The lines between engineering and technology are often blurred and can be confusing. I have a good friend from India who was a top engineer for Rockwell International, a multi-billion-dollar firm in the aerospace industry. He was part of the team the developed the space shuttle and B-1 bomber. He is very intelligent and I joke that he is a rocket scientist. He has spoken about the challenges he faced with regard to lack of communication or coordination in engineering and technology. I became interested because it seemed the construction industry is going through similar pains of miscommunications between designers and installers.
I explained that while buildings are not new, there has been a dramatic shift over recent years to construct higher performance buildings. Science engineers are designing buildings to make them more air tight, better insulated and sustainable. We call them high performance claddings. While these ideas and designs are revolutionary and ground breaking, some seem to be failing. On occasion, they can fail very fast. I find the reason often is that the designers failed to grasp either the limitations of the materials or communicate with the work force to install these assemblies. I noted that many of the leading industry groups in construction have engineers and science experts in meetings to decide the future. Some designs are simply not practical and destined to fail. Meanwhile, the rank and file workers are falling further and further behind. It seems there is a lack of field experience with respect to success and failure from the more practical side of the industry.