Although automation has been actively and successfully used in different industries since the 1970s, its application to the construction industry is still rare or not fully exploited. In order to help provide the construction industry with an additional incentive to adopt more automation, an investigation was undertaken to assess the effects of digital fabrication (dfab) on productivity by analyzing the cost and time required for the construction of a robotically-fabricated complex concrete wall onsite. After defining the different tasks for the conventional and robotically fabricated concrete wall, data was collected from different sources and used in a simulation to describe the distribution of time and cost for the different construction scenarios. In the example, it was found that productivity is higher when the robotic construction method is used for complex walls, indicating that it is possible to obtain significant economic benefit from the use of additive dfab to construct complex structures. Further research is required to assess the social impacts of using dfab.

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The counterpart of Industry 4.0 in the AEC/FM industry is known as Construction 4.0. Its essence is the digitalization and automation of the AEC/FM industry. As robots and other technologies make their way into the different phases of the lifecycle of construction projects, the concern about the future of jobs and wages will increase. While the use of robotics has the potential to improve productivity and safety, it should not necessarily reduce total employment in the construction sector in the long run. It is expected that existing roles will evolve, and new roles will be created (e.g., in addition to designers there would be a need for employees with digital skills). Focusing on the construction phase of a robotically built concrete wall, the different roles were evaluated. From this study, it was found that there will be a time in which conventional construction and robotic technologies will coexist, leading to a higher job variability and new roles, both at the managerial and operations/execution levels. Although this study is not meant to be an exact representation of how the AEC/FM roles will change as a consequence of Construction 4.0, it opens the debate and research in this area.

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Performance contracts used for servitized business models enable consideration of overall life-cycle costs rather than just production costs. However, practical implementation of performance contracts has been limited due to challenges with performance evaluation, accountability, and financial concepts. As a solution, this paper proposes the connection of the digital building twin with blockchain-based smart contracts to execute performance-based digital payments. First, we conceptualize a technical architecture to connect blockchain to digital building twins. The digital building twin stores and evaluates performance data in real-time while the blockchain ensures transparency and trusted execution of automatic performance evaluation and rewards through smart contracts. Next, we demonstrate the feasibility of both the concept and technical architecture by integrating the Ethereum blockchain with digital building models and sensors via the Siemens building twin platform. The resulting prototype is the first full-stack implementation of a performance-based smart contract in the built environment.

Blockchain, or more general distributed ledger technology (DLT), is seen as an opportunity to integrate digital information, management, and contracts to increase trust and collaboration within the construction industry. However, little research has analyzed and confirmed this linkage through case-studies. There seems to be a gap between use-case ideas and the technical system implementation. This paper aims to reduce this gap through a review of both DLT and its applications in construction. It proposed six use-case categories through clustering of analyzed use cases and a basic framework to match the categories to a suitable DLT design. For that, the trust level of the user group was used as a proxy for the needed fundamental properties of the system. The categories and framework can lead to a more connected and structured thinking between technological properties of DLT's and use cases in construction.

We introduce our ongoing research on no1s1 ("noones-one"), a meditation pod that aims to be the first autonomous space. To frame our early thinking, we conceptualize what we call Decentralized Autonomous Space (DAS) as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) linked to a physical location. DAOs leverage a combination of Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to create self-governing coordination mechanisms through smart contracts. Therefore, DAS can self-create and self-manage, and ultimately self-own. DAS is presented as a potentially disruptive paradigm of future housing and infrastructure with wide-ranging implications to the built environment.