Old Mighty Paper in an Evolving Construction Industry

Kenya

2 min read

Having been used for millennia in construction, paper worth passes the Lindy effect test and disrupting it requires one to understand its ingrained value.

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 21, 2023/-- Voltaire said that "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero." In the bounds of economics the great writer and philosopher was certainly right. However, in the world of design and in particular the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, the inherent value of paper is explicitly positive.

I would wish to use the design-build process to expound on the case for supremacy of paper as a medium in design and execution.

Any firm in the AEC industry has an office which is full of prints, copies, sketching paper, notebooks, diaries, handwritten mark-ups and the always convenient sticky notes. Step further into any construction site and you will see people all over armed with sheets of paper (mainly prints) trying to decode and implement its content.

Paper is usually a cheap way of conveying a vast amount of information very effectively in the office and in the field. Apart from generally communicating the intention of its content, paper is a good tool for training team members as it allows for quick absorption and retention of information.

The immediacy of pen to paper also makes it a highly intuitive medium, while giving room to a professional to iterate quickly. In my opinion it's the most intuitive media ever created.

A child in its formative age should be allowed to interact with paper as opposed to a tablet computer. Using paper the child is able to develop its fine motor skills with a tactile and engaging medium. The medium never requires charging or crash on a whim. The ability to tear it down further cements its value. Might this be the reason why Steve Jobs restricted his children from using the iPad? Apologies for the slight deviation.

Paper also allows stakeholders to troubleshoot instantly by scribbling on it and comes in myriad of sizes which you can trim to your needs anytime. Apart from its record property, paper is easily disposable. A quality that many underestimate.

On the flip side, paper which is commonly consumed as prints can be cumbersome due to its bulky nature. Its other shortcomings too need to be addressed, so that productivity and predictability in the construction process is increased. Some of the innovations in collaboration, cloud, keeping up to date with revisions and Building Information Modelling (BIM) attests to this.

Having been used for millennia in construction, paper worth passes the Lindy effect test and disrupting it requires one to understand its ingrained value. Innovations in this space, be it apps should be for augmenting the construction process not supplanting what makes it work.

Paper users not to be confused with paper-pushers take comfort in knowing your favourite hardware will be supported for a very long time. In addition, the real value preposition lies in your mind (the software) and its application.

That being said, players in Construction Technology (ConTech) and Lean Construction, dissociate the qualities of paper and that of information. Most of your interventions should be more on the smooth flow of information across stakeholders and data analysis as opposed to kicking the low-hanging qualities of the standard medium.

By Phineahs Munene

email feedback to phineahs [at] wazomoja.com

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