Colombia. According to the Colombian Chamber of Construction (Camacol), 2,379 projects (91 percent of the total) returned to activities, which guarantees employment for about 600,000 workers in the construction sector.
The reactivation process has been slow. Government requirements have an impact on many factors, so individual safety protocols were designed for each project and the procedure was carried out before each municipal authority for approval. However, not all the links in the supply chain have resumed their activities, this has generated different delivery times or the need to change some suppliers, a process that is part of the adaptation to current circumstances and that enhance decision-making and execution of actions that are likely to be sustained over time.
According to Engineer Mario Sandoval, project director of Sandoval Asociados, an expert company in technological construction: "Our sector has a very important contribution to the economy due to its high impact on job creation. We estimate that at least 20% of the economic reactivation falls on our daily work, which is why with the reactivation of the works, we have set ourselves the great challenge of improving efficiency and yields to recover the lost time, the cost overruns generated and reduce the impact of these delays in the projects."
Although it is expected that the statistics for this year, as for the economy as a whole, these new conditions in the restriction of hours, distancing and capacity that health entities indicate, imply the constant need to rethink, design and build work spaces and also the infrastructure that supports all access to the Internet and information. It is there that Engineer Sandoval identifies an opportunity for growth and expansion during the development of the pandemic and post-pandemic, in three major aspects: technological construction, interconnected spaces and sustainable materials.
Construction of technological infrastructure
It is evident that within this process, having the digital tools available in the market has made it possible for Colombians to establish teleworking measures and everyday life become safer from the comfort of homes. However, it is relevant to mention that thanks to the fact that important constructions of Datacenters have been launched in the country, today access is easier, since having the right ecosystems positively impacts the performance of companies.
Likewise, the impact on the general population, with this type of technological innovation projects, contributes to having a greater reliability and better response of all the Internet tools that today more than ever are used due to the need to interact under the virtual modality. Thanks to these infrastructures of advanced technology we have today the support so that digital platforms and applications of information search, purchases and interaction can help us to continue our activities in this complicated situation.
"For the construction sector it is very important to implement technological designs and structures, since these have an expectation of sustained growth, in addition it brings with it a great activity in the supply chains of importers and manufacturers of equipment necessary in the DataCenters, which include generation systems, cooling, security and of course data processing. Impacting on the generation of employment in other sectors and poses a challenge for the competitiveness of companies, "explained the expert.
Interconnected spaces
There needs to be an evolution in the design of alternative office or work spaces. Architecture must provide an efficient response through the migration of closed and exclusive spaces to integral open spaces that contribute to the creativity and tranquility of employees.
The workplace has become a business tool, not only to keep workers happy and increase their productivity, but also because it influences the perception that their suppliers and customers have regarding the quality and profitability of their services. It is essential to create a system of interconnected areas to have greater control and ensure well-being and versatility in the workplace.
Use of sustainable materials
Sustainability is already part of the competitive strategies of many companies, even the construction sector is also being regulated by the use of ecological materials and the use of natural resources, since solutions have been implemented that improve their environmental performance. All this, through structures that defy weather conditions and aim at energy savings.
"These three aspects are important, however, the technology industry represents today a primary need for Colombians, in terms of connectivity, because the new normal brings with it changes in important habits in the behavior of people, either from their responsibility as a student, worker, and even as a consumer. This will be reflected in the requirements of greater speed, reliability and data traffic, to which the companies providing these services will respond with larger and better data centers that have the necessary technical capacity, "concluded the expert.
