While we couldn’t attend the International Builder Show this year, we were interested in it and what information was featured. We spent some time researching the innovative products and wrote this blog about them. But we also were interested in the speakers and what was discussed with the attendees.
We found these topics to be of great interest around our office and wanted to share them. We’d love to hear your thoughts about these topics. Are you utilizing them in your builds or within your company?
Advanced High-Performance Building: Best Practices for Climate Zones:
The location where you are building determines what principles of science applications you should be using. How can you connect that to home building practices and construction techniques, cost-effectively, while increasing efficiency, comfort, performance and durability? Not only that, the benefits of building high performance homes continues to be a conversation builders and clients are having, with regards to how design and construction choices can impact, (in a positive way), the ROI.
The Power of Dynamic Thinking: Embracing Change as the New Normal:
Our industry and our culture are ever-changing. What are we doing to create new solutions and rethink our businesses? Data driven strategies or intuition-guided ones, how artificial intelligence is changing the landscape, inflation and protecting our margins, floor plans, design studios and determining the right inventory are just a few things we need to change, as we continue to work in a new normal.
Understanding Today’s New Home Buyer:
As global, national, and regional events happen, how does that impact decisions made by home buyers? What trends are impacting decisions home buyers are making?
We need to learn who today’s home buyers are, what they are looking for, and what their demographics are.
How do we best market to each of the demographics and generation of buyers?
What features and design styles are appealing to each generation and culture of home buyers and how can you capitalize on this?
Other items of note:
What does your Work-In-Process look like? Are you monitoring this and tracking your schedules, billings and margins properly to keep a healthy bottom line?
What does your Project Management look like? You need to plan for how to control capacity and critical chain scheduling. Productivity impacts profit and understanding the right key performance indicators is crucial for success.
How are you going to get skilled workers for your business? We all need to work together to create opportunities for workers and find solutions to get them into the construction industry.
Design Thoughts:
Design is always at the forefront of our planning. Several nuggets of information caught our eye. Many of these are already in our plans for now and the future. But as we continue to plan and create home designs, we want to keep these ideas front and center.
Discovering and implementing new design approaches to old problems, such as flex spaces and open floor plans. Innovating with supply issues, changing market conditions, and trends are all important.
Researching and understanding what architecture trends and inter design options are resonating with buyers in 2022.
With the pandemic, we are rethinking health and wellness in design.
Whatever is trending in design for 2022, how can we apply these ideas for any price point or any size home or business?
Use smart technology to make our lives easier and our homes more of a retreat—as well as saving on electric bills by using smart appliances, LED lightbulbs, heat pumps and more.
The home office is back, and we don’t see it going away now that many people will continue to work from home. Features such as contained and quiet, reliable internet and space to work, are all front and center in design.
As builders, contractors, and designers, which of these are of interest to you and which ones are you implementing for 2022 and beyond? We are here to help you navigate your home designs. Give us a call to start the conversation.