Leading collaborative industry research from the land down under - Keith Hampson, SBE Australia
This seminar is part of the CIB President's seminar series Abstract Australia has grown its influence in international builtΒ ...
Senior Vice President of Global Rail & Transit - Business Lines, Aecom
Search every verified Keith Hampson interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote β each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Keith Hampson, Senior Vice President of Global Rail & Transit - Business Lines at Aecom, has been active in discussions on construction industry research and collaboration. In a January 2025 seminar, Hampson discussed Australia's construction sector, noting that high labor costs driven by strong union engagement motivate a push toward automation and robotics. He also highlighted the Australian government's target of delivering 1.2 million homes over five years, which he said is reinvigorating interest in prefabrication and offsite manufacturing. Hampson emphasized the importance of international partnerships for advancing automation, digitization, and artificial intelligence in construction, and identified workforce skilling as a key challenge. As immediate past president of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), Hampson has outlined priorities for the organization. In a 2023 interview, he said his goals as president were to restore research at the center of CIB, reinforce member services, and establish the machinery to deliver those aims. He stressed the need for proactive research in the built environment, calling it "the core of human existence," and advocated for leveraging CIB working commissions on topics such as safety, information technology, and healthy cities. Hampson also noted that he personally endowed a CIB award to encourage early career researchers to engage with industry.
“Our research programs remain structured around three areas reflecting the triple bottom line approach to sustainability: environment, people, and economic prosperity. We focus on greening the built environment, improving processes and procurement, and driving productivity through innovation.”
“In Australia, the construction labor costs are quite high compared to some states in the US, largely due to strong union engagement across the country. This drives a higher motivation towards automation and robotics, as well as a stronger focus on workplace health and safety.”
“The Australian government has an ambitious target of delivering 1.2 million homes over the next five years, with a large part for social housing. This demand is reinvigorating interest in prefabrication and offsite manufacturing as a must-have rather than an option.”
“Automation and robotics in construction are advancing in Australia, with timber frame industries moving towards robotized assembly processes, and bricklaying technologies being developed to improve productivity and reduce labor costs.”
This seminar is part of the CIB President's seminar series Abstract Australia has grown its influence in international builtΒ ...
CIB President Professor Keith Hampson's visions for the future CIB in Conversation, Don Ward spoke to CIB President KeithΒ ...
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