The future of construction is flexible

For our fifth conversation for FutureChats, we sat down with Joziene van de Linde, managing director at De Meeuw, a company that calls themselves’ ’Future Builders’’ (Dutch: Toekomstbouwers). We had a chat about DeMeeuw, who they are, what the big shifts in the industry are and what the future of construction could look like. Spoiler alert: Joziene firmly believes in mass customization and configure-to-order.

Joziene has worked her whole career in the project development industry, initially studying spatial planning and real estate economics and later working for big construction companies Heijmans and VanWijnen. Today, Joziene is commercial director at De Meeuw – a former family-owned business from Brabant – together with Bram van Rijt (COO), Mark van Os (CFO) and Hans Vonck (Director Belgium). “We help and strengthen each other, and are very ambitious people who want to make the absolute best of it”, Joziene says.

Raised as a Protestant Christian, she lives by the adage Noblesse Oblige. “If you have certain talents or competencies, you need to put them to use. Not for yourself, but for others. That’s what I aim to do with De Meeuw as well. I want to make the world a bit better, not only now, but in the long run as well. That makes me really happy. And that’s why I love working at DeMeeuw. Most people here work with passion and are very happy to work here.”

For those who are not (yet) familiar with De Meeuw, they are specialists in flexible and modular housing solutions for offices, school buildings, construction homes, and residential housing. Compared to ‘traditional’ project development, where buildings are built permanently, De Meeuw’s housing solutions are (semi) permanent. Buildings can be bought, leased, rented (or else) and are generally in use from 3 months up to 50 years. Once the period is over, De Meeuw is able to disassemble the buildings so they can be remodelled, used elsewhere or fully recycled.

In today’s world, where sustainability plays an important role and real estate development cannot meet its demands, the solutions of DeMeeuw are ‘hot’. Sustainability, in the broadest sense, is at the core of De Meeuw. “Sustainability and circularity are so engraved in our DNA. It’s normal for us.”

Joziene points out this might also be because of the origins of the company: previously a family-owned business. “I am very aware that as an employer, I have employees who are raising children and are paying a mortgage. This is a true motivator for us to work on making sure to keep our business alive in the future, as well as keep the world alive for our children”.

“Innovation in the construction industry is like watching grass grow”, Jozien says. “We humans are linear creatures, who are not able to think exponentially. Nevertheless, I think we are on the eve of some very big, long-overdue transitions in the construction industry. Research shows that in the past 30 to 40 years, the productivity of the construction industry has declined. And frankly, there are not many sectors that achieve this. Something has to change.”

Joziene monitors these changes closely: “When we look long-term at the construction industry, we can see a gigantic demand. Today that demand is mostly driven by the need for residential buildings, but in the future, we see other demands as well. For example, in the Netherlands alone, we know that 60% of dutch school buildings are severely outdated, we know that up until 2040 we need 400.000 additional elderly care beds and we know that we need to house almost a million labour migrants.”

Traditional vs flexible building solutions
How are we going to meet these demands, now and in the future? To answer that, we need to look at the two main ways of developing real estate. One way is the traditional way: Creating permanent buildings – buildings that are here to stay. The construction happens on-site and most often materials like concrete, bricks or wood are used for creating the basic structure. At De Meeuw, it is about flexible, (semi) permanent buildings for which steel frameworks, almost like a freight container, are used for the basic structure. These units are constructed in the factory and can be transported to the site

There are two key differences between these two ways of developing real estate. One is speed, by which we mean the speed at which complete buildings are put together on-site. De Meeuw often talks about LEGO-lizing the construction industry. Building parts are fabricated in a factory and transported to the site where it’s just a matter of lifting and putting frameworks in the right place. Not only does the construction of these parts happen efficiently, but entire buildings can also be put together on-site at incredible speeds. Both are convenient, minding the gigantic demands ahead of us.

The second is flexibility, which should not be confused with the temporary nature of the buildings. ”Our permanent buildings are flexible, and our flexible buildings can be permanent. Even in 100 years, our buildings will still be standing up straight. So there is no difference in that aspect compared to the traditional way. The key difference is that ours are moveable.” Joziene says, and begins to laugh: “Recently somebody said to me; ‘Minding the rise of water levels, why are we even still building permanently? We cannot move these buildings!”

She sees a great benefit in constructing in this way: “We talk a lot about single-use plastics and how bad it all is. But we never talk about single-use buildings. We are too unaware of the fact that it doesn’t have to be like this. Buildings too can be multi-use. The buildings that are home for somebody today could be a hospital next year and a school the next.” she says.

Creating flexible buildings has a big impact on our environment too. “If you talk about environmental standards for buildings, the current focus is mainly to measure the building itself – when it’s already constructed. We don’t look that much into the process of creating and constructing the building. If you look at flexible solutions, the preparation process is far less damaging to nature compared to traditional construction. And when a building is not necessary anymore, we simply pick it up to be reused or to be completely recycled” Joziene says.

