newcomers will enter the industry (especially coming from manufacturing).

12. If you could contribute one thing to making a better world, what would it be?
A sustainable and safe home for everyone.

Check out Lucas's AU 2019 Explainers and visit his profile to learn more about his work and contributions to the AU community.