Freight container buildings?!
In the context of residential buildings, there is still one key aspect to be overcome: Its image. “In some conversations, people talk about ‘freight container buildings’. But that’s not what we make! We make buildings, period. The look and feel of our buildings should be the same as that of a traditional building. Both beautiful and ugly buildings cost time and money to be built, so why not create only beautiful things? We are already far ahead in achieving the same look and feel and are working hard to further improve that. ” she says.

After our chat with Joziene, we were able to look at one of the flexible studio flats. We were amazed at what we saw: a beautiful home, both from the inside and outside, in which it was not obvious that this was a ‘flexible home’ or ‘freight container building’. Contrary, we thought we were in a studio like any other!

If flexible buildings have such a big sustainable advantage, can be deployed first as someone’s home and a hospital the next, and can be built faster compared to traditional ways, would this mean the end of traditional project development? Would (semi)permanent buildings become the norm? “If you ask me: Yes!” Joziene says with a smile.

To get to that future, there is still a lot of work to be done, especially around meeting the gigantic demands now and in the future. This is an enormous challenge that requires everyone at De Meeuw to collaborate. “We need to keep developing our products, asking ourselves “How can we build it smarter so we can triple or quadruple our production? This is dependent on so many factors: How are we designing the factory? How do we instruct and support our workers in the factory? Whilst at the same time looking forward, understanding the needs of our customers in the future. It’s a puzzle.” she says.

Building-As-A-Service
With (semi)permanent construction, new business models become possible. Instead of offering housing solutions, DeMeeuw can start offering Building-As-A-Service (Baas) propositions. Joziene: “We had talks with a school that needed a temporary building in order to renovate theirs. What we could offer them in the future is a complete service: We will arrange a flexible school building, we help organise the transition and once renovations are done and the school moves back to its own building, another school could use the temporary building. Or, we simply disassemble and assemble it somewhere else in the country for another school in need of temporary housing.” The example Joziene provides is tailored to schools, but you can imagine any Building-As-A-Service concept could work.

Another new business model evolves around production capacities: Instead of selling projects or units, De Meeuw can sell production slots. With traditional construction, housing associations need to create projects, contracts and deals per site, and the construction process can only begin once permits (and sorts) are in. But with flexible buildings, partnerships can centre around production slots, meaning De Meeuw can offer housing associations a guaranteed number of units each year. And because of their flexibility, housing associations can place them anywhere – whatever site is available to them.

Mass customization and Configure-to-order
Next to new business models, the construction journey will also drastically change according to Joziene. “I believe that if we build more (semi)permanent, we will soon go to a world of mass customization in the real estate industry,” she says. “If you look at traditional residential buildings, you can already configure some elements. But these elements are options, you are not actually configuring the building. We can do that.”

Joziene envisions a Configure-to-order platform similar to IKEA’s kitchen design software. “We can have libraries of layouts, facades, dormers and much more so that our customers can design the building just like they want it to be,” she says. And, “from the moment our customers are done designing, they can instantly see how much the entire project will cost and what the time to deliver will be.” Sounds far-fetched? Joziene thinks such a solution will be ready in 4 to 5 years.

And what about the faraway future? How could it be in 30 years? “I think in 30 years you will have AI solutions that can do all the work. I truly believe in configure-to-order, but that still requires humans to do the design work. I reckon in 30 years we will be able to upload a drawing made by a child and turn it into a house.”

Closing our insightful chat with Joziene, she shared her thoughts on the future of construction and the role she plays in that future. “We are standing at the eve of big changes, such as configure to order and mass customization, and I think that the construction industry is moving faster towards it than they think themselves. I always say that the boy or girl that is going to disrupt this industry is already sitting behind his/her computer. The only thing I can do is make sure De Meeuw is ready for these disruptions.”

As always, we ask our interviewee for advice for the younger generations. “My home and work are not in the same city, so I need to drive there every day. I can’t drive in a completely straight line from my home to work, I need to follow the roads which lead me there. Even on the road, I need to perform micro corrections along the way to keep me on the road toward my destination.” Joziene explains. “Leading a company and even living life is the same. You need to always define a goal, your spot on the horizon, but the road towards that spot may differ day-to-day. I make decisions every day that may look like a detour from our goal. It’s our responsibility as leaders to make sure everyone has a job in the future, but we also need to stay healthy today. You have a plan in your head, you want to get to your spot on the horizon, but you have to be flexible about it. If plan A or B doesn’t work, there are still 24 other letters in the alphabet. That’s how I think about it.”

“However, if you believe in something and have the arguments to support it, stick to your guns,” Joziene says. “You don’t need 30 years of experience to have a vision, but you do get better at realising and steering towards that vision.” It’s important to keep testing your arguments and refining your vision, so keep an open mind and let others challenge you. But, real leaders also put force behind what they believe in, even if people don’t believe you. “And a step forward in a slightly different direction than the straight line towards your goal is still a step forward, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and deviate from the plan a little.”